Justin Timberlake to play Nov. 21 at Tulsa’s BOK Center
Justin Timberlake performs at the MasterCard Priceless Premieres concert on Sunday, May 5, 2013 in New York. (AP)
One of this generation’s most-celebrated entertainers, Justin Timberlake, announced Monday (today) he will kick off “The 20/20 Experience World Tour” on Oct. 31 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
The tour will include a Nov. 21 stop at Tulsa’s BOK Center. Tickets will go on sale next Monday, May 13, according to a news release.
After dominating the global charts with the release of his acclaimed new album, “The 20/20 Experience,” Timberlake will bring his electrifying live shows to fans with a worldwide tour that will run through 2014. The Grammy and Emmy Award-winning artist’s first tour in six years will visit dozens of countries throughout North America, Europe, South America and Australia. “The 20/20 Experience World Tour” is promoted worldwide by Live Nation Global Touring.
Timberlake also revealed today the musical journey started on “The 20/20 Experience” will continue with the worldwide release of the new album on Sept. 30. Written and produced by the multi-hyphenate entertainer, the follow-up album will feature 10 new songs that explore the sonic boundaries fans discovered with the music found on this year’s earlier release.
“The 20/20 Experience World Tour” has dates lined up for Las Vegas, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Atlanta and more. On-sale dates for this tour will be staggered with tickets for several shows going on sale starting at 10 a.m. May 13.
Justin Timberlake’s all-new fan club, The Tennessee Kids (#TNKids), will have access to a pre-sale starting at 10 a.m. Tuesdaye. Fans should visit www.justintimberlake.com/tennesseekids to register for the fan club and receive a special code to access the pre-sale.
A pre-sale for MasterCard cardholders will begin at 10 a.m. Wednesday. Cardholders also will have access to exclusive after shows in select markets as a part of the MasterCard Priceless Cities program. Fans should visit www.priceless.com/justintimberlake for more information.
For more information on the Tulsa show, go to www.bokcenter.com.
-BAM
May brings festivals celebrating arts, kolaches, fried onion burgers and more to Oklahoma
No Justice will headline Saturday’s El Reno Fried Onion Burger Day Festival.
A version of this column appears in Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
May brings festivals to Sooner State
The first weekend of May is particularly festive, with favorite annual events planned from Norman and Edmond to El Reno and Prague.
As usual, May is getting off to a festive start in the Sooner State.
The first weekend of the fifth month annually brings an array of spring festivals throughout the state, and here are a few of the events going on this weekend. To learn more about Oklahoma’s numerous spring festivals, go to www.wimgo.com or www.travelok.com.
El Reno Fried Onion Burger Day Festival: Children’s entertainment, a car and motorcycle show and live music are annually featured at the downtown event. This year’s musical lineup features Stillwater-based red dirt rockers No Justice, plus Texas country bands Six Market Blvd., Kyle Bennet and Brison Bursey. But the primary draw is the 850-pound version of El Reno’s famous delicacy that local firefighters cook up every year. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. Information: www.elrenoburgerday.com.
Prague Kolache Festival: If you prefer your festival-focused local fare on the sugary side, it’s hard to beat the flaky, fruity tastiness of these Czech pastries. But this festival isn’t just about snacking on little sweet breads filled with cherry, apricots and my personal favorite, poppy seeds, it’s also a fun salute of the town’s Czech heritage. Other activities happening on Main Street and around town include polka music, dancing, a parade, carnival and fireworks. Hours are 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday. Information: www.praguekolachefestival.com.
Downtown Edmond Arts Festival: More than 100 artists from around the country will exhibit their wares, ranging from pottery and paintings to jewelry and sculptures, and the 34th annual event will offer a children’s area, live music and a cornucopia of festive food. Hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Information: www.downtownedmondok.com.
Lilly Haider, 2, rides a pony as friend Sharon Lee watches at the annual May Fair at Andrews Park on Saturday, May 5, 2012, in Norman, Okla. Photo by Steve Sisney, The Oklahoman Archives
May Fair Arts Festival, Norman: The two-day fest features many fine artists and quality craftsmen, plus artist demonstrations, live entertainment, children’s art activities, a student art show and Art & Sole 5K in Andrews Park, 201 W Daws St. Hours are 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Information: www.norman.assistanceleague.org.
Bixby BBQ ‘n Music Festival: Billed as the largest barbecue competition in the state, the two-day event is part of the Kansas City Barbeque Society’s Great American BBQ Tour. Live music and children’s activities are on the menu, but naturally, the food is the main attraction at Washington Irving Park, 137th and S Memorial. On Saturday, festivalgoers can buy a People’s Choice Award taster kit that will let them sample a select number of the teams’ offerings and help pick a winner. Hours are 5 to 11 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday. Information: www.bixbyrotarybbq.com.
Brickfest, Pauls Valley: The festivities include the Valley Rally Bike Tour, the Toy & Action Figure Museum’s Star Wars Weekend, live music, a vintage aircraft fly-in, bullriding and, of course, the famous brick toss competition in downtown and at the Santa Fe Depot. Festivities begin at 3 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. Saturday. Information: (405) 238-2555 or www.mainstreetpaulsvalley.com.
Edgar Cruz plays at the Devon building during Opening Night 2013, Monday, December 31, 2012. The guitarist will perform Saturday at the Rose Rock Music Festival in Noble. Photo By David McDaniel, The Oklahoman Archives
Rose Rock Music Festival, Noble: Commemorating the town’s designation as the “Rose Rock Capital of the World,” the annual downtown event will feature live music from Edgar Cruz, Travis Kidd, The Damn Quails and more, plus a car show, poker run, disc golf tournament and more. Hours are 6 to 11 p.m. Friday, 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and 12:15 to 5:15 p.m. Sunday. Information: www.nobleok.org.
Yukon‘s Festival of the Child: Yukon celebrates youth with more than 50 activities, including storytelling, pony rides, kayaking, crafts and more at Yukon City Park and Yukon Community Center, 2200 S Holly Ave. The activities are aimed at children ages 12 and younger. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Information: www.cityofyukonok.gov.
Oklahoma Renaissance Festival, Muskogee: The family-friendly festival features magicians, musicians, jugglers, jesters and other medieval-style performers, festive food and shopping for handcrafted items at the Castle of Muskogee, 3400 Fern Mountain Road. The 18th annual fete continues 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday from May 4-June 2. Information: www.okcastle.com.
-BAM
Michael Buble to play Oct. 16 show at Tulsa’s BOK Center
Michael Buble is preparing for a 40-city US concert tour that will start Sept. 7 in Chicago and include an Oct. 16 stop at Tulsa’s BOK Center.
Bublé officially announced the tour for the first time during his appearance on today’s “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” The dates were confirmed by Don Fox of Beaver Productions, the national tour promoter, according to a news release.
“I’m very excited to get back on the road and perform for my fans. It’s been awhile but we’re rested up and ready to have a big party on stage every night,” Bublé said in the release.
The Canadian superstar released last month his “To Be Loved” CD, which debuted at the No. 1 spot on Billboard Magazine’s Top 200 Pop Charts.
Bublé has already sold out 10 nights at the 17,000-capacity 02 Arena in London beginning June 30th and five nights at the 10,000 capacity 02 in Dublin beginning July 15.
His previous “Crazy Love Tour” sold out in 80 US cities and was seen by more than 2 million fans worldwide. “To Be Loved” is Bublé’s fourth consecutive No. 1 album. In conjunction with the release, he co-hosted “The Today Show” and appeared on “Kelly & Michael,” “The Ellen Show,” “Nightline,” “Dancing With The Stars,” “The Chelsea Lately” show and a surprise appearance in a New York subway station that immediately went viral.
The multi-Grammy-winning artist has had global sales of 45 million albums in the course of his extraordinary decade long career. Bublé’s last CD, the multiplatinum “Christmas,” was the second-biggest-selling album of 2011 after Adele’s “21.”
-BAM
Wednesday Video Spotlight: Fleetwood Mac’s “Sad Angel” and “Without You” live
Drummer Mick Fleetwood and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham perform during a Fleetwood Mac concert at Madison Square Garden, Monday, April 8, 2013, in New York. (AP file)
As previously reported, Fleetwood Mac, who is playing Tulsa’s BOK Center tonight, debuted its first new music in a decade on Tuesday, when the band dropped an EP appropriately titled “Extended Play” on iTunes. Click here to download and listen.
The EP includes four songs: the poppy tracks “Sad Angel” and “Miss Fantasy,” the wistful piano ballad “It Takes Time” and “Without You” and a previously unreleased track that singer/songwriter Stevie Nicks penned about singer/songwriter/guitarist Lindsey Buckingham back in their pre-Fleetwood Mac Buckingham Nicks duo days.
The majority of Fleetwood Mac’s most famous lineup — drummer Mick Fleetwood, bassist John McVie, Buckingham and Nicks — is touring North American to mark the 35th anniversary reissue of their most iconic album, “Rumours,” as well as celebrating the release of new music.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famers are bringing their “Fleetwood Mac Live 2013” trek to the BOK Center at 8 tonight. The legendary band previously played the Tulsa venue the last time it hit the road together, on 2009′s sold-out “Unleashed Tour.”
Fleetwood spoke enthusiastically about the planned EP in a phone interview prior to the tour’s April 4 launch in Ohio. Hopefully, the EP will herald the coming of a full-length follow-up to 2003′s “Say You Will,” he said.
“You know, we work when we feel good. And now we work when everyone has been able to — especially Stevie. She has a hugely successful solo career and she loves that world that is her world. And Lindsey also does great stuff, as do I. You know, I have my fun, not on such a profound level,” said Fleetwood, who plays with The Mick Fleetwood Blues Band Featuring Rick Vito.
“But we’re musicians at work, and now we have the grace just to say ‘When this is right, we’ll do it.’ And Stevie’s ready to do it and wants to do it, and off we go. And we’ll be wrapped around each other for the better part of probably 18 months, you know, working all over the world.”
The drummer said he, John McVie and Buckingham assembled several months ago in Los Angeles and recorded about nine “really fresh and vibrant” songs they hoped would be the starting point for a new album from the group. Nicks was busy with her own tour and then her mother’s death, but before the quartet hit the road, she added her vocals to a few tracks and recorded “Without You.”
“(The EP) will be, I hope, the beginning of maybe something that could transform in some of the free time we have in between sections of this now very long tour. I would love to think that we could do three or four things with Stevie, and in truth, you would then have a Fleetwood Mac album. Yes. I hope,” Fleetwood said.
He added, “We’re just taking it step by step and not doing things that don’t feel naturally comfortable. But if you’re asking me, I would love to see it happen, and Lindsey would be ahead of the game — and I know that he’d be incredibly excited to think that we could do that.”
To read more of my interview with Mick Fleetwood, click here.
The band already has been playing a couple of the tracks from the new EP in concert, as you can see from these YouTube videos featuring “Sad Angel” and “Without You” live.
IN CONCERT
Fleetwood Mac
When: 8 p.m. Wednesday. Doors open at 7 p.m.
Where: BOK Center, 200 S Denver, Tulsa.
Information: (866) 726-5287 or www.bokcenter.com.
-BAM
Wednesday Video Spotlight: Christine McVie and Steven Tyler play with Mick Fleetwood Blues Band
Members of Fleetwood Mac, from left, bassist John McVie, singer Stevie Nicks, drummer Mick Fleetwood and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham perform during a concert at Madison Square Garden, Monday, April 8, 2013, in New York. (AP file)
The majority of Fleetwood Mac’s most famous lineup – drummer Fleetwood, bassist John McVie, singer/songwriter/guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and singer/songwriter Stevie Nicks – will take the stage at 8 tonight at Tulsa’s BOK Center.
The band is touring North America to mark the 35th anniversary reissue of their most iconic album, “Rumours,” but they’re also celebrating the release of new music. On Tuesday, the band dropped on iTunes a four-track EP appropriately titled “Extended Play.”
The EP is the first new music from the band since its 2003 LP “Say You Will.” “Say You Will,” in turn, was the first Fleetwood Mac album since 1970′s “Kiln House” that did not include tracks written by singer/keyboardist Christine McVie, who retired from the group in 1998.
Although she won’t be onstage with Fleetwood Mac tonight in Tulsa, Fleetwood told me in a recent phone interview that he and Christine McVie had their own reunion earlier this year on Maui, the Hawaiian island he now calls home.
It seems Christine McVie joined The Mick Fleetwood Blues Band Featuring Rick Vito for a show at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center. As you can see from the YouTube videos, Aerosmith frontman Steve Tyler, who also makes his home on Maui, was a special guest at the concert, too.
“Christine McVie came and played and sang for the first time in 16 years, which was unbelievably cool. She’s not in Fleetwood Mac (anymore), as we know, but it was so inspiring to see her. And she was really, ‘Oh, no, I just want to come and see you play,’ and she came on a holiday, which I was greatly happy about, to see her out and about. She’s very private and stays and lives in England. Actually, Christine really doesn’t like flying at all, and I was in England doing press for Fleetwood Mac and we arranged that she would make the journey to Maui holding my hand. So she did. And Steven Tyler came and we filmed it and I don’t know what we’re gonna do with it, but … that was fun,” Fleetwood told me in our interview.
“I’m active and that band plays any downtime I have. I go off and do things that no one knows about. You know, pop tours in Australia and stuff. So yeah, the blues is alive and well from time to time, and I have fun doing that. So we’re all in the Fleetwood Mac boat right now and busy rehearsing.”
Along with making music with Fleetwood Mac or his eponymous blues band, Fleetwood, 65, opened his restaurant, Fleetwood’s On Front Street, on Maui last year.
“That’s alive and well. And going through all the things you see on TV are true: Running a restaurant is a nightmare. But I love it,” he said with a laugh. “It’s been challenging, but I won’t get bored that’s for sure when I come back off the road.”
To read more of my interview with Mick Fleetwood, click here.
IN CONCERT
Fleetwood Mac
When: 8 p.m. Wednesday. Doors open at 7 p.m.
Where: BOK Center, 200 S Denver, Tulsa.
Information: (866) 726-5287 or www.bokcenter.com.
-BAM
Interview: Fleetwood Mac celebrates 35th anniversary “Rumours” reissue, releases new music, plays Tulsa’s BOK Center tonight
A version of this story appears in Wednesday’s Life section of The Oklahoman. To read more of my interview with Mick Fleetwood, click here.
Fleetwood Mac back on the road for North American tour, including Wednesday’s Tulsa show
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famers — drummer Mick Fleetwood, bassist John McVie, singer/songwriter/guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and singer/songwriter Stevie Nicks — have reunited to mark the 35th anniversary reissue of their most iconic album, “Rumours,” and to release the first new Fleetwood Mac music in a decade
Mick Fleetwood clearly gets the question all the time.
And he completely gets the question.
How can the majority of Fleetwood Mac’s most famous lineup — drummer Fleetwood, bassist John McVie, singer/songwriter/guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and singer/songwriter Stevie Nicks — still be making music together after all these famously tumultuous years?
Well, he said with a laugh, it’s still a bit of a shock for him, too.
“I think you have to concede that. … You know, (it) used to be years and years and years ago still quite painful, in many ways, and all the well-worn stories of survival — emotional survival — through all of that, I won’t say they’re boring because even to us, we look at that and go like ‘How the hell DID we get through all that?’” Fleetwood said in a phone interview from Los Angeles before the April 4 launch of the band’s North American tour.
“You just have to really attribute it to a form of perverse devotion for sure to the music and what we were able to do. We were really lucky to be able to be doing it. I think we all realized that.”
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famers are bringing their “Fleetwood Mac Live 2013” trek to the BOK Center on Wednesday (tonight) night. The legendary band previously played the Tulsa venue the last time it hit the road together, on 2009′s sold-out “Unleashed Tour.”
The longtime bandmates — Fleetwood and McVie were among the group’s founding members back in l967, while Buckingham and Nicks joined in l975 — have reunited on the road to mark the 35th anniversary reissue of their most iconic album, “Rumours,” but they’re also celebrating the release of new music. On Tuesday, the band dropped on iTunes a four-track EP appropriately titled “Extended Play.”
The three-disc expanded edition of “Rumours” includes live tracks recorded at their 1977 Oklahoma City and Tulsa tour dates, plus the original album, featuring the unforgettable hits “Go Your Own Way,” “Gold Dust Woman,” “Don’t Stop” and more; the well-known b-side “Silver Springs”; and many previously unreleased takes from the famously fraught recording sessions.
After all, It’s practically impossible to think of “Rumours” without thinking of the interpersonal havoc that birthed it: McVie and his wife, Christine McVie, the band’s now-retired singer/songwriter/pianist, filed for divorce, while Buckingham and Nicks broke off their long-term romance. Fleetwood and his wife divorced, too, and he and Nicks had an affair.
Despite the turmoil, Fleetwood said the band concentrated on making the album a “complete piece of work” rather than just a collection of random tracks. Because the turmoil informed the songwriting, “Rumours” became one of the most popular and acclaimed records in rock history, winning the Grammy for Album of the Year and selling more than 40 million copies worldwide since its 1977 debut.
“It was really just a complete piece of work that people really do relate to. They put that on and they hear it all the way through and hear both sides of the album and go like ‘That was a journey.’ And we did pay attention to that. I think the songs, the vocal delivery on the album and the approach with the harmonies and stuff was something for sure fresh and maybe somewhat ‘wow, not (another) band sounds like that.’ So we were blessed with all that stuff. And then I think the songs were great, and they were pop-driven songs, but they weren’t stupid and they weren’t corny. But they were really accessible,” Fleetwood said.
“Then you had this bunch … that started telling their own story literally through those songs and then as that unfolded, it became part and parcel outside of the music, this mythological story of this impossible situation these people had found themselves in. I think the whole putting together of all those components became something that people identified with and in many ways were attracted to it, probably because they felt similar themselves very often, that they were just a bit of an emotional mess,” he added.
“We’re all in our 60s now, and people still talk about this human condition calling card which was ‘Rumours.’ You know, it was … in many ways a plea for ‘I can’t talk to the person I want to talk to so I’m going write a damn song and I’m singing the song with the person I can’t talk to’ and bingo, you have this unbelievable chemistry that just literally went into that album and survived it. And I think, again, it’s still there. It’s still there in the songs.”
With the bustling solo careers Nicks and Buckingham have carved out, the native Englishman said creating new Fleetwood Mac music has been a challenge. Plus, the drummer, 65, who now lives on Maui, opened Fleetwood’s On Front Street restaurant last year and continues to make music with his Mick Fleetwood Blues Band, which recently played a special show featuring Christine McVie and Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler on the island he calls home.
Tuesday’s EP release marked the band’s first new music debut in a decade. Fleetwood, John McVie and Buckingham assembled several months ago in L.A. and recorded about nine “really fresh and vibrant” songs they hoped would be the starting point for a new album from the group. Nicks was busy with her own tour and then her mother’s death, but before the quartet hit the road, she added her vocals to a few tracks and recorded “Without You,” a previously unreleased song from her pre-Fleetwood Mac days with Buckingham Nicks.
Along with “Without You,” the digital EP features the poppy tracks “Sad Angel” and “Miss Fantasy” and the wistful piano ballad “It Takes Time.” Hopefully, the EP will herald the coming of a full-length follow-up to 2003′s “Say You Will,” Fleetwood said.
“That will be, I hope, the beginning of maybe something that could transform in some of the free time we have in between sections of this now very long tour,” Fleetwood said.
“We’re musicians at work, and now we have the grace just to say ‘When this is right, we’ll do it.’ Stevie’s ready to do it and wants to do it, and off we go. And we’ll be wrapped around each other for the better part of probably 18 months, you know, working all over the world.”
Despite the band’s turbulent history, Fleetwood said the quartet was instantly in harmony when they came together for rehearsals.
“It’s just it’s like it never went away. We pretty much assemble not only obviously the band, but we tend to keep the same crew. “It’s just like it could have been like three days ago, and it’s actually maybe four years ago that we all were on the road,”. … Most of our (Fleetwood Mac) stuff stays in storage, so you see the funny little bits and pieces that you have up on stage with you and technical stuff and then personal stuff and old parts of a drum kit that I don’t use on my other drum kits,” he said.
“It’s like opening up a time capsule that is very familiar, and then we literally just plug in and ‘let’s go’ and it’s all intact.”
IN CONCERT
Fleetwood Mac
When: 8 p.m. Wednesday. Doors open at 7 p.m.
Where: BOK Center, 200 S Denver, Tulsa.
Information: (866) 726-5287 or www.bokcenter.com.
-BAM
Fleetwood Mac releases new EP today, plays Tulsa’s BOK Center Wednesday
Fleetwood Mac debuted its first new music in a decade today, dropping an EP appropriately titled “Extended Play” on iTunes. Click here to download and listen.
The EP includes four songs: the poppy tracks “Sad Angel” and “Miss Fantasy,” the wistful piano ballad “It Takes Time” and “Without You” and a previously unreleased track that singer/songwriter Stevie Nicks penned about singer/songwriter/guitarist Lindsey Buckingham back in their pre-Fleetwood Mac Buckingham Nicks duo days.
The majority of Fleetwood Mac’s most famous lineup — drummer Mick Fleetwood, bassist John McVie, Buckingham and Nicks — is touring North American to mark the 35th anniversary reissue of their most iconic album, “Rumours,” as well as celebrating the release of new music.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famers are bringing their “Fleetwood Mac Live 2013” trek to the BOK Center on Wednesday night. The legendary band previously played the Tulsa venue the last time it hit the road together, on 2009′s sold-out “Unleashed Tour.”
Fleetwood spoke enthusiastically about the planned EP in a phone interview prior to the tour’s April 4 launch in Ohio. Hopefully, the EP will herald the coming of a full-length follow-up to 2003′s “Say You Will,” he said.
“You know, we work when we feel good. And now we work when everyone has been able to — especially Stevie. She has a hugely successful solo career and she loves that world that is her world. And Lindsey also does great stuff, as do I. You know, I have my fun, not on such a profound level,” said Fleetwood, who plays with The Mick Fleetwood Blues Band Featuring Rick Vito.
“But we’re musicians at work, and now we have the grace just to say ‘When this is right, we’ll do it.’ And Stevie’s ready to do it and wants to do it, and off we go. And we’ll be wrapped around each other for the better part of probably 18 months, you know, working all over the world.”
The drummer said he, John McVie and Buckingham assembled several months ago in Los Angeles and recorded about nine “really fresh and vibrant” songs they hoped would be the starting point for a new album from the group. Nicks was busy with her own tour and then her mother’s death, but before the quartet hit the road, she added her vocals to a few tracks and recorded “Without You.”
“(The EP) will be, I hope, the beginning of maybe something that could transform in some of the free time we have in between sections of this now very long tour. I would love to think that we could do three or four things with Stevie, and in truth, you would then have a Fleetwood Mac album. Yes. I hope,” Fleetwood said.
He added, “We’re just taking it step by step and not doing things that don’t feel naturally comfortable. But if you’re asking me, I would love to see it happen, and Lindsey would be ahead of the game — and I know that he’d be incredibly excited to think that we could do that.
Despite the band’s stormy history, which was well-documented on the wildly popular and critically acclaimed “Rumours” album, Fleetwood said it was all very familiar and comfortable when he and his cohorts assembled in L.A. for tour rehearsals.
“If you wrote a script as to what happened to this bunch, you’d say ‘It’s fascinating but it’s completely untrue ‘cause you can’t have that happen.’ But it did. And I think now we look back on it with a sense of kindness. You know, I really do. I see Stevie and Lindsey in an extraordinarily good place and in good humor; they just know what not to do,” he said.
“You know, it’s like in rehearsals, it’s fascinating, I sit there back on my drums, and they get on that microphone and they’re talking about how we’re reaching out into maybe some of the things that they did in Buckingham Nicks when they were just Stevie and Lindsey. And that’s the two people I asked to join Fleetwood Mac. That’s the music that I heard. Stevie’s recorded (‘Without You,’) a really beautiful song that she wrote about Lindsey 40 years ago in Buckingham Nicks that never came out, and I think we’re pretty much gathering that we’re gonna do it onstage. And it’s mind-blowing and it’s just so sweet. And it’s a love song, and you know, she’s saying, ‘Yep, I guess I was really in love with you.’ (laughs) It’s a trip. It is a trip, not all of which has been pretty. But we’re here, and we’re real people, and as Lindsey would say, we’re still working at it. … But looking back, I don’t think any of us have any regrets ‘cause you go like, ‘You know, it’s how we felt.”
“You know, I think that’s part of the story when we walk on the stage is people do feel connected to us, and thus, us to them. And that’s an extra texture that’s really very powerful for us. We have a real relationship that’s felt outside of the music. And we’re not Neil Young or Bob Dylan who had a whole connect with the stuff they wrote about, political thoughts and philosophical thoughts and stuff. We’re a bunch of people that wrote some good music that was pop-oriented stuff that had a dark side to it and went out and weren’t thinking about telling anyone anything really,” he added with a laugh. “And suddenly got a huge connect with an audience. Yes, I think we made and continue to make some lovely music that we’re all really proud of. But truly, I think people just connected with us and our story, that ‘they’re actually real people.’”
Read more of my interview with Mick Fleetwood Wednesday!
-BAM
What to do in Oklahoma on April 29, 2013: Hear NeedtoBreathe at Tulsa’s Brady Theater
Today’s featured event:
TULSA – Hear South Carolina rockers Needtobreathe at 8 tonight at the Brady Theater, 105 W Brady.
Doors will open at 7 p.m. Special guests Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors will open the show.
For more information, go to www.bradytheater.com.
For more events, go to www.wimgo.com.
-BAM
Interview: Nora Guthrie excited to open Woody Guthrie Center today in Tulsa
What was once an auto part warehouse is now the home of the Woody Guthrie Center at the Guthrie Green Friday, April 26, 2013 in Tulsa, Okla. It took Woody Guthrie’s hometown of Okemah more than 30 years after his death to finally celebrate his life and work with an annual music festival, and signs of acknowledgment in other parts of Oklahoma have been rare. The Woody Guthrie Center opens Saturday in Tulsa, it won’t mark some uneasy truce between Oklahoma and the Dust Bowl balladeer and his kin. The center’s debut will kick off a two-day celebration that affectionately, albeit belatedly, welcomes the native son home with open arms and all the fanfare his longtime supporters can muster. (AP Photo/Tulsa World, Michael Wyke)
A version of this story appears in Saturday’s The Oklahoman.
Woody Guthrie Center brings folk singer back to Oklahoma
Located in Tulsa’s Brady Arts District, new home of the Woody Guthrie Archives opens its doors to the public for the first time Saturday afternoon.
TULSA — Inside the slickly remodeled red-brick warehouse, Woody Guthrie’s lifetime achievement Grammy shares space with one of his humble red-and-black plaid shirts, while the shiny touch screens and suspended headphones of the listening bar are set up across the room from the battered 1940 fiddle the musician carved with the slogan “This machine killed 10 fascists.”
Situated the burgeoning Brady Arts District, the sleek new Woody Guthrie Center may not look like a house, but it’s where Nora Guthrie’s heart now lives.
“This is my home,” said the daughter of Woody Guthrie Friday afternoon at a media preview for the center. “The thing
Nora Guthrie, daughter of Woody Guthrie, speaks about her dad in the audtorium of the Woody Guthrie Center the day before it opens to the public at the Guthrie Green/Brady District in Tulsa, OK, Apr. 26, 2013. MICHAEL WYKE/Tulsa World
I like about it is the potential. It can go as far as you guys want to take it.”
The center is the new home of the Woody Guthrie Archives, which were previously housed in Nora Guthrie’s Mount Kisko, N.Y., home. In 2011, the Tulsa-based George Kaiser Family Foundation bought the comprehensive archives and began construction on the 12,000-square-foot center.
“Working with the archives and reading this kind of material was really the joy of my life. That’s when I really got to play with my dad,” said Nora Guthrie, who was just 17 years old when her famous father died of Huntington’s disease, a hereditary neurodegenerative condition.
Grand opening
The center will open to the public for the first time at 1 p.m. Saturday. The grand opening will include free admission Saturday and Sunday, plus a film screening, book signing and free concerts across the street at the Guthrie Green urban park.
Nora Guthrie will speak about the new recordings contemporary musicians like Billy Bragg, Wilco and The Klezmatics have created using her father’s previously unpublished lyrics. Although she plays piano, she hasn’t needed to tickle the ivories to keep her father’s legacy thriving.
“You don’t have to play an instrument to love Woody’s philosophy. You don’t even have to love folk music to love Woody’s philosophy. It’s included there if you want it, but if you don’t, there’s a road to Woody’s heart that’s open and available to anyone,” she told about 20 journalists gathered in the center’s theater.
“My father’s favorite line was ‘I’m out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work.’ And in a time now when we’re so distracted by celebrity-ism … I’m just hoping this center will expand and really connect to all walks of life.”
Oklahoma home
Born July 14, 1912, in Okemah, Woody Guthrie is best remembered as a folk singer-songwriter, but he also was an artist, writer and activist. He died Oct. 3, 1967, in New York, where his daughter was born and bred.
But Nora Guthrie has long believed the archives belonged in Oklahoma. And Stanton Doyle, a senior program officer with the Kaiser Family Foundation, thinks the revived neighborhood of Cain’s Ballroom and the Brady Theater makes a fine spot.
“It’s really the perfect space,” Doyle said. “There’s a huge list of famous people from Oklahoma, but in terms of like really inspirational people from Oklahoma, Will Rogers and Woody Guthrie are the top two.”
GOING ON
Woody Guthrie Center Grand Opening
When: 12:30 to 6 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.
Where: Woody Guthrie Center, 102 E Brady Street, and Guthrie Green, 111 E Brady Street.
Information: www.woodyguthriecenter.org.
Schedule
Saturday
12:30 p.m.: Ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Woody Guthrie Center.
1 to 6 p.m.: Center officially opens to the public. Free admission.
1 to 6 p.m.: Free concert at Guthrie Green. Lineup includes Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Jimmy LaFave, Red Dirt Rangers and Desi & Cody.
Sunday
10 a.m. to 6 p.m.: Free admission to Woody Guthrie Center.
1 to 5 p.m.: Special events at the center:
1 to 2 p.m.: “Been Here and Gone: A Discussion with Photographer John Cohen” — Cohen will talk about his photography of Woody Guthrie and the American folk scene of the 1950s and 60s; moderated by Grammy Museum Executive Director Bob Santelli.
2:30 to 2:45 p.m.: Film screening: “Woody Guthrie Legacy” — Short documentary features Corey Harris, Ani DiFranco, U2, Bob Dylan and others discussing their connection to Woody.
2:45 to 3:45 p.m.: “I Ain’t Dead Yet: New Music from the Woody Guthrie Archives with Nora Guthrie” — Presentation focuses on new recordings being created by contemporary musicians using Woody’s previously unpublished lyrics. The one-hour multimedia program features musical excerpts and examples of lyrics used by musicians Billy Bragg, Wilco, The Klezmatics and many others.
4 to 5 p.m.: Book signing with Grammy Museum Executive Director Bob Santelli — He will sign copies of his book, “This Land Is Your Land: Woody Guthrie and the Journey of An American Folksong.”
2 to 6 p.m.: Free concert at Guthrie Green. Lineup includes Ripple Green, Samantha Crain, Ramsay Midwood and JD McPherson.
-BAM
What to do in Oklahoma on April 27, 2013: Hear Shawna Russell and LiveWire at The Vanguard in Tulsa
Shawna Russell
Today’s featured event:
TULSA – Oklahoma female country Rocker Shawna Russell and Joplin, Mo.-based country band LiveWire will co-headline in concert at 8 tonight at The Vanguard, 222 N Main. Doors open at 7 p.m. The show will be Russell’s second at The Vanguard this year.
Russell’s unique vocal style has been compared to Stevie Nicks and Martina McBride and she possesses impressive skills on the electric slide guitar akin to Bonnie Raitt. Her music blurs the lines between Country, Red Dirt, Americana, Pop and Rock music and she blends those influences into a show that appeals to a wide range of ages. Since 2008, Russell, who hails from Okemah, OK, has released two critically acclaimed albums which have produced a string of charted singles in the U.S. and Europe, including “Should’ve Been Born With Wheels,” “Fire In The Desert,” “Get Right Or Get Left,” “Waitin’ On Sunrise” and “Sounds Like A Party.” Her music has been singled out for praise by some of the top music industry critics and publications in the world, including Country Weekly, MusicRow, Maverick, and many others. Russell’s busy touring schedule has included recent performances with Randy Rogers Band, Dustin Lynch, Rick Springfield and others.
LiveWire has been performing together for over a decade and recently released its debut album, LIVIN,’ which has won critical acclaim from Music News Nashville, CMA Close Up, Roughstock, and other tastemakers in the music industry. LiveWire’s edgy sound has been likened to the Marshall Tucker Band, Hank Jr. and Charlie Daniels – with harmonies reminiscent of Rascal Flatts. With the release of several successful U.S. and European singles including “Tater Fed,” “Miracle Of The Human Spirit,” “Gone” “and Lies,” LiveWire’s homegrown style of Southern Country Rock has been embraced by contemporary Country audiences and appeals to red dirt music fans as well. LiveWire has appeared in concert with Kix Brooks, Casey Donahew, Diamond Rio and others.
Both Russell and LiveWire are signed to Way Out West Records, an Oklahoma and Nashville-based company co-founded by Russell in 2008.
General admission tickets to the all-ages concert are $10 and may be purchased in advance online at www.thevanguardtulsa.com or at the door.
For more events, go to www.wimgo.com.
-BAM
