What to do in Oklahoma on March 8, 2013: Hear the Damn Quails at Grady’s 66 Pub in Yukon
Today’s featured event:
YUKON – Hear Norman-based red dirt/Americana outfit The Damn Quails at 9 tonight at Grady’s 66 Pub, 444 W Main St. Doors open at 8 p.m. Information: www.gradys66.com or www,ticketstorm.com.
For more events, go to www.wimgo.com.
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Best Bets for Dec. 21-23, 2102: “End of the World” festivities, Damn Quails’ Toys for Tots benefit, Lyric’s “A Christmas Carol” and Free Crystal Bridge Sunday
The Damn Quails
Here are my picks for the Best Bets in entertainment happening in the Oklahoma City area this weekend, as listed in Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman. For more events, go to www.wimgo.com.
1. NORMAN — Listen to Oklahoma hip-hop artists A.Dd+, Josh Sallee and Jabee perform a free “End of the World” show at 8 p.m. Friday at The Opolis, 113 N Crawford. Information: www.starlightmints.com/opolis.html.
2. Watch Lyric Theatre’s production of Charles Dickens’ classic “A Christmas Carol” at 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at Lyric at the Plaza, 1725 NW 16 in the Plaza District. Performances continue through Dec. 29. Information: 524-9312 or www.lyrictheatreokc.com.
3. Hear The Damn Quails play the Wormy Dog Saloon’s annual Toys for Tots fundraiser at 8 p.m. Friday at the Wormy Dog, 311 E Sheridan. Admission is free with an unwrapped toy or $15 donation. Doors open at 6 p.m. Information: 601-6276 or www.wormydog.com.
4. See artwork that celebrates the end of the Mayan calendar’s fifth cycle at the new “End of the World” exhibition at Maya Trading Co. and Istvan Gallery, 1218 N Western Avenue. Assuming the world doesn’t end on 12/21/12, the exhibit will be on view through January. Information: www.mayatradingcompany.com or www.istvangallery.com.
5. Take advantage of Downtown in December’s last Free Crystal Bridge Sundays of the year from 6 to 9 p.m. Sunday at the Myriad Botanical Gardens, 301 W Reno. Information: www.downtownindecember.com.
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Interview: Red Dirt Rangers headlining 17th annual Red Dirt Christmas Saturday at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa
The Red Dirt Rangers, from left, Ben Han, Brad Piccolo and John Cooper perform with fiddler Randy Crouch at the 2011 Red Dirt Christmas at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa. Photo provided by Stacey Lauren of C Sharp Studios – Cushing, OK
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Red Dirt Rangers headlining 17th annual Red Dirt Christmas
Column: The Cain’s Ballroom show Saturday night will benefit the newly formalized Red Dirt Relief Fund, which provides a safety net for folks on the homegrown music scene.
The venerable Payne County band will headline its annual Red Dirt Christmas Saturday at the fabled Tulsa venue. The concert lineup will include reunited red dirt greats The Great Divide, Norman-based up-and-comers The Damn Quails and Stillwater torchbearers Bo Phillips Band.
“It’s a party, of course,” said John Cooper, the Rangers’ mandolin player/singer. “It’s a great lineup that’s hitting a lot of different areas.”
This year’s party will benefit a good cause: the newly formalized Red Dirt Relief Fund, founded to provide “a safety net of critical assistance” when folks on the red dirt music scene are in need.
“The old joke is that musicians don’t have insurance, they have benefit shows,” said Cooper, who is president of the relief fund’s board of directors. “It’s kind of sad that it’s true.”
Cooper and Rangers guitarist/singer Brad Piccolo were among several musicians in attendance at a media conference Tuesday at the Stillwater Convention and Visitors Bureau, where the relief fund announced that it had officially secured 501(c)(3) nonprofit status.
“It only took a year and a half,” Cooper said wryly. “They make it very difficult for you to give away money for free to people who need it.”
The relief fund got its start when Red Bull donated the proceeds of its 2011 Gypsy Cafe red dirt music festival in Stillwater, which proudly proclaims itself “The Original Home of Red Dirt Music.” The energy drink company also sponsored and donated the proceeds of this year’s Gypsy Cafe.
For the Rangers, though, the idea dates back to 2004, when Cooper, Piccolo and lead guitarist/singer Ben Han were seriously injured in a helicopter crash near Cushing. They were the beneficiaries of several charity shows.
Modeled after The Grammy Foundation’s MusiCares program, the relief fund makes donated monies available to anyone who has been in the business of making red dirt music for at least five years. Folks are eligible for a grant of up to $2,000 annually and $5,000 maximum in a lifetime. This year, the relief fund has given $2,000 grants to two Oklahoma musicians: one who lost his home in a wildfire and one who required a major surgery and had no medical insurance.
“That’s the spirit of our scene, everyone wants to help each other out,” Cooper said. “I’ll quote what Randy Crouch always says about our scene: ‘It’s all one big band, the rest is just bull- – - -.’”
Cooper is especially thrilled to share the lineup this Red Dirt Christmas with The Great
The Great Divide
Divide, the first band on the scene to score a major-label deal. The seminal band — singer/songwriter/guitarist Mike McClure, bassist Kelley Green, drummer J.J. Lester and his brother, rhythm guitarist Scotte Lester — reunited in summer 2011, more than eight years after a bitter breakup.
“They’re old friends of ours. We played some legendary shows with them at Horsethief Canyon … back in the day,” Cooper said, referring to a secluded spot on the Cimarron River southwest of Perkins. “It will be just great to do a show with them again.”
J.J. Lester fondly recalls playing past editions of the Red Dirt Christmas, and this year’s show will mark The Great Divide’s first performance at Cain’s since reuniting last year.
“My brother and I … grew up with grandparents who were musicians. And they played all that old Gene Autry and Bob Wills and the old cowboy music and the Texas swing band stuff. So the nostalgia of all the different guys who have been there and made that place famous, for me it’s like the Gruene Hall of Oklahoma,” Lester said. “So it’s just a really cool vibe in there. It’s a fun place to play, and we love it.”
Plus, he said sharing the bill — and hopefully the stage — with the Rangers is sure to be a good time.
“It’s just a special thing for us to get to go and play with those guys. We’re huge fans of their hearts for this music and the Red Dirt Relief Fund,” Lester said.
“We’re just thrilled about the cause and excited to spend some time with friends and … we’re getting to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior. So it’s a trifecta of good things.”
IN CONCERT
17th Annual Red Dirt Christmas Show
With: Red Dirt Rangers, The Great Divide, The Damn Quails and Bo Phillips Band.
When: 8 p.m. Saturday. Doors open at 7 p.m.
Where: Cain’s Ballroom, 423 N Main, Tulsa.
Information: www.cainsballroom.com.
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Oklahoma City’s Blue Door hosting 22nd annual Tribute to Woody Guthrie Sunday
Woody Guthrie (The Oklahoman Archives photo)
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Blue Door paying homage to Woody Guthrie Sunday
In its 22nd year, the show at the famed Oklahoma City listening room is one of the longest-running tributes to the iconic singer-songwriter in the world.
Throughout 2012, much of the musical world has celebrated the legacy of famed Oklahoma troubadour Woody Guthrie.
Greg Johnson hasn’t paid much attention to the “Woody at 100” celebration commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Okemah native’s birth. After all, the proprietor of Oklahoma City’s Blue Door has made it a habit to celebrate Guthrie’s legacy for more than two decades.
“The modern songwriting legacy really started with him, as far as guys being able to just write whatever they want to write about. He sort of opened the door for songwriters to just be themselves,” he said.
On Sunday, Johnson will host a show he said the Guthrie family has deemed the longest-running tribute to the legendary singer-songwriter in the world. Now in its 22nd year, the Blue Door’s Woody Guthrie Tribute actually predates the venue.
In 1991, Johnson organized his first Woody Guthrie tribute in Austin, where he was involved in the singer-songwriter community.
“It was partly Okie pride living down in the heart of Texas … with all these songwriter friends of mine and realizing what an impact Woody Guthrie’s songs had,” he said. “Unfortunately, 20 years later, they’re still relevant and they really shouldn’t be. … It’s like if things had really gotten a whole lot better, Woody’s songs would have gone out of style, at least some of them.”
The yearly tribute played for three years in the Texas music hub, and he moved the concert to his Blue Door in 1994, the year after he opened the Oklahoma City venue. Although the show has occasionally been played elsewhere, he has kept the tribute going for more than two decades.
Susan Herndon (Photo by Steve Sisney, The Oklahoman Archives)
Many of the singer-songwriters on the 2012 lineup bill, including the Red Dirt Rangers, Tom Skinner, Terry “Buffalo” Ware, Monica Taylor, Susan Herndon and Greg Jacobs, have played the tribute for many years. This year’s show will double as a fundraiser for Texas troubadour Michael Fracasso, a regular who has been sidelined since breaking his hand in an October car accident.
In addition, Johnson is pleased to have young Oklahoma singer-songwriters like Samantha Crain, Parker Millsap and tribute newcomer Beau Jennings on this year’s lineup.
“It’s wonderful. It’s just real important that young people honor Woody and learn the songs and pass ‘em around,” Johnson said. “Somebody in their 20s listening to Woody Guthrie, I mean, I think that’s great.”
Although Herndon has lived in Guthrie’s hometown for about four years, the Tulsa native said the icon’s writings have influenced her for much longer. She has played the Blue Door show and Okemah’s Woody Guthrie Folk Festival for so many years she has lost count.
“It doesn’t matter even if you’re from Oklahoma. … ‘This Land Is Your Land’ is something every kid sang in elementary school. So for me, it goes back to when I was a little kid,” she said. “And I think it happens even without you knowing it because of his influence.”
When Guthrie’s singer-songwriter son Arlo Guthrie announced back in October that his wife of 43 years, Jackie, had died of cancer, Herndon realized the closeness she felt to the Guthrie family. through the music.
“It goes beyond the blood. It really does feel like that big Woody Guthrie family, we’re all a part of it, just by virtue of those great, great, great songs,” she said. “Especially since he went from Oklahoma to Texas to California to New York, it seems like he really did touch everyone and a lot of the country. He really did gather up the spirit of this land.”
Greg Jacobs (Photo courtesy Vicki Farmer)
For Jacobs, Woody’s Dust Bowl ballads ring particularly true, and their influence can be heard clearly in the Checotah native’s story-songs “Farmer’s Luck” and “A Little Rain Will Do.” He lives and runs cattle on farmland his grandfather bought more than 100 years ago.
“Both of my sets of grandparents were farmers during the Great Depression, so I kind of heard those stories plus the Woody Guthrie songs,” Jacobs said, adding that the past few years of drought have made the songs particularly resonant.
“Woody was … telling real stories about real people. He happened to live in a time that he had a lot of fruit to pick from there. And that’s kind of what I do; I’m kind of just a folksinger/storyteller.”
Along with the little-known historical epic “Lindbergh,” Jacobs plans to perform Sunday the Guthrie favorite “Do Re Mi” but to slow the tempo to emphasize the sadness of the lyrics.
“Greg is taking a song that’s usually played fast … and making it a completely different interpretation of a fairly familiar Woody Guthrie song, so that’s pretty cool,” Johnson said.
“That’s one of the things I love about this little show, those moments like that.”
IN CONCERT
Blue Door’s 22nd Annual Tribute to Woody Guthrie
Featuring: Red Dirt Rangers, Greg Jacobs, Tom Skinner, Miss Brown to You, Parker Millsap, Bryon White, Lauren Lee, David Halley, Terry “Buffalo” Ware, Gregg Standridge, Monica Taylor, Susan Herndon, Beau Jennings and Samantha Crain.
When: 7 p.m. Sunday. Doors open at 6 p.m.
Where: Blue Door, 2805 N McKinley.
Information: 524-0738 or www.bluedoorokc.com.
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What to do in Oklahoma on Oct. 12, 2012: Hear Sawyer Brown in Bartlesville or The Damn Quails in Yukon
Sawyer Brown
Today’s featured event:
BARTLESVILLE - Hear Sawyer Brown perform a live, free outdoor concert tonight at Osage Casino-Bartlesville, 222 Allen Road. Gates open at 6 p.m. All ages are welcome.
All free concerts are outdoors, rain or shine and guests should bring their own chairs. Michael Todd and The Wild Frontier will open the shows.
Sawyer Brown, a group of blue-collar, working-class guys who like to perform, has released 20 studio albums that have sold a half million copies. More than 50 of their singles have entered the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Song charts, including three No. 1 singles.
Two Billboard No. 1s were 1992′s “Some Girls Do”, and 1993′s “Thank God for You”, which singer Mark Miller co-wrote with Mac McAnally. The band’s “Greatest Hits 1990 to 1995”, included two new singles, “This Time” and “I Don’t Believe in Goodbye”, which became Top 5 hits.
For more information, go to www.osagecasinos.com.
OR
The Damn Quails
YUKON – Hear The Damn Quails at 8:30 tonight at Grady’s 66 Pub, 444 W Main.
The Norman-based red dirt/Americana outfit, led by singer-songwriters Gabriel Marshall and Bryon White, are playing in support of their acclaimed 2011 debut album “Down the Hatch.” The album was released on Oklahoma-based indie label 598 Recordings.
For more information, go to www.gradys66.com.
For more events, go to www.wimgo.com.
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Up-and-coming Oklahoma musicians John Fullbright, Damn Quails, Samantha Crain, Jesse Aycock playing Okemah’s WoodyFest
The Damn Quails
Jesse Aycock
From Wednesday’s Life section of The Oklahoman.
Up-and-coming Oklahoma musicians playing Okemah’s WoodyFest
Young Sooner State singer-songwriters like The Damn Quails, Okemah-area native John Fullbright, Samantha Crain and Jesse Aycock have not only been influenced by Guthrie’s music but also by the hometown festival that bears his name.
Bryon White and Gabriel Marshall started out playing in punk bands in high school.
Until they began making pilgrimages to the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival in Okemah, the hometown of the famed folk troubadour, that is.
“Obviously, Oklahoma’s got a real rich history musically and Woody was one of the forerunners of that. He was the one that ended up going out into the world and taking the stuff that he learned when he was a kid and going out into the Dust Bowl and perpetuating it. I was real proud of that,” said White, who with Marshall forms the core of Norman-based Americana band The Damn Quails.
“I think Woody was one of the first people that really didn’t give a damn. And I really like that, the thought that he could talk about politics and he could talk about angst and rock ‘n’ roll and then he could go back and write a song about a woman that was real sweet and real sultry. … Woody was the man at that.”
The 15th Annual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival launches Wednesday night with a concert by Arlo Guthrie, the late music icon’s son, and continues through Sunday in Okemah. The festival is planned annually around Guthrie’s birthday — July 14, 1912 — and with 2012 marking his centennial year, this year’s WoodyFest features returning favorites like Billy Bragg and Judy Collins; regulars such as Ellis Paul, Jimmy LaFave and the Red Dirt Rangers; and first-timers Melanie, John McCutcheon and Carolyn Hester.
In addition, the WoodyFest lineup includes up-and-coming Oklahoma entertainers like Okemah-area native John Fullbright, Samantha Crain and Jesse Aycock, who have not only been influenced by Guthrie’s music but also by the hometown festival that bears his name.
Marshall, 30, has attended every WoodyFest, while White, 29, is making his 12th trek to the festival. They will play Thursday their first official slot as The Damn Quails.
“We grew up at WoodyFest,” White said. “Ellis Paul he goes there like every year and was one of my favorites and still is. Like I love that guy. I would always go down and catch his show and Don Conoscenti. Those guys have both been real big helps to me personally, just kind of lighting a fire and figuring out you don’t have to be real loud to say something. … (They) introduced me to Woody and that’s where I got to learn a lot of Woody’s music, met some Woody’s family — Arlo and all those guys — and everything and that kind of kicked me in the right direction.”
John Fullbright
Hometown influence
For Fullbright, 24, WoodyFest is like a family reunion right in his neighborhood. He hails from and still lives in Bearden, what he calls an Okemah suburb. The singer-songwriter started attending the festival when he was 16. about the time that he started to realize that a musician from his neck of the woods really was famous.
“The festival itself was kind of big for me because it was where I learned. I kind of had a lonely musical upbringing. I was kind of the only one of my age that did what I do. When I started going to that festival, it was like once a year all these people would just come to town and they all had guitars, and they would all get together and they all seemed to know the same songs. And I hadn’t heard any of them, but I had a guitar, too. … So that’s how I kind of cut my teeth was at that festival. I’m really grateful for it for that reason,” he said.
For the musicians who play and attend, the casual after-hours motel parking lot and campground jams are among the highlights — and for the younger generation, a core part of the learning experience.
“It’s kind of a little family. There’s such a sense of community in that festival,” Fullbright said. “The campgrounds were huge. … They grabbed me not knowing anything about me. I just had a guitar. And everybody there just kind of scooped me up, sat me down in a circle full of people and told me to play something. And I’d never done that before.”
While he has performed at the festival a few times, Fullbright this year will play a Friday night set on the big Pastures of Plenty Stage.
“Woody taught that you can literally write a song about anything. You know, you can write a song about washing your hands or buying a hat,” You could write about anything and he was one of the first guys that did that,” he said with a laugh. “But his message was always really clear … which is ‘help the next guy in line.’”
Samantha Crain
Festival returns
Crain, 25, of Shawnee, gave her first WoodyFest performance in 2007 at the tender age of 20 and returned the next year to play again. After spending the past few summers touring, the singer-songwriter is coming back to the festival for a Friday show at the Brickstreet Cafe.
“Right at the beginning of me coming into songwriting, Woody Guthrie was a really big influence just because of the way that his songs were structured … sort of long, lots of verses, pretty simple melodies,” she said.
“I think the first time I met Randy Crouch was at the Woody Guthrie Festival. The Red Dirt Rangers, that was the first time I met those guys,” she added. “The people that are there to play there aren’t playing there because they’re making a lot of money. They’re there because they’re celebrating Woody Guthrie, so there’s just sort of a down-to-earth, laid-back nature to that festival.”
Like The Damn Quails, Aycock, 29, of Tulsa, has attended WoodyFest several times, including the inaugural event. After spending a few summers at other gigs, he will return to play his first official set Friday at the Brickstreet Cafe, where he has seen so many memorable performances.
“I’ve been exposed to so much good music by going to that festival. … It’s just a good chance to get together and share songs and be inspired,” Aycock said. “That’s the main thing: There’s something really inspiring to me about the whole festival, just the different artists that you hear and even the town of Okemah itself and the history with Woody. I don’t know, just walking around the town kind of gives you this magical feeling.”
GOING ON
15th Annual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival
When: Wednesday-Sunday.
Where: Various venues in Okemah
What: Musical performances, children’s activities, open mike, poetry readings, guitar workshop, fundraisers for the state chapter of the Huntington’s Disease Society of America and more.
Admission: Free.
Parking: Free for daytime events; $15 per car evenings at the Pastures of Plenty Stage. Cost includes a festival program.
Fundraising concert: Arlo Guthrie will play a solo acoustic show benefiting the festival at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the newly renovated Crystal Theatre, 401 W Broadway, Okemah. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. Gretchen Peters will open the show. Tickets are $25 for balcony seating and $35 for general admission; gold circle seating is sold out.
Information: www.woodyguthrie.com.
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Arlo Guthrie celebrates his father’s legacy, preparing to play 7th show at Okemah’s Woody Guthrie Folk Festival
Arlo Guthrie performs during the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival in Okemah, Okla., Wednesday, July 14, 2010. Photo by Bryan Terry, The Oklahoman
A version of this story appears in Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Arlo Guthrie celebrates his father’s legacy
In honor of what would have been Woody Guthrie’s 100th birthday, the Oklahoma icon’s son is performing at a variety of all-star shows during the “Woody at 100” centennial celebration. Arlo Guthrie will launch the 15thAnnual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival with a special benefit show Wednesday night in his father’s hometown of Okemah.
As the 100th anniversary of Woody Guthrie’s birth draws near, tributes to the folk troubadour, political rabble-rouser and rambling man are planned as far away as Austria and Germany and as near as the Oklahoma icon’s hometown of Okemah.
Arlo Guthrie, Guthrie’s son and fellow folk singer-songwriter, again will make the pilgrimage to Okfuskee County to launch the 15th Annual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival with a special benefit show Wednesday night at Okemah’s historic, newly renovated Crystal Theatre.
The free festival is planned every year around Woody Guthrie’s July 14 birthday. The music legend, who died of Huntington’s disease on Oct. 3, 1967, at the age of 55, would have been a centenarian this year.
“When you have a parent, living or dead, whose 100th birthday comes around, the first thing you think of is ‘I must be getting old myself.’ At least, that is what I thought. As I turn 65 this year the question ‘will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m 64?’ has already been answered. It’s a comfort to be needed or at least fed as the years go by,” Arlo Guthrie said, referencing his contemporaries The Beatles in an email interview.
“How much anyone needs Woody Guthrie has also been answered. It turns out that at 100 years since his birth in Okemah there are still hundreds of thousands (maybe more, maybe less) of people who are in some way celebrating my father’s life and work. By any measure it seems he is being remembered fondly even as the voices of his critics fade. I hope the lives of those who attempted to discredit him have not become as irrelevant as those opinions sound these days. And while it may always be true that ‘No man is a prophet in his own country,’ my father seems to have at least become more profitable.”
Woody Guthrie (AP file)
Woody Guthrie’s rich artistic legacy — he wrote about 3,000 songs along with essays, newspaper columns and his partially fictionalized autobiography “Bound for Glory” and as a visual artist created many paintings and illustrations — has been celebrated throughout 2012, with even more events planned throughout his centennial year. Arlo and his sister Nora Guthrie worked closely with officials at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles to plan “Woody at 100,” a series of all-star concerts, album releases, conferences and tributes of all kinds.
In March, Arlo Guthrie played his father’s home state as part of a multi-day centennial celebration in Tulsa, where the Woody Guthrie Archives are being relocated. The younger Guthrie shared the stage at Tulsa’s Brady Theater with The Flaming Lips, Hanson, John Mellencamp, Jackson Browne, Del McCoury and more, with the eclectic lineup bearing witness to the elder Guthrie’s sprawling influence.
“It’s interesting to me in that my father wasn’t some great musician — he used his basic understanding of music to convey his thoughts. There’s plenty of better guitar players, or people who can hit the notes he never even attempted to sing,” Arlo Guthrie said in his email.
“What’s influencing these people is a sense that he wasn’t selling anything. At times he spoke for one group or another, but never to the point of giving up on his own sense of what was wrong or right. It’s hard even these days to find an entertainer (let alone a politician) who’s not selling you anything. He saw his truth his way and called it as he saw it.”
With Arlo Guthrie and Melanie Safka, the lineup of this year’s WoodyFest features two Woodstock legends. Judy Collins, Jimmy LaFave, Carolyn Hester, Ellis Paul, Ronny Cox, the Red Dirt Rangers, Sam Baker, Don Conoscenti, John Fullbright, The Damn Quails and Samantha Crain also will play this year’s Okemah event.
Because of the all centennial celebrations going on, Arlo Guthrie won’t get to stay in Okemah for all of WoodyFest, where he will be making his seventh appearance. Still, he volunteered to play his famed songs like “The City of New Orleans,” “Coming into Los Angeles,” “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” and more at Wednesday’s festival fundraiser at the Crystal Theatre, where his father used to go to the movies.
“It’s always so much fun to perform there. … I love that towns across America trying to keep their histories alive by renovating the old places. The Crystal has been around a long time. I’m thrilled it’s being used and enjoyed,” said Arlo Guthrie, who lives in Massachusetts and Florida.
“I’ve been visiting family and friends in Okemah since I was a little kid. Family has always been an important part of my life and that includes our extended family, the ones we know so well they might as well be related.”
Even a century after Woody Guthrie’s birth, the son believes his father spread a message that still has meaning.
“More than ever we see the result of forgetting that everybody counts. When you’re bad mouthing someone because they belong to one political party or another, one religious affiliation or another, because they’re too rich or too poor, too black or too white, too gay or too straight, too fat or too thin, too this or too that, you tend to forget that we’re all just individual people. The good ones and bad ones can be found in any of the groupings that divide us,” Arlo Guthrie said.
“My father stood with the ones who believed that everyone counted. He says it over and over again in the songs, books, letters, essays and notes; ‘I am out to prove to you that this world is your world.’ It seems to me that when you quit judging others or try to make them conform to your way of thinking, you accept that the differences we have are not all negative,” I’m probably as glad that I don’t have to be you as you are that you don’t have to be me. Maybe more so. I’m not sure if that’s a philosophy or not, but it’s worth thinking about,” he added.
“He was one of us, not more nor less. Sometimes a rascal, sometimes a saint — he was all the things we are — the best and the worst of us. He fought the demons everyone fights. Sometimes he won, sometimes he lost. He was able to forgive his failings and not brag too much about his successes. He came to the end of his life knowing he’d done about the best he could under the circumstances. I believe that’s about all we can ask of anyone.
“And, if you couldn’t already tell, I am so very proud to be his son.”
GOING ON
15th Annual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival
When: Wednesday-July 15.
Where: Various venues in Okemah
What: Musical performances, children’s activities, open mike, poetry readings, guitar workshop, fundraisers for the state chapter of the Huntington’s Disease Society of America and more.
Admission: Free.
Parking: Free for daytime events; $15 per car evenings at the Pastures of Plenty Stage. Cost includes a festival program.
Fundraising concert: Arlo Guthrie will play a solo acoustic show benefiting the festival at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the newly renovated Crystal Theatre, 401 W Broadway, Okemah. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. Gretchen Peters will open the show. Tickets are $25 for balcony seating and $35 for general admission; gold circle seating is sold out.
Information: www.woodyguthrie.com.
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Norman Music Festival 5 offering free music throughout today
Other Lives
NORMAN — Top local and national indie bands will rock Main Street when the fifth annual Norman Music Festival enters its grand finale today, with free music throughout the day and into the wee hours.
Covering the festival Friday night, The Oklahoman Assistant Entertainment Editor George Lang reports that the event is seeing bigger crowds this year. To read his story, click here.
The event will have music playing on more than a dozen local stages and include headliners Portugal. The Man on the festival’s Main Stage and Hayes Carll on its Jack Daniels stage. The Oklahoman Entertainment Editor Gene Triplett talked to both headliners as well as breakout Oklahoma band Other Lives and Ohio alternative pop-rockers Red Wanting Blue. To read his story, click here.
The festival is in downtown Norman, on Main Street in the Arts District, extending from the 300 block of E Main Street and the 100 block of W Main Street.
Along with Portugal. The Man, Other Lives (fresh off a support tour with Radiohead) and Red Wanting Blue, the Main Stage lineup includes Weekend Hustler, the Tulsa-based Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Oklahoma City’s Modern Rock Diaries and Norman’s Rainbows Are Free and Crown Imperial.
The Norman Music Festival’s Jack Daniels Stage includes nationally known artists Carll, Alejandro Escovedo, the Giving Tree and the Possum Posse, as well as locally based artists Parker Millsap, The Damn Quails, Krystal Keith (daughter of Toby Keith), Camille Harp and John Calvin.
In addition, NMF5 boasts classical and garage stages, the Wild Prairie Family Park and the Spectacle Stage.
The Dustbowl Arts Market will be an added attraction on Saturday in the 100 block of Main Street, featuring the work of local and regional artists and handmade vendors. Photography, jewelry, prints, screen-printing, clothing, accessories and textiles will be among items for sale.
See the full NMF5 musical lineup for today after the break. For more information, go online to normanmusicfestival.com.
Norman Music Festival starts today
Portugal. The Man
NORMAN — Some of the top local and national indie bands will rock Main Street when the Norman Music Festival celebrates its fifth year today, Friday and Saturday.
The three-day event will take place on more than a dozen local stages and include headliners Portugal. The Man on the festival’s Main Stage and Hayes Carll on its Jack Daniels stage.
The festival will be in downtown Norman, on Main Street in the Arts District, extending from the 300 block of E Main Street and the 100 block of W Main Street.
Last year’s attendance topped out about 35,000 on the event’s third night. To accommodate the growing audience, the Main Stage will be located at Main Street and Porter.
In addition to headliner Portugal. The Man, the Main Stage lineup includes Stillwater’s Other Lives (fresh off a support tour with Radiohead), self-proclaimed American rock band Red Wanting Blue, the Weekend Hustler, the Tulsa-based Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Oklahoma City’s Modern Rock Diaries and Norman’s Rainbows Are Free and Crown Imperial.
The Norman Music Festival’s Jack Daniels Stage includes nationally known artists Hayes Carll, Alejandro Escovedo, the Giving Tree and the Possum Posse, as well as locally based artists Parker Millsap, The Damn Quails, Krystal Keith, Camille Harp and John Calvin.
The Dustbowl Arts Market will be an added attraction on Saturday in the 100 block of Main Street, featuring the work of local and regional artists and handmade vendors. Photography, jewelry, prints, screen-printing, clothing, accessories and textiles will be among items for sale.
The festival is free but organizers say one of the easiest ways to support the festival is through a VIP pass. Fans can mingle with the bands in VIP lounges, gain access to the VIP stage pit, enjoy complimentary food and beverages and a special edition T-shirt. VIP passes are $60.
For more information, go online to normanmusicfestival.com.
-BAM
Wednesday Video Spotlight: Norman Music Festival headliners Portugal. The Man and Hayes Carll
NORMAN — It’s almost here! Some of the top local and national indie bands will rock Main Street when the Norman Music Festival celebrates its fifth year on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
The three-day event will take place on over a dozen local stages and includes headliners Portugal. The Man on the festival’s Main Stage and Hayes Carll on its Jack Daniels stage.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been dedicating one of my Wednesday Video Spotlights to bands that will play this year’s festival, and this time, it’s all about the headliners.
The festival will be in downtown Norman, on Main Street in the Arts District, extending from the 300 block of E Main Street and the 100 block of W Main Street.
Last year’s attendance topped out about 35,000 on the event’s third night. To accommodate the growing audience, the Main Stage will be located at Main Street and Porter.
In addition to headliner Portugal. The Man, the Main Stage lineup includes Stillwater’s Other Lives (fresh off a support tour with Radiohead), self-proclaimed American rock band Red Wanting Blue, the Weekend Hustler, the Tulsa-based Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Oklahoma City’s Modern Rock Diaries and Norman’s Rainbows Are Free and Crown Imperial.
The Norman Music Festival’s Jack Daniels Stage includes nationally known artists Hayes Carll, Alejandro Escovedo, the Giving Tree and the Possum Posse, as well as locally based artists Parker Millsap, The Damn Quails, Krystal Keith, Camille Harp and John Calvin.
The Dustbowl Arts Market will be an added attraction on Saturday in the 100 block of Main Street, featuring the work of local and regional artists and handmade vendors. Photography, jewelry, prints, screen-printing, clothing, accessories and textiles will be among items for sale.
The festival is free but organizers say one of the easiest ways to support the festival is through a VIP pass. Fans can mingle with the bands in VIP lounges, gain access to the VIP stage pit, enjoy complimentary food and beverages and a special edition T-shirt. VIP passes are $60.
The Norman Music Festival’s Event Team is looking for volunteers to help out. For more information, go online to normanmusicfestival.com.
-BAM
