Dwight Twilley

Dwight Twilley ready to trade studio for concert stage

By Gene Triplett
The Oklahoman

Instead of a "Home Sweet Home” sentiment, Dwight and Jan Twilley should have an embroidered sampler hanging on their wall that reads: "'Round here, we stay up very, very late.”

Of course, that's a line copped from a Counting Crows song, and Dwight Twilley is perfectly capable of coming up with his own lyrical phrases, but it fits, considering the hours the Twilleys keep.

"You know, we've been so in the studio the last few years,” Twilley said, just out of bed on a recent afternoon following another long work-night at Big Oak, his home sound lab in Tulsa. "We really kind of have the attitude that it's time to start getting out and playing.”

And Twilley will do just that, at 8 p.m. Saturday, headlining a show at Norman's Sooner Theatre with special guests The Starkweather Boys.

"It's a dream come true to be able to work in the studio for a long period of time ... but at the same time you lose contact with the world.”

Since "I'm on Fire,” his first big hit, was released in 1975, the Tulsa-bred power-pop craftsman has written scores of melody-rich, radio-ready tunes influenced as much by the slap-back echo style of Sam Phillips' Sun Records stable as the sunnier sounds of The Beatles.

Unfortunately, only one other Twilley-penned ditty called "Girls” made a dent in the charts in the early '80s, due mainly to a lot of bad luck with bumbling record labels and a payola scandal that was none of Twilley's doing but was his undoing as a signed recording artist for many years following "Wild Dogs,” his last major-label release in 1986.

Since the late '90s, Twilley has been making a slow, steady, critically-lauded comeback, working wee hour upon hour at Big Oak, named for the gigantic tree that shades the yard of his suburban home. With his wife, Jan, engineering and Dwight self-producing, he's put out four albums since 1999 — "Tulsa,” 2005's "47 Moons” and his multistyled holiday opus, "Have a Twilley Christmas,” which snagged airplay over the holidays on the "Christmas Storm” and "Dr. Demento” radio shows.

In October 2006, Twilley released his first live album, "All Access,” an 18-song disc recorded over a two-night stand in August 2005 at The Venue in Tulsa. Footage from the show will soon be available for digital download from Digital Music Group, and a DVD of the shows is also in the works. And, at long last, Twilley is ready to emerge from those endless, dimly lighted, all-night recording sessions and step back into the concert spotlights, albeit briefly. A full-blown tour will follow completion of his next studio album, tentatively titled "Green Blimp.”

"We've just got too much work to do,” he said. "We're eight songs into the new album. We really kind of know our magic box now, so it's really kind of hard for anybody to pry us out of it.”

Twilley first met Jan Allison when both were working at the same Los Angeles studio about 20 years ago. He was still recording for major labels, and she was a veteran of projects with artists including Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan.

"So, she knew her way around the studio,” Twilley said.

While most couples kiss goodbye and get a break from each other each weekday morning, the Twilleys have lived and worked together around the clock since moving back to Tulsa in the late '90s and building a studio into the back of their house. Such constant togetherness might spark occasional spats in some marriages, but not so with the Twilleys.

"We love what we do,” Twilley said. "Just being able to have your own studio, no one can tell us when to stop or when to start.”

Their teamwork was the subject of an article last April in Mix, a magazine for the audio recording industry, focusing mainly on Jan Twilley.

"We disagree about some things, but when we're in the studio, we're professional,” Twilley said. "She has her role as an engineer, and I have my role as a producer. And sometimes the engineer's right and the producer's wrong. But at the end of the day, I make the final decision, and 99 percent of the time we agree on it. It's just so damn much fun, you know?

"Yeah, and it's amazing that, some nights, when I'm not really quite sounding that good on the mike, a slight wardrobe change from the engineer can change the whole attitude. That's absolutely true.”