You know you've made it as a country star when you're headlining the 18th annual Testicle Festival inOklahoma.
Miranda Lambert is set to perform tomorrow at the four day event in Stillwater -- where there will be enough beer, music and fried bull balls to last you a lifetime.
No word if there are any sack races at the event.
** Follow TMZ on Twitter -- CLICK HERE to check out our new page! **
On Saturday May 2, the Oklahoma History Center will unveil its Oklahoma rock and roll exhibit, Another Hot Oklahoma Night.
Every day this week, we hope to break down different eras in Oklahoma rock and roll and bring you some important acts from that time. Today, we focus on the 2000s.
While it’s impossible for us to list all of the important acts of this era in a single post (we’ll let the history exhibit do that), here’s a few we consider important.
• Fearless Freaks
• Formed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
• Notable song: “She Don’t Use Jelly”
.
• Formed in Stillwater, Oklahoma
• Notable song: “Dirty Little Secret”
.
• Started in Tulsa, Oklahoma
• Notable song: “Growing Up With GNR”
.
• Born and raised in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
• Notable song: “Best Days”
.
• Lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma
• Notable song: “Light On”
.
• Formed in Norman, Oklahoma
• Notable song: “Sir Prize”
.
• Formed in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma
• Notable song: “Repeating the Procedure”
.
• Formed in Tulsa, Oklahoma
• Notable song: “Prey”
.
• Formed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
• Notable song: “Lips of an Angel”
.
• Chad Petree & Jeremy Dawson (raised in Shawnee)
• Notable song: “Le Disko”
.
• Matthew and Nathan Followill (born in Oklahoma City)
• Notable song: “Sex on Fire”
• Live in Tulsa
• Notable song: “Bring Me Down”
.
Learn more about Oklahoma rock and roll history this Saturday, May 2 at Another Hot Oklahoma Night at the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City.
Historians book museum gig that explores Oklahoma’s rock ’n’ roll history Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Old themes are rediscovered and reworked by new voices, but the songs never quite sound like they once did. Rock always rolls, often over itself, crushing the hands that hold it most dear. COLLINS’ MIX Every few decades, the music and culture catches fire and boils over or breaks down. Local historians say this is when Oklahoma rock ’n’ roll burns the hottest. Sometimes, Okies storm the stage and snare the spotlight, but the state’s rock music influence often goes unnoticed. On Saturday, the curtain will raise on “Another Hot Oklahoma Night,” a museum exhibit at the Oklahoma History Center that traces the state’s rock ’n’ roll history through a collection of artifacts and testimonies culled from around the country. The exhibit’s Saturday debut is free and will open in true rock style with an 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. concert featuring more than a dozen Oklahoma bands and performers, including rockers The City Lives and Crocodile, folk singers Ali Harter and Camille Harp, and rockabilly outfit The Oh Johnny! Girls. Scores of instruments and music equipment are among the artifacts displayed — many for the first time — in the “Another Hot Oklahoma Night” exhibit. Legendary Oklahoma singer-songwriter and musician Leon Russell’s faded and tattered Fender Twin amplifier is shown alongside antiquated recording equipment once used at Gene Sullivan’s Hi-Fi Studio, Oklahoma City’s first “real” recording studio. An entire section of the exhibit centers around Oklahoma broadcast personalities like DJ Ronnie Kaye and radio stations like WKY-AM and KOMA-AM, which History Center spokesman Michael Dean said pioneered formats that set the pace for program directors across the country. In the fashion portion of the exhibit, signature rock ’n’ roll outfits, like Russell’s orange suit and beaded top hat, are displayed along with Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne’s alien costume from the “Christmas on Mars” movie, as well as the red-and-blue-aproned uniform the pre-Grammy Coyne donned during his coleslaw-mixing tenure at an Oklahoma City Long John Silver’s. The History Center also re-created a series of teenagers’ rooms that show rock ’n’ roll’s evolution through posters, flyers and pictures. Rock ’n’ roll repeatedly revealed itself in late 2006, as Oklahoma History Center researchers gathered information for the state’s centennial celebration. Collectively, collections specialist Larry O’Dell said the stories they found led to the largest temporary exhibit ever displayed at the museum. Historians scoured the state and traveled as far as California in pursuit of items and accounts, conducting more than 150 interviews for “Another Hot Oklahoma Night.” O’Dell said the interviews are woven throughout the exhibit as recorded video loops or included in visitor-activated, interactive museum elements. The interviews underscore each section of the exhibit, which focuses on the artists, venues and fans that shaped the state’s rock music scene.
As innocent, preteen performers in the early to mid-1950s, the Tulsa duo — comprised of Lawrencine “Lorrie” Collins and her brother, Lawrence “Larry” Collins — were able to get away with stage antics that just a few years later would elicit gasps when performed by Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry. Broadcast to wide audience acclaim through television shows like California’s “Town Hall Party,” the wild, gyrating movements of the duo matched the sound of Larry Collins’ guitar, which Moore said was borne from adolescent impatience. “Larry had ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder),” he said. “He grew up listening to country and taught himself to play guitar, but playing country bored him to tears, so he started playing everything really fast.” Larry’s inaugural concert was for his family, which found the boy’s fast-paced playing infinitely amusing and “adorable,” Moore said. Larry, however, was so embarrassed by the attention and laughter that he took his department store guitar to the back yard and shot it to pieces with a .22-caliber rifle. His parents bought him another guitar and took the boy and his sister to California, where they made a name for themselves on radio and TV. Larry’s ubiquitous double-neck Mosrite guitar is among the instruments on display. Moore said the rapid-fire strumming was an early example of rockabilly music, a style simultaneously being developed by musicians marrying country music with R&B. “The Collins Kids aren’t given enough credit,” he said. “They had the whole rockabilly sound and look and image. ... Larry had the stage presence of a 1950s lead guitar player, and at age 9 or 10, he had nothing to base it on.”
Technology has forced changes that have left the music industry scrambling. When formal institutions like large media networks and record labels start to fail, Oklahoma musicians are quick to improvise and innovate new ideas, Moore said. When TV and The Beatles altered the course of rock ’n’ roll in the ’60s, Moore said the established industry wasn’t prepared for the transition. Unlike most performers before them, The Beatles wrote their own songs and were time-synced perfectly to TV’s growing popularity, which Moore said allowed the band to be among the first to market “a look.” The Beatles’ emergence encouraged a new industry paradigm, threatening many institutions that had long been making and marketing music. The DIY spirit brought on by The Beatles continued into the ’70s, a period Moore and O’Dell dubbed the “Golden Era” of Oklahoma rock ’n’ roll. “For a year or two, Tulsa was the center of the music world,” O’Dell said. “Leon Russell was pulling all these great musicians into Tulsa — Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, George Harrison. Everyone was up there at some point.” Moore and O’Dell both recognize a parallel with this ’70s high point and the state’s rock music scene today, which they said is bolstered by the chaos caused by a new technology: the Internet. “It’s one of those moments where bands and musicians are saying, ‘I can do anything,’” Moore said. “The Internet has made that happen. It’s the same sort of energy and vibe we pick up on when we talk to the older guys about those early days. It’s a kind of democratization, really, and Oklahoma really seems to thrive on that.”
Dean said “Another Hot Oklahoma Night” will be on display “well into 2010.” Museum historians are still interviewing artists and collecting artifacts, and plan to rotate new elements into the exhibit throughout its run. Additional concerts are also scheduled every few months at the History Center starting June 13. “We want this one to be more dynamic than anything we’ve ever done,” O’Dell said. “We’re going to be changing it up all the time, so it’ll be different every time someone comes in.”
In June 1964, bandmates John Durrill, Mike Rabon, Norm Ezell, Jimmy Wright and Jim Grant moved to Dallas to find bigger gigs, quickly attracting the attention of Abnak Records owner Jon Abnor, Moore said. Drawing on The Beatles’ British-centric marketing methodology, Abnor convinced The Mutineers to abandon their moniker and fashion a Western response. Moore said the newly minted Five Americans charted regionally and nationally with hits like “I See the Light,” and a series of well-liked Postal Service-themed songs, “Western Union” and “Zip Code.” Moore said Durrill, who later toured with The Ventures and penned songs for Merle Haggard, was among the first keyboard players to test out the Hammond organ sound that would go on to dominate many 1960s radio hits. “He really was the first to have that psychedelic organ sound, which you later see being adopted in 1965 and 1966,” Moore said. “They were an inspiration for the Hollywood folks that made The Monkees.” —Joe Wertz |
| EL RENO’S GUITAR HEAVEN |  |
EL RENO’S GUITAR HEAVEN By Louie Tyson A quiz master participating in a parlor game called “What Am I?” may offer the following clues regarding this musical instrument:  Rock on! Housed in a century-old building that practically “hums” as you enter, Oklahoma Vintage Guitar, with an inventory of over 3,000 instruments, is a tribute to the balladeer, the wandering minstrel and the headbanger. “Guitar heaven ” awaits those who enter their doors. Lead angel and proprietor Bobby Boyles, who has had a love affair with guitars since he was 15 years old, says that the iconic nature of the modern guitar captures the imagination like no other instrument. “There seems to be an innate feeling in all of us to pick up a guitar and jam,” he said. “Every time I attempt to play a guitar, I feel the sweat and artistry of great American blues artists like Robert Johnson, the nimble fingers of Oklahoma’s own jazz genius Charlie Christian, and every young, talented player with a tune on his mind and a dream in his heart.” As Boyles tells it, the journey that brought Oklahoma Vintage Guitar to El Reno was not without pitfalls and a learning curve. “We were looking for a building that would have appropriate character and location,” said Boyles, an Arkansas native who spent his non-musical career working with religious organizations and churches while also authoring several books. “From the minute I saw this historic treasure with its 10,000 square feet and met with the city fathers in El Reno, I knew it would be perfect for all our needs.” Guitars of all shapes, sizes, colors, styles and ownership line the walls, along with banjos, mandolins, fiddles and ukuleles. Also in the shop are accordions, keyboards, amplifiers, percussion instruments and resonators. Its vastness, combined with an almost spirituality, is nearly palpable. “It’s all here – we want to be all things to all people, musically,” Boyles said. “Our friends love it that we have strings and other auxiliary guitar materials – sometimes there’s no larger emergency than a broken string.”  Boyles has resisted corporate buyout opportunities and kept the emphasis of Oklahoma Vintage Guitar on customer service. And while Boyles has eschewed a “cookie cutter,” business model, the guitar lines that he carries are those with which he has worked closely since opening his first store. “We carry Martins, Gibsons, Taylors, Fenders and all the rest,” he said. Boyles makes particular mention of the “Ovation” guitar, which was developed by Charlie Kaman and virtuoso Glen Campbell. “When Charlie Kaman set about to build a better guitar 45 years ago, he had no preconceived notions about instrument design,” Boyles said. “After much analysis and experimentation, a parabolic ‘bowl’ shape proved to give the best projection, volume and tone. Ovation has gained its fame with its round back. “Interestingly, the Ovation is made using carbon graphite materials similar to those used on the nose cone of a 747 jet,” Boyles explained. Not satisfied that all major guitar lines are beating down his door, Boyles has worked to design his own. Presently, Oklahoma Vintage Guitar is the only location in the world where one can experience “Red River” guitars. “I call them ‘Red River’ after a wonderful fishing locale at home in central Arkansas; however, when I came to Oklahoma, I found that the Red River is the true dividing line between heaven and hell,” he said. “In all seriousness, all my years of experience playing and selling guitars have gone into the development and design of these instruments.” While prototypes of the guitar have been made overseas, Boyles said their manufacture will soon be made by hand in his El Reno shop. Boyles hopes to manufacture between 25-50 guitars in the first year of production.  “We are going to build new guitars, both electric and acoustic, that will play like the classic pre-war Martins or pre-CBS Fenders – instruments that had legendary qualities,” he said. “Our ‘Red River’ guitars will also have a Native American sensibility, much like those made by artisans in the Cheyenne-Arapaho nation.” Not one to dream small, Boyles next set his sights on an expansion of the store that will offer both historical and cultural insights into the guitar and its place in modern society. “Our store is so grandiose and our lifelong guitar collection so impressive that during the next year, we will be turning the loft of the building into a guitar museum. People will be amazed at what we have,” Boyles teases. “I will mention that we have the Fender Telecaster Joe Walsh played during the days of the original recording of ‘Hotel California.” Boyles also says Fender guitars will be in abundance, from the Broadcaster and Nocaster to the 1952 Telecaster and the 1955 Stratocaster. When all is finished, the 2,000-square-foot museum will host about 250 guitars – for starters. “After all these years, I am very tied into the guitar community,” Boyles said. “There is always the valuable, one-of-a-kind instrument that appears on the market. With that in mind, there’s no telling what will be in this museum from day to day.” Boyles adds that his future museum and the city of El Reno are a match made in heaven. “El Reno is a historic city that is truly on the move. I am adding this museum at a time when the whole unique downtown is receiving a facelift that celebrates its history while also planning for a bright future.” Celebrities and professional musicians are not unaware of the Oklahoma Vintage Guitar store. “It seems now that we are a stop for professional musicians traveling this way as they go from gig to gig,” Boyles mused. “  Most recently a contingent of band members who work with Kelly Clarkson drove up from Dallas just to check us out.”Another celebrity regular is Kerry Livegren, from the group Kansas, who regularly visits and trades guitars with Boyles. “We are always seeing bandmates of Toby Keith and Garth Brooks,” Boyles said. “Let’s face it, all these musicians are ‘guitar junkies’ and they get their fix by coming into our location for a visit.” Among the many celebrities with one of Boyles’ guitars in her collection is one not necessarily known for her playing skills. “A few years ago, Britney Spears was onstage doing a very difficult dance routine when she fell and seriously hurt her ankle,” Boyles said. “Rather than disappoint her paying fans, however, she finished the show. As a reward to her for being such a trouper, her manager called us and requested that we ship a ‘Daisy Rock’ guitar, an instrument manufactured specifically for women. This particular guitar was in the shape of a purple heart, and he gave her that ‘medal’ as a reward for going on with the show although wounded. We understand she was thrilled with the gift.” For those who have the desire to learn, Oklahoma Vintage Guitar offers lessons to all ages of potential guitarists.  “Some might think that we purists would be against computer games that simulate guitar playing,” Boyles said. “However, we find that the interest it creates causes people to try out the real thing.” Boyles said a recent family outing brought this particular concept home. “Over the holidays, my sister-in-law started playing ‘Guitar Hero. When she was through jamming with the kids, she and her husband asked to start lessons the next week, along with one of their sons.” So, from the inlay on the neck to the truss rod, fretboard and strings; from the first chord that rocked popular music as it introduced “A Hard Day’s Night” to the Brazilian rhythms of Antonio Carlos Jobim; and from the works of Carlos Santana to Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix, the guitar is and will continue to be man’s greatest attempt at combining art, design, music and style. A trip to Oklahoma Vintage Guitar will offer potential pickers just the right opportunity to twang, samba or just practice, practice, practice to achieve the uninhibited joy that only music can bring to both the performer and the listener.  |
*****************************************************************
USA SONGWRITING COMPETITION
4/29/09
*****************************************************************
** LIMITED FREE BONUS CD COMPILATION FOR 14th Annual USA SONGWRITING COMPETITION
Enter the 14th Annual USA Songwriting Competition now. Winning songs will receive radio airplay in United States and Canada. Win an Overall Top Prize of over $50,000 in cash, music gear & more.
Sponsors of the 14th Annual Competition are: Acoustic Guitar Magazine, New Music Weekly, Sony, Audio-Technica, Ibanez Guitars, D'Addario Strings, Cakewalk, Sam Ash Music Stores, Singer & Musician magazine, Mi7.com, Overloud, Sonoma Wireworks, Intellitouch Tuners, SongFrame Software, Indie Bible, Acoustic Café Radio Program, Livewire Contacts, AirplayAccess.com, Loggins Promotion, Superdups.com, Sirius XM Radio, Sonicbids & Broadjam.
*LIMITED FREE COMPILATION CD BONUS: Entrants enter now through April 30th will each receive a Free Compilation CD. This includes current winners of the 2008 USA Songwriting Competition (in all categories). So Hurry, while stocks last!
Choices to enter:
By mail, please obtain the entry form at:
http://www.songwriting.net/entryform
Online here with your MP3:
You may also enter using Sonicbids here:
http://www.sonicbids.com/usasong
Or via Broadjam here:
http://www.broadjam.com/contests/details/contest/index.php?contest_id=1159
8 Reasons Why a Band or Artist Needs Artist Management
Copyright© 2007 Jeremy Rwakaara
To most musicians, the enduring image of an artist manager is a caricature of a heavy-set, unkempt slob of a man, stuffed into a 2-sizes-too-small, off-the-rack department store suit, chomping on a cheap smelly cigar while sliding a greasy hand unceremoniously into the back pocket of a starving artist. Surely, somewhere in the vast landscape of the music universe, such malice exists. The vast majority of artist managers, however, are a motley collection of well-meaning, hardworking, selfless individuals struggling to make the dreams of someone they believe in come true. For the legion of dedicated unbelievers out there, this is an article that attempts to shed light on the true value of artist management. Following are 8 reasons why a band or artist needs a good manager:
1. Career Guidance – It's often extremely difficult for artists to step back from the day-to-day activities and see the big picture (you know - the old 'forest-for-the-trees' thing). A knowledgeable manager can see how everything in the big picture fits together, and can help the artist navigate through the often-confusing maze of activities that seem unrelated yet are all part of a massive jigsaw puzzle. The manager provides career guidance and helps to set the overall game plan for the artist and the artists' team to follow.
2. Cheerleading – Even though fans are the main cheerleaders for an artist, someone has to communicate the same enthusiasm to the music business community. An artist manager will trumpet the artist's message to record labels, booking agents, promoters, media personnel, club bookers, independent retail accounts, etc., in order to keep them all engaged and enthusiastic.
3. Prestige – According to most record industry professionals, there is something to be said about an artist that has a manager. The logic is that if an artist is good enough to attract management, there must be something of value present. In fact, most major labels refuse to sign an artist unless they have solid team (manager, attorney and publicist) in place. An artist without management is just too much drama! Labels would rather deal with someone who knows how the music business works and can make decisions on a non-emotional basis.
4. Buffer – A manager can act as an effective screening buffer between the artist and people that want to do business with the artist. This buffer tends to attract legitimate industry players while at the same time scaring away scam artists. There are no scarier words to a scam artist than "please talk to my manager".
5. Time management – There simply is not enough time in the day to do everything that needs to be done in order to further the career of an artist. In between writing songs, conducting interviews, designing artwork for CD's and merchandise, managing a mailing list, filling out copyright paperwork, rehearsing with the band, hiring and firing musicians, updating band web sites and MySpace profiles, getting pictures taken, shooting and editing DVD's and YouTube videos, sending out packages and/or updating EPK's, researching, repairing and purchasing equipment, etc., there isn't time to also craft a master game plan, solicit potential sponsorship partners, handle licensing requests, reach out to industry gatekeepers, attend industry networking events, harass labels for tour support, and so on. Some tasks can be delegated to the band while others can be handled by the manager.
6. Accountability – Part of a manager's job is to hold people accountable. What happens when the financial tour support that was promised by the label fails to materialize? Or the check from the booking agent bounces? Or the FOH engineer at the show is MIA? Or the licensee fails to sign and return the contract but is using the artist's songs anyway? Or the beer in the tour van vanishes? Somebody has to keep people honest, and that is most appropriately the manager's job.
7. Good Cop / Bad Cop – Need to fire the bass player but don't want to create an enemy? Let the manager play bad cop and do the firing. Need to re-negotiate your contract and request more of a promotion budget? Let the manager play good cop and keep a positive spin on the proceedings. There are plenty of occasions when the artist and manager can trade off playing good cop / bad cop.
8. Sounding board – A manager, even though basically an "honorary member of the band", is frequently on the outside looking in. Managers usually see things differently than the artist, and can often provide different perspectives, insights and solutions to problems the artist is encountering. Running ideas by a knowledgeable manager prior to making decisions often allows for good ideas to become better and bad ideas to be removed altogether from the to-do list.
So, there you have eight reasons why an artist needs management. Having said all this, however, it is important to note that having bad management is worse than having no management at all. Many wannabe managers think they can just "wing-it" with an artist, and continue to operate with the "lets-record-a-3-song-demo-and-shop-it-for-a-record-deal" mentality, even though the music industry continues to undergo significant changes. New business models are emerging, and only those managers that stay at the leading edge of the learning curve will create successful strategies and provide meaningful counsel to their clients.
GP Management provides development, management, help, guidance, motivation, and support for you to become the best you can be.
...and we want to work with you!
Greg Pearce
GP Management
523 East 44th
Stillwater, OK 74074
Cell: 580.491.1014 – Off: 405.780.7377
Email:greg@gpmanagement.biz - Web:www.gpmanagement.biz
Rock ’n’ roll is a beast that feeds upon itself, starving and growing.
