KGOU In-Depth Features Okie Rock & Roll Book

Artwork by Cameron and Bruce Eagle

KGOU’s Brian Hardzinski featured “Another Hot Oklahoma Night: A Rock and Roll Story” yesterday. Listen to his report below.

LISTEN: KGOU In-Depth (mp3)

You can now purchase the book online. The book is also available for sale at the Oklahoma History Center, Full Circle Books and Borders in Oklahoma City and Dwelling Spaces in Tulsa.

After the jump, check out a book review by The Oklahoman.

Book Review: Book celebrates history of rock music in state
Published: July 31, 2009

No self-respecting, plugged-in Okie’s coffee table should be without a copy of “Another Hot Oklahoma Night: A Rock & Roll Story” (Oklahoma Historical Society, $29.95).

Graced with a cover painting by Bruce Eagle (formerly of the Oklahoma-based 1960s rock band the Midnight Rebels) and Cameron Eagle depicting an American Indian cradling a flaming electric guitar, this handsome 184-page volume can be considered a printed guide to “Another Hot Oklahoma Night: A Rock & Roll Exhibit,” a celebration of the rockier side of Sooner State music that’s currently on view at the Oklahoma History Center.

The book was compiled by Larry O’Dell and Jeff Moore, the museum directors who assembled the vast display of artifacts and memorabilia that traces 50 years of homegrown, guitar-driven history “from Wanda Jackson to Wayne Coyne,” as they like to describe it.

The chapters were authored by experts on various aspects of Oklahoma rock history including Flaming Lips leader Coyne, Tractors front man Steve Ripley, Oklahoma radio veteran and museum public information director Michael Dean, Stillwater red dirt singer-songwriter Jimmy LaFave, OklahomaRock. com owner Ryan LaCroix, O’Dell, Moore and several others.

Topics range from the rise of rockabilly and the dawn of rock ’n’ roll radio, to the evolution of local music scenes from the ’50s to the present, the great old record stores and live music venues, and the Oklahoma artists who made names for themselves beyond Sooner borders, such as Leon Russell, J.J. Cale, the Gap Band, Hanson and the All-American Rejects, to name but a few.

Many of the vintage posters, album covers and photographs from the museum exhibit are reproduced in black and white and color, framed in the striking graphic designs of Cynthia Manning.

The “Hot Oklahoma Night” exhibit will eventually be dismantled to make way for the museum’s next historical showcase, but the book is a worthy memento of the event, especially for those of us who’ve experienced a few of those humid rock ’n’ roll nights under the Sooner stars.

— Gene Triplett