The Tulsa Sound is a musical style that originated in Tulsa, Oklahoma

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...

. It was a mix of Rockabilly

Rockabilly

Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...

, Country

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

, Rock 'n' Roll, and Blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 sounds of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Tulsa Sound artists include JJ Cale, Rocky Frisco

Rocky Frisco

Born Don Roscoe Joseph III in Saint Louis, Missouri on July 26, 1937, Rocky Frisco is the pianist with the J. J. Cale Band.Frisco and Cale both attended Tulsa Central High School in the 1950s, with Frisco graduating in 1955 and Cale in 1956. They played together in Gene Crose's band starting in...

, Leon Russell

Leon Russell

Claude Russell Bridges , known professionally as Leon Russell, is an American musician and songwriter, who has recorded as a session musician, sideman, and maintained a solo career in music....

, Elvin Bishop

Elvin Bishop

Elvin Bishop is an American blues and rock and roll musician and guitarist.-Career:Bishop was born in Glendale, California, and grew up on a farm near Elliott, Iowa. His family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, when he was ten years old...

, Roger Tillison, Gene Crose, David Gates

David Gates

David Gates is an American singer-songwriter, best known as the lead singer of the group Bread, which reached the tops of the musical charts in Europe and North America on several occasions in the 1970s. The band was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame...

, Dwight Twilley

Dwight Twilley

Dwight Twilley is an American pop/rock singer and songwriter, best known for the Top 20 hit singles "I'm on Fire" and "Girls"...

, The Gap Band

Gap Band

The Gap Band was an American funk band, who rose to fame during the 1970s and 1980s. Comprising brothers Charlie, Ronnie and Robert Wilson, the band first formed as the Greenwood, Archer and Pine Street Band in 1967 in their hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The group shortened its name to The Gap Band...

, Jim Byfield, Clyde Stacy, John D. Levan, Bill Pair, The Zigs
(previously The Notions), Gus Hardin

Gus Hardin

Gus Hardin was a country music singer.-Career:Hardin was born in 1945 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her rise to country music popularity began in 1983 with her first RCA Records single, the top 10 hit "After The Last Goodbye"...

 and Don White.

The first appearance of note by a Tulsa Sound musician was Rocky Frisco's Columbia Harmony vinyl album "The Big Ten" under the name "Rocky Curtiss and the Harmony Flames." The album was recorded in New York at Columbia's studio at 33rd and 3rd Street in 1959 during a time when Rocky lived in Pennsylvania. Clyde Stacy was one of the first, if not the first, Tulsa Sound musician to score a nationally charted record, {Hoy Hoy b/w So Young}. This was actually a double sided hit released by Candlelight Records in 1957. Don Wallace, a popular Tulsa disc jockey, was instrumental in landing the recording contract for Clyde. Members of the NiteCaps during that period were John D. Levan, Rick Eilerts and Bill Torbet. John D. Levan was one of the first Tulsa lead guitarist having played for both Clyde Stacy in 1955, and Gene Crose 1956, then again with Stacy in 1957. Levan was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame

Rockabilly Hall of Fame

The Rockabilly Hall of Fame was established on the internet on March 21, 1997, to present early rock and roll history and information relative to the artists and personalities involved in this pioneering American music genre....

 in Aug. 2004 along with Tulsa Radio Personality "rockin' John Henry.

Leon Russell was the first member of the Tulsa scene to make inroads into the L.A.

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 music scene, playing for Ricky Nelson

Ricky Nelson

Eric Hilliard Nelson , better known as Ricky Nelson or Rick Nelson, was an American singer-songwriter, instrumentalist, and actor...

 along with James Burton

James Burton

James Burton is an American guitarist. A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since 2001 , Burton has also been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame...

. He then joined Phil Spector's Wrecking Crew and then produced Garry Lewis and Jan & Dean. Russell brought many Tulsans out to Los Angeles including Jimmy Karstein, Bill Raffensperger, Tommy Tripplehorn, Carl Radle

Carl Radle

Carl Dean Radle was a bass guitarist who toured and recorded with many of the most influential recording artists of the late 1960s and 1970s...

, and Larry Bell. Russell was later co-owner of the Church Studio in Tulsa and of Shelter Records

Shelter Records

Shelter Records was a U.S. record label started by Leon Russell and Denny Cordell that operated from 1969 to 1981. The company established offices in both Los Angeles and Tulsa, Russell's home town, where the label sought to promote a "workshop atmosphere" with a recording studio in a converted...

, which signed a number of significant Tulsa Sound artists.

Influence of the Tulsa Sound on other musicians

Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton

Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...

 was the most prominent non-Tulsa artist associated with the Tulsa sound. For ten years, Clapton's band consisted of Tulsans Carl Radle on bass, organist

Organist

An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...

 Dick Sims and drummer

Drummer

A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...

 Jamie Oldaker. During that time, Clapton was a frequent performer at a variety of venues in the Tulsa area. In his review of Clapton's 1978 album Backless, critic Robert Christgau

Robert Christgau

Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...

 wrote, "Whatever Eric isn't anymore . . . he's certainly king of the Tulsa sound."

In addition to Clapton, Cale's influence has been cited by Mark Knopfler

Mark Knopfler

Mark Freuder Knopfler, OBE is a Scottish-born British guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and film score composer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the British rock band Dire Straits, which he co-founded in 1977...

, among others. His songs have been recorded by many artists, including Clapton, Lynyrd Skynyrd

Lynyrd Skynyrd

Lynyrd Skynyrd is an American rock band prominent in spreading Southern Rock during the 1970s.Originally formed as the "Noble Five" in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1964, the band rose to worldwide recognition on the basis of its driving live performances and signature tune, Freebird...

, Deep Purple

Deep Purple

Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertford in 1968. Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, they are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock, although some band members believe that their music cannot be categorised as belonging to any one genre...

, The Allman Brothers Band

The Allman Brothers Band

The Allman Brothers Band is an American rock/blues band once based in Macon, Georgia. The band was formed in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1969 by brothers Duane Allman and Gregg Allman , who were supported by Dickey Betts , Berry Oakley , Butch Trucks , and Jai Johanny "Jaimoe"...

, Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash

John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...

, The Band

The Band

The Band was an acclaimed and influential roots rock group. The original group consisted of Rick Danko , Garth Hudson , Richard Manuel , and Robbie Robertson , and Levon Helm...

, Santana

Carlos Santana

Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...

, Captain Beefheart

Captain Beefheart

Don Van Vliet January 15, 1941 December 17, 2010) was an American musician, singer-songwriter and artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. His musical work was conducted with a rotating ensemble of musicians called The Magic Band, active between 1965 and 1982, with whom he recorded 12...

, and Bryan Ferry

Bryan Ferry

Bryan Ferry, CBE is an English singer, musician, and songwriter. Ferry came to public prominence in the early 1970s as lead vocalist and principal songwriter with the band Roxy Music, who enjoyed a highly successful career with three number one albums and ten singles entering the top ten charts in...

. The songs of Tulsan Elvin Bishop have often been covered by other artists, including Starship. Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal (musician)

Henry Saint Clair Fredericks , who uses the stage name Taj Mahal, is an American Grammy Award winning blues musician. He incorporates elements of world music into his music...

 had two Tulsans in his band: Chuck Blackwell and Gary Gillmore, and one Oklahoma City native, Jesse Ed Davis

Jesse Ed Davis

Jesse Edwin Davis was an American guitarist. He was well regarded as a session artist. His death in 1988 is attributed to a drug overdose.-Biography:...

.

Music journalist John Wooley and others have noted that the Tulsa Sound has directly and indirectly contributed to various other genres of music, including genres outside of rock music like alt-country and Red Dirt music

Red Dirt (music)

Red Dirt Music is a music genre that gets its name from the color of soil found in Oklahoma. Although Stillwater, Oklahoma is considered to be the epicenter of Red Dirt music, there's a Texas Red Dirt sound as well. Outlaws Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson are associated with that distinctive...

.

External links

• "Rock of Ages: Tulsa's History of Rock 'n' Roll", Tulsa World
  Tulsa World
  Tulsa World is the daily newspaper for the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, is the primary newspaper for the northeastern and eastern portions of Oklahoma, and is the second-most widely circulated newspaper in the state, after The Oklahoman. It was founded in 1905 and remains an independent newspaper,...
  
  (accessed March 1, 2010).
• Tulsa Area Music Archives