Like a lot of people around here — and, in fact, around the world — I miss Steve Ripley a lot. I think I’ve written here before that he and I went back to Oklahoma State in the late ‘60s, a time when we were… Read More »23 OCTOBER 2021
Anyone who has a nodding acquaintance with classic horror movies knows the name Lon Chaney Jr. He’s the only actor ever to portray the wolfman, Dracula, Frankenstein’s creation, and the mummy — Universal Studios’ four classic movie monsters. What’s not as well… Read More »OKLAHOMA’S HORROR SUPERSTAR
It’s Tulsa Time once again on SWING ON THIS, with a good half-dozen T-town stars represented on this Saturday’s playlist. From the classic sound of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, we swing on up to contemporary times with James Robert Webb and the Bagsby… Read More »16 OCTOBER 2021
This week on SWING ON THIS, we’ll remember George Frayne IV, aka Commander Cody, with a trio of his tunes. I first saw Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen in 1973 with my friend Tim Fletcher at the Fox Theater in Long Beach,… Read More »9 OCTOBER 2021
I got to know the late Gary Stewart a little bit when I was working the country-music beat at the TULSA WORLD; at one point, he was interested in having me collaborate on some sort of Civil War project he had in his head. He… Read More »2 OCTOBER 2021
Because I got an unusual amount of commentary on the Bob Wills big-band-style song I played last week, “When It’s Honey Suckle Time in the Valley” (yeah, that’s the way “honeysuckle” is spelled on the original record label), I thought I’d start this week’s SWING… Read More »25 SEPTEMBER 2021
Although their duties have changed a bit over the years, the A&R (artists and repertoire) people at record labels are generally responsible for overseeing recording sessions and suggesting songs to be recorded by an act. In the pre-Internet days, they exerted a tremendous amount of… Read More »18 SEPTEMBER 2021
This week on SWING ON THIS, the multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, andcomposer Shelby Eicher drops by Studio D, where we play a couple of songs from the Tulsa Playboy CD and he gives us some nice backstory. Other attractions this time around include a return of the Sweet Violet… Read More »11 SEPTEMBER 2021
There’s maybe even a little more variety than usual — and that’s saying something — on this Saturday’s installment of SWING ON THIS. For instance: How about Clyde McPhatter’s greatest chart hit, nicely reinterpreted by Candy Noe? Or a famous Cab Calloway big-band tune given the… Read More »4 SEPTEMBER 2021
This Sunday at the Cain’s Ballroom, the Brazos Valley Boys celebrate their 75th anniversary, as well as the 70th anniversary of their former boss’s first big hit, “Wild Side of Life.” That man, of course, was Hank Thompson, who I think is one of the… Read More »28 AUGUST 2021