The FABULOUS Georgia Parker returns for an Oklahoma City house concert on Monday, March 10!  Join us!  Message for reservations! 

Two for Tuesday!!!  One house concert -- two FABULOUS songwriters!  Join us!

An Oklahoma Return!  Hannah Juanita and Mose Wilson
           The last time Hannah Juanita and Mose Wilson played in Oklahoma City, it was Summer 2023 and their second stop on a six-week tour.  With their dog Loretta in tow, they performed an energetic house concert on a Tuesday night to the delight of their fans and country music lovers.  Hannah belted (no microphone) twangy tunes from her debut record Hardliner (2021), Mose plugged in his Telecaster and picked his tail off, and the two lifted a packed living room into a frenzy with their lovely duets, insightful songwriting, fun banter, and outstanding musicianship. 
            Good news!  Hannah and Mose are back, again on a Tuesday night, February 11, for a house concert where they plan on sharing new music.  Hannah released her second record, Tennessee Songbird, last summer, and Mose is slated to release his new record in May – country music “but there’s a lot of styles going on,” Mose says.  “There’s a lot of Cuban influence.  Lot of New Orleans jazz and soul influence.” 
            Hannah agrees.  “They’re country songs, but he’s added some different flavors.” 
            “We have a lot of new material,” Mose says.  “We’ll be trying out a lot of new tunes.”
           Hannah is excited to share songs from Tennessee Songbird, a record that was recorded over two days at Nashville’s The Bomb Shelter studio. 
           “I’m really happy with the songs,” she says.  And, the recording process – an experience she describes as flowing naturally and buoying her creatively and energetically. 
           The two artists have music in their blood.  “My mom says I was singing before I could talk,” Hannah says.  “I’ve always been naturally inclined to sing.”  Likewise with Mose and a guitar.  At the age of two, he received a toy violin as Christmas present, which he returned to his grandmother and asked for a guitar.  He’s been playing since age six and loving all the music he can soak up, from seeing Joe Perry in concert with Aerosmith as a youngster, to learning blues from his guitar teacher John Cook in Tullahoma, Tennessee, to digging on Thelonius Monk today. 
             “He’s been my go-to,” Mose says.        
           Toward the end of January, Hannah and Mose leave their Nashville homebase and head west to play shows in Missouri, Colorado, Wyoming, Nevada, and California before one final stop in Oklahoma City as they close the circle and return to Music City. 
            “I think it will be a really nice way to end the tour,” Hannah says. 
          Hannah Juanita and Mose Wilson play a house concert in Oklahoma City on Tuesday, February 11.  Happy hour is at 7:00 p.m., and music starts at 8:00 p.m.  Donations of $15 per person are suggested for the artists.  For more information and a reservation, please contact [email protected] or 205-616-5009. 

Nashville Inspiration Coming to OKC
 
When Nashville musicians and husband and wife couple Zach Bryson and Marina Madden arrive in Oklahoma City in October to perform at a house concert, it will be a homecoming of sorts for one and a new city to explore for another. 

For Zach, who spent a sweltering summer in OKC nearly fifteen years ago (“Living there quote unquote?  I guess I loitered there.”), he looks forward to sharing new songs with old friends and stopping by a tried-and-true favorite, Jeff’s Country Cafe on Classen Avenue.  And thrifting. 

“We really like to go thrift shopping,” Marina says.  “I feel like the west is really good for it.” 

As Oklahoma City offers ample thrifting opportunities, Nashville provides a rich musical homebase for the two musicians who are amazed and inspired by the great music that surrounds them.  With heroes like Lucinda Williams and John Prine, Zach and Marina enjoy catching live music. 

“Living in Nashville, we have a great community of friends that are playing shows a lot,” Marina says.  “It’s kind of hard to go to a show in Nashville and not leave inspired afterwards.  We get to see some truly incredible musicians.  Our friend Jessie Gray is a person we get a chance to see pretty frequently in Nashville.  I would say we both leave her concerts feeling ready to write.”   

Sharing lives and love together also inspires creativity and music.  “I wrote a whole album, the last album I put out is called Beauty Songs for Sweet, and it’s just all songs for Marina,” Zach says. 

Marina recently released an EP, Code Red, and she is pleased with the finished product.  “It’s songs I’ve been really excited to put out for a while now,” she says.  “It’s just a very special piece of work that I’m really pumped about.” 

The couple will perform individual sets and “probably” sing a song or two together.   

After their Oklahoma City house concert, Zach and Marina head to Texas for a few shows before landing at the Black Pot Festival and Cook-Off in southern Louisiana, gigs in Florida, and then home to Nashville for the winter. 

But, before bracing for the winter, an Oklahoma City house concert awaits. 

“I’m excited to go back,” Zach says.  “I’ve always liked it a lot.” 

Zach Bryson and Marina Madden perform at a house concert on Saturday, October 19.  Happy hour at 7:00 p.m.; music begins at 8:00 p.m.  A donation of $15 is suggested.  For reservations, contact [email protected].   

Five Questions with Georgia Parker
 
            In anticipation of The Goodnights’ upcoming Oklahoma City house concert, we sat down with guitarist, vocalist, and all-around outstanding musician Georgia Parker.  We asked the Boerne, Texas native five questions about her experiences as a musician in general and with The Goodnights specifically.  And, about GWAR performing in Tulsa’s Cain’s Ballroom.    
           CP:  Who are some of your influences or mentors? 
           GP:  My biggest influences, and it sounds cliché, but Willie Nelson, but like Willie Nelson’s jazz records.  And Freddy Powers who wrote a lot of songs with Merle Haggard and played in his band and wrote a bunch of cool Texas swing tunes.  It’s like western swing but like songwriter and a whole other era of time.  And, then of course Cindy Walker, who wrote a ton of great songs for Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. 
         CP:  What brought The Goodnights together?  How did you guys meet and connect? 
         GP:  Ooo, I actually wonder this.  So, Sophia [Johnson] and Katy Cox have a band called Tiger Alley.  So, they’re kind of like a musical duo, and they’re both friends of mine, and we both like – I play mostly swing.  They play a lot of western swing and also write cool songs and play rock and roll and country music and all kinds of music.  But, we all play bluegrass.  So, we play – sometimes we play, the three of us, bluegrass nights together, and then what happens we’re all secretly off the mic:  can we get away with playing a swing tune right now? 
          CP:  This is a goofy question, but what makes it fun for you guys? 
         GP:  I think that, well, I mean, we love the songs.  And, in some ways, it’s back to basics.  Like we’re doing songs that maybe we used to do when we first got into western swing or that we just wouldn’t normally do in our regular projects.  So, that’s fun.  And also working up all the parts.  But, I think what makes it fun for us is we’re all friends, and we don’t get to spend enough time together.  And, so now, we have a reasonable excuse to hang out, and we work well together.    
          CP:  Have you been to Cain’s Ballroom?
          GP:  I’ve been.  I haven’t seen a show there.  Yet. 
         CP:  Anything stand out about being in the ballroom and walking around there and knowing that, seventy, eighty years ago, [Bob Wills] was on the stage fiddling and doing the ah-hah? 
          GP:  Yeah.  It’s just incredible, an incredible chunk of history, and I love the photos on the wall.  And Brett, Brett Bingham, gave us a tour of Cain’s the last time I came through Oklahoma and that’s the only time I’ve ever been there.  So, it was closed, and we kind of got to run around the whole place and look at everything.  And, he knows so much about Oklahoma music history and Bob Wills and all that stuff.  He’s a great tour guide.  Something else I couldn’t not think about was a friend of mine told me he saw GWAR there?  So, I was just imagining seeing GWAR and like looking up at Cindy Walker and Bob Wills and everybody, their photos up on the wall.  It’s cool to me that like – I’d rather that be happening than for Cain’s to close down and then build a new venue for something like that.  I think it’s cool that this is a sacred space for music, and, if that’s the music you like, then yeah. Be inclusive. 
           The Goodnights, featuring Georgia Parker, Sophia Johnson, and Katy Rose Cox, play a house concert in Oklahoma City on Sunday, October 13.  For details, please contact [email protected]. 

Pumped to share that the new issue of Oklahoma Today includes my story about the 1972 Putnam City High School baseball team -- state champs with three future professional athletes, including its catcher Steve Largent, Pro Football Hall of Famer.  Check it out!

In the Summer of 2017, I interviewed Jerry Walker.  Mr. Walker was a baseball lifer, debuting for the Baltimore Orioles in 1957 as an eighteen year-old right-handed pitcher and retiring in the 2010s after serving as a player, coach, manager, general manager, scout, and advisor.  With more than fifty years experience in Major League Baseball and his recent days involved in front offices, I asked Mr. Walker if there was a particular trade he was involved with that he was pleased with.  He laughed.  "Oh, well the McGwire trade at St. Louis wasn’t too bad," he said referring to the 1997 transaction when St. Louis sent three right-handed pitchers to Oakland in exchange for the slugging first baseman Mark McGwire who went on to club 70 home runs in 1998.  Mr. Walker passed on July 14.  Rest easy. 

Oklahoma City house concert with The Buffalo Gals Band!  Friday, July 12, Melissa Carper and Rebecca Patek are BACK!  Happy hour at 6:30 p.m., music at 7:00 p.m., BYOB, suggested donation of $15 per person to the artist.  Use the contact page for reservations -- JOIN US!

Last week, I was lucky enough to cross paths with Dennis Eckersley.  I interviewed this Hall of Fame pitcher in 2015 and profiled him in my book PINNACLE ON THE MOUND.  Full of insights, he shared great story after great story and many nuggets about baseball and pitching.  But, one of my favorites was a very human story about the struggle to be in the moment.  Being inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, he was excited to participate in the festivities and catch up with past teammates and rivals, yet he was preoccupied.  He had a speech to deliver, and he was anxious about it. 

"You wish you could have the speech, and then go," he says.  "But the speech is at the end of the whole experience.  So you're uptight about the speech that you don't even have a good time before it!  Right?  That's me anyway.  I always live in this sort of dread of having to perform." 

But, after delivering the speech:  relief. 

"The heat's not on.  Ultimately, it comes down to living in the moment.  Enjoying the moment.  It's hard for me." 

Super-talented singer and writer CHRIS ACKER will share his music in a cozy living room setting on SUNDAY, MAY 19.  Join us!  Message for details / reservations!