Fifty years and four months ago, a magazine headline told readers something that remains true today.
“Oklahoma Hums With Musical Activity” was a top-of-the-page headline on Billboard’s cover.
The music and entertainment industry magazine’s Nov. 19, 1973, issue focused on Oklahoma’s burgeoning presence in the music world.
“Music Erupts Among the Oil Fields,” said a headline that introduced 20-plus pages of interior content about music in Oklahoma.
Tulsa was mentioned first and foremost, with readers learning about entertainment impresario Jim Halsey and Leon Russell’s Church Studio. Englishman Denny Cordell, who co-owned Shelter Records with Russell, was interviewed for the story. At that time, Shelter Records had offices in Los Angeles and Tulsa. Church Studio was a Tulsa recording studio and workshop for artists on the Shelter Records label.
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An advertisement in the issue listed many music artists who had recorded at Church Studio. Another advertisement congratulated Tulsa resident Roy Clark, country music’s reigning entertainer of the year.
Current Church Studio owner Teresa Knox owns a copy of the “Oklahoma” issue of Billboard. It’s a cool piece of history. But Tulsa’s status as a music town has been elevated in the five decades since that issue of Billboard was published.
Consider: An advertisement in the issue was devoted to Tulsa’s concert-ready venues — the Assembly Center, Mabee Center and Fairgrounds Pavilion.
Want to compare Tulsa’s concert venues then and now? BOK Center is in its 16th year of operation and annually attracts the biggest headlining acts in music. Three Tulsa casino venues — The Cove, Hard Rock Live and Skyline Event Center — book touring artists. Mabee Center remains part of the concert landscape along with Tulsa Theater and Cain’s Ballroom, which is celebrating a centennial and is more appreciated now than when the ink was still fresh on the Billboard article. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss are kicking off a summer tour as part of Cain’s Ballroom’s 100th birthday celebration.
In 2020, Rolling Stone identified Tulsa as one of eight cities where live music is “exploding.” That was two years before Church Studio rejoined the fray.
Knox purchased Church Studio and spared no expense in making the recording studio a destination for music makers and music lovers. Church Studio sometimes hosts intimate concert events. The Turnpike Troubadours, in recording a SiriusXM concert there in January, joined Bill Champlin, Kenny Loggins, George Thorogood, Taj Mahal, Jimmy Webb, Air Supply and John Ford Coley as Church Studio performers.
Tulsa’s new reputation isn’t “only” music city. Tulsa is a music education city. The Bob Dylan Center, home of the Dylan Archives, attracts visitors from around the globe to downtown Tulsa. A few doors down from the Bob Dylan Center is the Woody Guthrie Center, devoted to the Oklahoma-born folk singer. Church Studio’s archives tell a story all their own and the yet-to-open Oklahoma Museum of Popular Culture hopes to someday share the stories of Oklahoma creatives in many entertainment fields.
Tulsa and Oklahoma have become increasingly visible in the film and television industry. Tulsa filmmaker Sterlin Harjo’s shot-in-Oklahoma and critically acclaimed series “Reservation Dogs,” wrapped a three-year run in 2023, the same year that Martin Scorsese’s shot-in-Oklahoma film “Killers of the Flower Moon” was released. Scenes from both ventures were filmed in Tulsa. Harjo will reunite with “Reservation Dogs” guest star Ethan Hawke for a new project that will be shot in Tulsa this year.
In 2020, Rolling Stone identified Tulsa as one of eight cities where live music is “exploding.”