Records and the Recording Industry

The latest batch of historic recordings to be annually inducted into the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress was announced last month. Among them was the 1968 single, "Wichita Lineman," which was a big hit for Glen Campbell. That song was written by Jimmy Webb, the Oklahoma native who's widely seen as one of America's finest pop songwriters -- and who had a remarkable run of hit songs in the 1960s and early 1970s.

On this edition of StudioTulsa, we learn about Tulsa Little Jam, a popular podcast, concert series, and far-reaching digital media platform that aims to spotlight our community's most talented musicians and singer-songwriters. Tulsa Little Jam will present its Season Two Opening Concert this coming Friday night, the 17th, at Guthrie Green (beginning at 5:30pm). A number of different local bands will be presented -- and filmed -- in live performance, and the concert will be part of the 2019 Mayfest weekend.

On this edition of ST, we sit down with Todd Clouser and Chris Combs, two genre-busting guitarists and composers whose ever-creative music-making mixes jazz, rock, and funk styles -- as well as electronica, ambient grooves, and even tape-reversing experimentation. Clouser, originally from Minnesota and based in Mexico City, pretty much tours and performs worldwide -- and non-stop -- and has been occasionally playing shows in Tulsa for years now.

On this edition of ST, we learn about "Four Chords and a Gun," a newly created non-musical play that looks at the iconic punk band known as The Ramones -- and in particular, at their efforts to record an album with the eccentric yet legendary music producer, Phil Spector. The play was written by John Ross Bowie, an actor best known for his roles on TV's "Speechless" and "The Big Bang Theory." As we learn on today's show, "Four Chords and a Gun" focuses on the years 1979 and 1980, when The Ramones stood on the very edge of breaking into stardom.

On this edition of StudioTulsa, we speak by phone with Angélique Kidjo, the internationally acclaimed Beninese singer-songwriter and activist, who routinely speaks out for human rights and female empowerment as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. Named "Africa's premier diva" by Time Magazine and "the undisputed queen of African music" by The Daily Telegraph of London, Kidjo creates infectious music that draws upon Afropop, Caribbean zouk, Congolese rumba, jazz, gospel, and Latin styles; she has collaborated in the recording studio with (to name but a few) Alicia Keys, Bono, and Philip Glass.

On this episode of ST, we welcome Jared Johnson to the show. He's an active drummer on the Tulsa-area music scene as well as a drumset instructor at Northeastern State University. Jared gigs widely on the local scene, playing in all sorts of bands and musical settings, and mainly works as a jazz drummer.

On this installment of ST, we learn about the Tulsa-based, volunteer-run, non-profit Horton Records, which began about five years ago, and which aims to -- as noted on its website -- "provide support and tools for band management, promotion, booking, merchandising, and distribution in order to help local and regional musicians fulfill their artistic goals and further promote local and regional music on a broader scale.