USA Weekend's "Top Ten Places to Hear the Best of America's Music"

[Okla-homey]

In Sunday papers around the US -- except for The Oklahoman which inserts "Parade."

"Top Ten Places to Hear the Best of America's Music"
(in no particular order)

Asbury Park, NJ (I didn't know Springsteen was a genre)
Bean Blossom, IN (bluegrass)
Detroit, MI (Motown)
Seattle, WA (indie, "underground" music)
Miami, FL (Latin fusion)
Clarksdale, MS (blues)
Oahu, HI (ki ho'alu and ukelele)
LA, CA (surfer music and sub-genres it spawned -- pop punk and skatr)
Gene Autry, OK (cowboy campfire music -- esp. Sept 24-28 during the Gene Autry Museum Film and Music Festival)
Bronx, NY (hip hop)

and to think, Homey's grandpappy (and thousands of others) was present on November 16, 1941; the day they renamed Berwyn, OK "Gene Autry." Less than a month later, the Nips bombed Pearl Harbor. Gene joined the AAC and flew C-47's (DC-3's) in the Pacific theater. Homey's grandpappy was drafted at age 34 and shoveled horsepoop for his country in Arkansas.

http://www.geneautryokmuseum.com/Pages/gene_autry_oklahoma_film_&_music_festival.htm

[Flagstaffsooner]

What, no grease town?

[King Crimson]

another hard-hitting piece that buys and sells on the weakest of stereotypes from USA Today.

[Okla-homey]

another hard-hitting piece that buys and sells on the weakest of stereotypes from USA Today.

Nevertheless, if it prompts people to come to Oklahoma and spend money, I'm all for it.

[King Crimson]

Nevertheless, if it prompts people to come to Oklahoma and spend money, I'm all for it.

i guess. sure.

to me it's more like a "confirm the narrow world-view i already have without being exactly accurate (LA=surf="pop punk") while Joe X is waiting for a plane at LaGuardia looking for one of the 20 Starbucks...and reading McNewspaper.

i like Gene Autry, Sioux City Sue...hell. maybe they are right. but music in LA has been around a lot longer than Green Day and No Doubt.

[King Crimson]

"indie" music was only a figment of "the Seattle Scene" or "Grunge" as read by the mainstream music press in teh mid 90's. the "indie scene" of the 80's was nation-wide. even in Oklahoma, we had "indie" bands. good one's too, evidenced by the success of the Flaming Lips.

it's stupid to say that it's Seattle's province. Jimi Hendrix was from Seattle...he was OK?

McNewspaper.

[Okla-homey]

i guess. sure.

to me it's more like a "confirm the narrow world-view i already have without being exactly accurate (LA=surf="pop punk") while Joe X is waiting for a plane at LaGuardia looking for one of the 20 Starbucks...and reading McNewspaper.

i like Gene Autry, Sioux City Sue...hell. maybe they are right. but music in LA has been around a lot longer than Green Day and No Doubt.

I think I feel ya on this. But consider, some folks (myself included) believe we should embrace and celebrate our Okie-ness. After all, we aren't gonna live it down anyway. I say, yodel it up and revel in it, especially if there's money in it for a part of the state that doesn't have much else going for it touristically speaking.

[King Crimson]

Detroit=Motown. some that's some great research there.

the stooges and the MC5 were from Detroit. So are the White Stripes, I think.

all of which are more "punk" than Green Day.

[King Crimson]

I think I feel ya on this. But consider, some folks (myself included) believe we should embrace and celebrate our Okie-ness. After all, we aren't gonna live it down anyway. I say, yodel it up and revel in it, especially if there's money in it for a part of the state that doesn't have much else going for it touristically speaking.


i'm all for that. both my sets of g-parents made the land run in the Cherokee Strip. i'm okie all the way....i'm not a self-hater (and there are some), ain't like that.

I'm a member of the Historical Society, too. fuggin hell.

i might have chosen the Woody Guthrie festival myself, but i know how that goes.

i'm just hating on USA Today....in general. kind of a thread jack i guess for selfish reasons, maybe.

[Okla-homey]

i'm all for that. both my sets of g-parents made the land run in the Cherokee Strip. i'm okie all the way....i'm not a self-hater (and there are some), ain't like that.

I'm a member of the Historical Society, too. fuggin hell.

i might have chosen the Woody Guthrie festival myself, but i know how that goes.

i'm just hating on USA Today....in general. kind of a thread jack i guess for selfish reasons, maybe.

Okie spek. My ggf was in the Sak and Fox Landrun in 1891. Of course, he lost his homestead near Shawnee four years later to a bank...which, I might add, is a quintessentially Okie-ism too.

You know, I think this sort of thing is the reason newspapers and broadcast news sources are going the the way of the telegram and telegraph. They have a very limited and finite amount of space/time to communicate. Thus, coverage has to be pretty shallow. I call it the "mile wide and inch deep" syndrome. (some people call it a kaiser blade);)

Now with the innerwebs, a person has instant access to far more depth if he's inclined.

[King Crimson]

Homey: we lost most of our original paternal homestead through some bad extended marriages to losers. probably another quintessential Okie trait.

[Rogue]

Nashville, where you can walk from bar to bar and hear the best never-to-be-discovered musicians in the country. Rock, country, bluegrass, they've got it all.

Austin City Limits has some of the best gigs around.

Myself, I like The Orange Peel Social Aid & Pleasure Club in Asheville, NC.

Also, as a venue, sitting on the lawn (ski slope by winter) at Park City, UT is pretty.

[Okla-homey]

Homey: we lost most of our original paternal homestead through some bad extended marriages to losers. probably another quintessential Okie trait.

Cletus: I sure wish I had me a Trans Am.

Earl: Then go get one.

Cletus: Man at the dealership says I ain't got the credit and I don't make enough as a housepainter to afford it.

Earl: Well, ya got that quarter section you inherited through Pa you ain't doing nothing with.

Cletus: You're right! I'm gonna go to the bank and see if they'll give me the money if I put up my land.

Earl: That orta work.

Cletus: Yee haw!

[King Crimson]

Cletus: I sure wish I had me a Trans Am.

Earl: Then go get one.

Cletus: Man at the dealership says I ain't got the credit and I don't make enough as a housepainter to afford it.

Earl: Well, ya got that quarter section you inherited through Pa you ain't doing nothing with.

Cletus: You're right! I'm gonna go to the bank and see if they'll give me the money if I put up my land.

Earl: That orta work.

Cletus: Yee haw!

kinda like that: it's really sad since one of the last times i spent a week with my granddad he drove me around Lela, OK and Perry and told me a lot of stories about the family but he didn't want to go out to the homestead because it hurt too much. one of his brothers married a bad woman. and we lost it, the land.

my Grandfather has a Purple Heart and had offers to play in the Cardinals and Cubs organizations. and there was nothing that man wanted to do more than play baseball.....but WWII intervened and you couldn't make a living doing it after. not with a wife and sons, back then.

instead he sent one son to OU law school and another got a scholly at OU for football.