I was privileged to be born in 1950, in the great state of Oklahoma, and the great city of tulsa.  growing up i learned very quickly just how blessed i was to be an Okie and for many reasons.   The people are such loving, laid back, god fearing patriots and I learned from my family to take great pride in that fact.   

As I became a teenager, another truthful fact emerged in my awareness of being an okie.  That fact was the powerfully impacting presence of our music history.  the music history of Oklahoma and Tulsa was set apart from all the other states in our cherished nation.  I would say even in the world.   This music history shaped musicians, singers and songwriters reaching far beyond our state borders in all genres of music.  

It impacted the music scene, in the most extraordinary way, during the 1950s-1970s by a few very elite and god endowed groups of upcoming artists/ musicians/singers/performers who came along at a pivotal time in our nation’s history.  These artists were Leon Russell, JJ Cale, Chuck Blackwell, Jimmy Karstein, Jim Keltner, jimmy markham, tommy tripplehorn, larry bell, david teegarden, the Colonel Gary Sanders and Carl Radle.  These 11 men became the pioneers and creators of what was originally called “The Tulsa Sound”.  It was a unique sound that came from a unique way of playing the blues.

Within a short while, the 11 mentored and adopted into the fold artists like Jamie Oldaker, Jim Byfield, Dick Sims, Jim Sweney, Steve Hickerson, Skip Knape, Gary Gilmore, myself and later Debbie Campbell and we too approached R&B with “The Tulsa Sound” twist.  It was all about that shuffle.

We were taken under the wings of these Okie icons and were mentored “specifically” with their very unique and personal approach to how they played the blues in particular.  We also became infected with the way this style of playing created a specific emotion in you through the groove it produced.   

There are so many artists of all music genres who were molded in some way by “The Tulsa Sound”, that  I dare not try to list them all for fear of leaving anyone out.  Tulsa history has recorded who they all are.  I am primarily focused in this writing on those Okies who played the blues genre.

The times were changing in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, as artists like Evis Presley, Little Richard, Aretha Franklin, BB King and the Beatles brought our generation such inspiration that it shaped our perspective and consciousness of the ways in which our world was either changing or needed to be changed.   Here in Oklahoma, the band of the original Okie born brothers who created “The Tulsa Sound” as it was called then, were extremely instrumental in influencing Tulsa’s music generation and many others beyond our Okie borders in those days.   I am one of those who was so impacted that it shaped my own style, passion, dedication and approach to the way I sing and perform.  To this day I remain loyal to my brothers in arms, my mentors and dearest friends, (and in too many cases the memory of those gone too soon) and what they gave us.  I remain forever and eternally grateful that they saw something in me worth developing and investing their love, time and support into.  I am devoted to protecting the integrity of the original “The Tulsa Sound”.  

To my dismay however, the idea and understanding of the original definition of “The Tulsa Sound” has become somewhat blurred and perceived with a less clear understanding over time.  it is used and even misused without the full knowledge of what it actually was in the beginning.  I believe with all my heart that over time there are now actually 2 definitions of “The Tulsa Sound”.  

Definition 1-   the original term “The Tulsa Sound” is something I consider sacred.  It is not a general term to be used and painted with a broad brush.  It was a term used in a specific way to describe a specific sound that these 11 players created by a specific way they played “the shuffle beat or groove ”.   In fact, as Leon himself described it, “it came about as a result of playing with Jerry Lee Lewis one night, and as they engaged in the shuffle groove, Jerry Lee kept adding the straight 8th notes to it while they played it”.   this changed the whole groove and expanded the way if felt and kind of jumped and lilted in the pocket.  “The Tulsa Sound” described how they played this newly revised version of the blues shuffle.  It set them and Tulsa apart from all other blues influenced music scenes and players.  Nobody played that shuffle like they did.   It was so infectious that artists like Clapton jumped on it as quickly as he heard it, and hired Okies to reproduce it in his music.  It was unique to Tulsa and to them. Thank god they taught us how to do it too.

Definition 2-    the more commonly accepted definition, as penned by journalists, and even defined in most forms of media describes it as:  any and all music artists, music styles, music performers from any and all music genres that are native to, come out of, or developed in the state of Oklahoma and the city of Tulsa.  This definition uses the term not as it was originally birthed or intended.   It is a valid way of describing tulsa music and what it was like in the past and in the present and will be in the future.  However, it is currently not used in the way it originally surfaced into the consciousness of the music world through those 11 men.   

Don’t get me wrong.  I stand proud of Tulsa and Oklahoma music and the way it affects all life around it.  I cherish the memories of those golden years in Tulsa and how it shaped the blues as we know it.    I honor and see the great value and potential that is still rising and coming out of our great city and state.   I will forever be a proud Okie. I just desire for there to be clarity in the manner in which someone uses the term “The Tulsa Sound” or declares themselves a member of “The Tulsa Sound”.    

I believe it imperative that artists know the difference between being a part of the original “ Tulsa Sound” as described in definition 1 by having lived during those golden years and having been blessed to be included in that very, very special group of Oklahoma artists who created “The Tulsa Sound”  or as someone who is defined in definition 2.

I do not want to be viewed as arrogant, divisive, judgemental or pious.  Rather, I hope to be viewed as one who is grateful, humbled to be loved and have my artistry admired, and one who with her dying breath will uphold the sanctity and greatness of those amazing players back in that special time, who put us all on the map.   that “Tulsa Sound” will never be duplicated.  I am proud and honored to be a part of definition 1.  For those who have come after, be proud to be a part of definition 2 and to be influenced by definition 1.  What a blessing.

I love you Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Now and forevermore.

Ann Bell