This seasoned group of Tulsa musicians has been playing together live for a few years, but their new self-titled album is their first as a band. Recorded as live cuts at Black Box Studio and released in January on Tulsa’s nonprofit Horton Records label, Saugeye showcases several original tunes, along with covers of songs by acclaimed singer songwriter, Malcolm Holcombe, and several talents who are no longer with us, such as Tulsa musician and luthier Dixie Michell, Red Dirt legend Brandon Jenkins, and hitmaker Bill Withers.
“Another Lifetime” is the final track on the release.
“This song idea came to me while playing a show at 18th & Boston in Tulsa a few years back,” says Tyler in a statement. “I eventually finished it with my co-writing friend, Jamie Kindleyside. We tried to express the simple hope that comes from being in the moment with someone who really needs it, and then from there the song took on its own meaning.”
Go ahead and call Saugeye “old fashioned.” Rather than take offense, the Tulsa-based cooperative, led by soulful singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and hobbyist fisherman Jared Tyler, would almost certainly see it as a compliment, with their warm, folksy self-titled debut LP a bountiful harvest of jubilant, yet occasionally wistful, Americana.
Meshing with a spry, relaxed ease throughout, Tyler and fellow collaborators Seth Lee Jones, Jake Lynn, and The Tractors’ Casey Van Beek jam without a care in the world on the good-natured, upbeat, Malcom Holcombe-penned “One Leg at a Time,” the sunny cup of low-key joy “Keystone Lillie” a loving homage to Tyler’s dog and the jaunty, country soul fishing trip “Dirt on Your Hands.” They inject tightly wound, bounding energy and evangelical fever into Brandon Jenkins’ gospel hoedown “Gideon’s Bible” and wheel passionately through Holcombe’s “To the Homeland” and the more melodic and romantic “Gwendolyn,
Thursday,
February 4
Formed in the late 1960s by four Oklahoma State University students, Carp put one just one album for Epic Records before disbanding - but the band served as a launching pad for singer/drummer and actor Gary Busey. Find out more about the band here.
Friday,
February 1
Graham Colton is a musician from Oklahoma City. Find more of his music at grahamcolton.com.
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