for seven years now, i have been hosting showcases at events like folk alliance, south by southwest and americanafest, in which i host heart-centered artists who are actively cultivating their local music scene or in someway building community and collaboration around their music.

as this network of indie musicians has grown, i have had about a million ideas for how i could serve and promote them while also holding a lot of curiosity for how we could promote the work they are doing, promote their music and inspire and encourage others to learn from those examples and create a scene in their own hometowns.

last year, a team emerged who is interested in tapping into this curiosity and creating a podcast with me.

nearly every one of your favorite musicians who sells out red rocks or plays arena shows has a story that began with a local scene.

a dream.

a gifted guitar. a way with words.

plucking out notes and lyrics sitting on their dorm room floor.

the first moment their own songs were performed for outside the four walls of that room.

their first open mic.

first youtube video. first gig. first band.

every 'overnight success' has traveled some form of this road in relative anonymity.

these are the stories we are going to tell, finding and elevating the voices of artists, fans and businesses who are building and walking this road.

why do some places have a thriving music scene and others seem to flounder? why do some scenes die out? what ingredients exist in a thriving scene and how can you identify them in your own community and become a catalyst to take them from nascence to reality?

these are the questions we will examine.

the team has assembled. the way forward and the work is clear. equipped with a mobile podcasting rig provided by eric tate at slash O studio in colorado, i'm headed to montréal to record our first round of stories with plans to start capturing more stories in oklahoma, colorado and wyoming throughout the remainder of the year.

the final task at hand is to find founding members, patrons and business sponsors who will partner with us financially to bring this project to life!

Boys from Oklahoma Local Music Experience (4/12-14/2025)