Night 3 of The Rock and Roll Highway | Tulsa | Music Photography

I had a fantastic time in St Louis, many thanks to When Particles Collide for letting me crash with them, it was so much fun catching up, they were heading west into Kansas and I was on the road south(ish) to Tulsa.  My head was already running the Steve Martin scene from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels over and over! “Oklahoma, Oklahoma, Oklahoma!!”

The landscape was getting flatter and flatter but it was still green and pretty.  Beautiful yellow and purple flowers lined the highways.  The best wild flower displays always seem to be in the middle of the highways.  I was loving this drive and then I found the best stopping place EVER!!!

 The World’s Largest Gift Store in Phillipsburg Missouri. This place was awesome and huge and had a whole other building that just had candy!!!  What more could a road tripper want?  I stretched my legs and wandered around the warehouse of stuff and couldn’t even see it all.  You would need several hours to see everything contained in here!

I had to buy that white hat thought I doubted I would need it for anything till winter time back on the East Coast…  that would be proved wrong later..but for now I confused myself at having to buy a fuzzy winter hat when it was getting hotter by the day on this trip.

I knew I was in the right place when I found the weiner mobile.

I headed over to The Mercury Lounge for the show and walked in to find a crowd rocking out to the sounds of The Dirty Creek Bandits, the Tulsa band opening for T-Chicken.  I had no idea what I was going to see nor did I have any idea that I was about to listen to the band that made what was soon to become my favorite cd to listen to on the drive.  I jumped into the mix and immediately made friends with a gal named Ashley (Ash’s rule no matter how they spell it, except for maybe the Ashleee’s of the world, and we won’t blame them as it is their parents fault)
The Dirty Creek Bandits are a folk/rock/bluegrass AWESOME mix of sounds.  6 people giving their all and creating cool grooves that you cannot (and do not want to) get out of your head.  I’m still singing ‘One by One’ – I am freakin IN LOVE with that song.  The songs are lyrically driven, they give you words you want to sing along with, while also having a depth and a texture, due to the harmonies and variety of instruments.  Their sound is smooth and tight and the music just rolls over you and wraps you up in hugs.  I <3 them.  I feel like I’m coming home when I listen to their music.  This is damn good stuff.

Next up was Tyrannosaurus Chicken, this was the band that gave me call to be at The Mercury Lounge that night.  I had seen their name in a long list of what was happening in Tulsa that night and had to check them out.  I mean, come on!  Tyrannosaurus Chicken!!??!!  How can you not want to know what is up with that band?  I had listened to about 15 seconds of one of their songs (my allotted time frame to make a decision) and loved the dark, intricate feel of the music.  I was psyched to to see what they were about.  The stage was literally covered in musical instruments at this point.  There were only two people in the band (I knew this from their fb page) but easily enough instruments for a band of 15.  What was this going to be??  I was so excited and so was the crowd.  Here is what I knew about T-Chicken..  The band is made up of of Smilin’ Bob Lewis who plays slide guitar, dobro, dulcimer, keyboards, mandolin, banjo, bass, harmonica and drums; and Rachel Ammons, on the fiddle, cello, viola, Jew’s harp, ukulele, slide guitar, drums and clawhammer banjo.  And they both sing and have two mics each, one clear and one full of effects for vocals.  This was a stage full of instruments and I couldn’t wait to see what they were going to do.

and wow.  wow.  just wow.  I don’t even know how to really describe their psychedelic, rocking, energetic, giddy sound.  They are like the moment you take a shot of whiskey.  They light up the place and you can’t stop watching and you can’t stop pounding your foot on the floor.  Their mastery of all the instruments was impressive as was their taking old standards and making them something new, something almost unrecognizable, something brand spanking and awesomely theirs while also introducing the crowd to originals that are COMPLETELY original.  I’ve never heard anything like them and I was blown away by their ability to introduce me to a new type of music – ‘Psychedelta’ – (one of their fans told me about this new (their) genre of music. 100% fan right here.  Wow.  Tyrannosaurus Chicken you bowled me over with your sound and I just want more, MORE, more!!

I had a blast in Tulsa.  This town and the people here are fantastic.  I made a lot of new friends and people that I look forward seeing again down the road.  Yeah Tulsa!!