“ONE FOR THE ROAD” TRACES HOW OKLAHOMA MUSICIANS HELPED CREATE THE SOUNDTRACK OF THE MOTHER ROAD
TULSA, Ok. — As Route 66 celebrates its 100th anniversary, The Church Studio, located in Tulsa, the Capital of Route 66, has opened a new exhibit exploring the Oklahoma music and musicians that traveled along America’s most famous highway.
“One for the Road: Oklahoma Music and Route 66” fills The Church Studio’s revolving exhibit wall and continues into newly developed exhibit space along the hallway. The exhibit traces the influence of Route 66 on jazz, blues, western swing, country, rockabilly, the Tulsa Sound, and rock and roll.
Route 66 did more than connect cities and towns. It created touring routes, introduced musicians to new audiences and allowed regional sounds to meet, blend and travel across the country.
“Route 66 opened up America to Oklahoma music, which had a profound impact on all forms of 20th-century music,” said Stanton Doyle, Executive Director of The Church Studio.
The exhibit features many of the Oklahoma musicians whose careers and influence were tied to that movement, including Woody Guthrie, Bob Wills, Wanda Jackson, Patti Page, Roger Miller, Roy Clark, Lowell Fulson, and Leon Russell.
Visitors will discover how jazz musicians moved through Oklahoma’s clubs, theaters, and ballrooms, how Bob Wills carried western swing west from Tulsa, and how Dust Bowl migrants brought Oklahoma music and culture to California.
The exhibit also explores Oklahoma’s role in the development of rockabilly and the Bakersfield Sound, along with the migration of Tulsa musicians to Los Angeles during the 1960s and 1970s. Leon Russell was among those musicians who traveled west, becoming one of Los Angeles’ most sought-after session players and arrangers.
In 1972, Russell returned to Tulsa and transformed a former church into a recording studio and creative home for Shelter Records. That movement between Tulsa and Los Angeles helped carry the Tulsa Sound to a national audience and connected Oklahoma musicians with artists and collaborators across the country.
