Rock of Ages: Crossroads

BY JENNIFER CHANCELLOR World Scene Writer
Sunday, February 28, 2010
5/06/13 at 10:10 AM

Correction: This story has been corrected. The story omitted that Tulsa musician and producer David Teegarden Sr. worked in California with J.J. Cale on Cale's and Eric Clapton's album "The Road to Escondido." Tulsans Gary Gilmore played bass and Jim Karstein played drums on that album, as well. For Cale's "To Tulsa and Back" album, Teegarden worked with Cale, in part, at Natura Digital Studios in Northern Okmulgee County.

Rock of Ages: The history of Tulsa’s legendary rock music scene.

Blues-rocker Eric Clapton hasn't performed in Tulsa since, well, even his good friends can't seem to remember when. Decades.

But in many ways, Clapton has never left. In fact, his distinctive singing and performing style is inherently Tulsan.

Yes, the Englishman is about as All-American as his longtime Tulsa cohorts — and there are many of them.

For years, his backing bands and studio musicians were Tulsans. Many still are. Local keyboardist Walt Richmond is on tour with him now. Keyboardist Leon Russell introduced him to the musicians who would change the trajectory of his career — and his now-legendary sound. Songwriter and musician J.J. Cale, who grew up in Tulsa, wrote Clapton's signature hits "After Midnight" and "Cocaine."

Clapton's show at the BOK Center on March 2 will be a unique homecoming. In many ways, it's his career coming full circle.

The "Tulsa Sound" influence fundamentally changed Clapton, said former Tulsa World music journalist and music expert John Wooley.

The so-called Tulsa Sound is an enigmatic blend of what musicians like Clapton are now synonymous for: bluesy, rockabilly-inspired, country-infused rock.

Yep, that's Tulsa's sound. Clapton just made it famous.

"Basically," Wooley said, "all people need to do is listen to Clapton's style before he came to Tulsa and afterward to hear the difference between, say, the Yardbirds and Cream stuff and 'Lay Down Sally' and 'Layla.'

"Clapton had a marked tendency to overplay, to cram as many notes into a solo as he could — until he fell under the spell of Tulsa and, specifically, J.J. Cale and local guitarist Steve Hickerson."

In the '70s, Tulsa "was an international crossroads of rock 'n' roll, thanks to Leon and British producer Denny Cordell, his Shelter Records partner."

Without any doubt, said longtime Clapton drummer and former Tulsan Jamie Oldaker, Clapton's taken full chapters of American music history and folded them into his own impressive legacy.

"We are accused of being part of the 'Tulsa Sound,' " laughed drummer and producer David Teegarden Sr. during a recent interview with the Tulsa World. "But a lot of us were really kids when Leon Russell and those guys really started to happen. It took us years to get into that clique. We were voyeurs until much later in the game."

But Teegarden was also an important player in uniting musicians from across the globe and infusing them with an indelible musical sense. He cut his teeth touring with musicians like Bob Seger and Joe Walsh. Today, Teegarden's membership in that elite Tulsa clique is unquestioned. He also helped record and produce Cale's and Clapton's 2005 hit album, "The Road to Escondido," which won a Grammy Award, as well as Cale's 2004 album, "To Tulsa and Back."

Roads cross Decades ago, Russell even invited Clapton to live with him out in Los Angeles, where Russell was doing studio work with some of the most famous musicians of the '60s and '70s. Many musicians also followed Russell back home to Tulsa when he established Shelter and Church Studio. That's when he first met Clapton. That's also when Clapton's sound began to morph into what his fans know it as today.

"Clapton liked hanging out with those guys," said Teegarden. "Those guys" included Blind Faith (Clapton's band at the time with Steve Winwood), Jim Keltner (a session drummer with the Beatles), Delaney & Bonnie and many, many more.

"Delaney Bramlett encouraged Eric to sing a lot more," said Teegarden. "He wasn't doing much singing in those days.

"Cale and I were talking about this not too long ago. In fact, the Cale song 'After Midnight' was probably Eric's first real single as a solo artist."

In the late 1960s, Teegarden said, Tulsan and bass guitarist Carl Radle passed Cale's song along to Clapton. Radle was Clapton's guitarist.

And Clapton himself has said his famous country-rock crossover hit, "Lay Down Sally," wouldn't be what it was without the influence of his Tulsa-based core. "It's as close as I can get (to making an American shuffle song), being English, but the band being a Tulsa band, they play like that naturally. Their idea of a driving beat isn't being loud or anything. It's subtle," he admitted in the 1985 book "Eric Clapton: A Biography," written by John Pidgeon.

Cale and Clapton both declined to be interviewed for this story.

'Tulsa was rolling'

What other Oklahoma musicians have worked with Clapton? The short answer: many.

The longer answer: In addition to Russell, Cale, Teegarden and Radle, the roster includes organist Dickie Sims, drummer Jamie Oldaker, guitarist Steve Hickerson, singer-guitarist Jim Byfield, guitarist Mike Bruce, members of the Gap Band and harmonica player Jimmy Markham.

The most recent, of course, is Tulsa keyboardist Walt Richmond, currently on tour.

"Walt never played much for Clapton until we did 'Road to Escondido,' " said Teegarden. "He's an unbelievable piano player. He sounds a little like the New Orleans-style piano players. Nothing's off limits."

Oldaker agrees. He performed with Clapton on 11 albums and countless tour stops over a 15-year time frame, he said during a recent interview from his current home near Austin. (Oldaker has also played with bands including the Bee Gees, Ace Frehley, Peter Frampton, Bob Seger and Steven Stills.)

"Walt and I go back to childhood," he reminisced of Richmond. Both were also in the Tulsa-based band The Tractors with Steve Ripley. It's a close-knit group, often with pianist and keyboardist Russell at its colorful core, he said.

"When Clapton recorded '461 Ocean Boulevard' in the '70s, he said, 'Bring those kids with ya,' " said Oldaker, laughing. "He meant us."

It was Clapton's first record with a full lineup of Tulsa-based sidemen.

"Clapton prefers Tulsa musicians because we play what we feel," said Oldaker. "We had no rules, and he likes to play with those types of folks."

In the 1970s, Clapton was spotted many times in Tulsa, jamming in local honky-tonks with many men who later joined him on the road. He also recorded at Russell's Church Studio.

"Tulsa was rolling," said Oldaker. "There wasn't a night when you couldn't go out and hear great music."

Eric Clapton

with opening act Roger Daltrey

When: Doors 6:30 p.m., showtime 7:30 p.m. Tuesday

Where: BOK Center, 200 S. Denver Ave.

Tickets: All ages. $57, $77 and $97, plus fees, available at available at tulsaworld.com/BOK, the venue’s Arby’s Box Office, all tickets.com outlets or by calling (866) 7-BOKCTR.

Touring band: Steve Gadd on drums, Willie Weeks on bass, Chris Stainton and Walt Richmond on keyboards, and Michelle John and Sharon White as backing vocalists.

Online: tulsaworld.com/Clapton Original Print Headline: Rock of Ages: Crossroads

Jennifer Chancellor 581-8346
jennifer.chancellor@tulsaworld.com

Associated Images:

Eric Clapton and band perform at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City in 2007. Tulsan Walt Richmond is playing keyboards on this tour, which stops in Tulsa on Tuesday. JAMES GIBBARD/Tulsa World

Blues rock legend Eric Clapton (left) stands with Oklahoma native and hit songwriter and musician J.J. Cale. Their 2005 album, "The Road to Escondido," won a Grammy. Cale also wrote several Clapton hits, including "Cocaine" and "After Midnight."Courtesy