Greta Samwel: LOCAL COLUMN: Back to live music: Did Zach Bryan ever play Norman?

Oct. 21—Joe Carter

Local ColumnistZach Bryan is the hottest country music/red dirt singer in the country, heck world, right now.

He is a 27 year old kid from Oologah, Oklahoma — the birthplace of Will Rogers by the way. Before it's all said and done he might replace Will as Oklahoma's favorite son

He started out recording his songs on his iphone and posting them to YouTube. He is a prolific songwriter. "Heading South" went viral on social media long before it hit the radios.

It caught the eye and ear of frequent passer-thru Norman movie/TV producer/actor/writer/director Taylor Sheridan.

A couple of weeks ago on a Monday night Taylor had Zach & his band play at a cutting horse competition being held at his ranch. Yes, Bella Hadid was in the audience.

He spoke of the beginning of his relationship with Zach, "three years ago we were looking for a new artist to feature on Yellowstone."Yellowstone is Sheridan's TV mega hit creation starring Kevin Costner.

Taylor goes on to say, "my music assistant showed me this YouTube video of Zach singing. I knew right then we needed to have him."

"We try to feature various local (Taylor a real life cowboy living a couple hours south of Norman) Red Dirt artists in Yellowstone to help their careers along," Sheridan said.

In addition to Zach Bryan, Whiskey Myers, Shane Smith and the Saints, The Panhandlers, Ryan Bingham, Lainey Wilson, Mike and the Moonpies, Wade Bowen and American Aquarium all come to mind as receiving career boosts from performing on Yellowstone with its 10 millionish viewers.

Sheridan goes on to say, "We featured Zach in season 3 of Yellowstone. That was the year we became the number one rated television show in the nation and Zach soon followed becoming the number one new artist. I feel like he and I have been tied together ever since."

I would say so. Yellowstone and its spin offs, many of them filmed in and around Oklahoma, continue to rock the charts.

Zach was nominated earlier this year for a Grammy Award for his song, "Something in the Orange." He received the Academy of Country Music Award for "New Male Artist of the Year."

I love his live album, "All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster." The songs are great and the album name is even better. It appeals to those of us that share Zach's distain for corporate radio. FYI — he is playing back to backs two nights in OKC and three nights in Tulsa next year.

My music festival homies tell me his price to play last year was $50,000. His price to play this year was $150,000. His 2024 price per concert or festival is reportedly $500,000. Home boy doin' good!

So here we have another local singer/songwriter raised right up the road in Oologah hitting it big on the national and world stage. He is selling out arenas and stadiums, but did he ever play in Norman on his way up?

I don't think so. I am waiting for one of you to prove me wrong.

Best as I can tell he has played Oologah. In fact, he has played all over northeastern Oklahoma. He has played in Tulsa — the home of Tulsa University. He has played Tahlequah — the home of Northeastern State University. He has played Stillwater — the home of Oklahoma State University. Last night he played in Ft. Worth — the home of Texas Christian University.

But has he ever played Norman — the home of the University of Oklahoma? I don't think so.

Now you guys at the Deli on campus corner prove me wrong. Find me a picture or some ticket stub, but I haven't talked to anyone yet that remembers him playing in Norman.

Norman is chipping away at improving it's live music scene. City Council's approval of Midway Deli's outdoor stage gave us another venue, but it's not still enough.

In Walter Isaacson's recently released biography of Elon Musk there is a story on page 336 about Musk's selection of a city for their — to be built in 2021 — Tesla Motors Gigafactory.

The selection of the city in which to build this factory simply boiled down to a text exchange one night between Elon and his right hand man Omead Afshar. Mr. Afshar received a text from Musk. "Would you rather live in Tulsa or Austin?"

According to Isaacson when Afshar, with all due respect to Tulsa, gave the answer Musk expected, Musk texted back. "OK great. We'll do it in Austin." The site selection was that simple.

Mr. Isaacson describes Mr. Afshar and Musk's final and decisive thought on Austin in contrast to Tulsa and a few other cities. "Austin has better music."

That's it. It wasn't a comprehensive economic incentive package that tipped the scales. It wasn't corporate welfare.

It was live music and an additional belief that Austin takes "pride in protecting its pockets of weirdness."

Norman has done a good job of protecting our "pockets of weirdness." Center city zoning, Norman Music Festival, campus corner, Medevil Fair and the like but, what we lack is an expansive relevant music scene.

So if we are going to have a new arena and entertainment district — which seems inevitable- can we make sure they are engineered with good acoustics for live music?

Dive bars staple egg cartons to their ceilings to improve acoustics. Yes, I know this because my wife and l like to listen to live music in dive bars.

I'll never forget our during veterinary school tradition of listening to Garth Brooks play his guitar at Willies (a dive bar) Thursday afternoons after my physiology or surgery labs & her work.

One time we asked this 20 something year old dismissive bartender at a dive bar, "why the egg cartons on the ceiling?"

She looked at us dumbfounded with the apparent absurdity of the question and answered flippantly, "it's to make it sound better!"

Egg cartons apparently reduce echo's, reverberations and buffer the sound. It makes listening to live music better in dive bars operating in buildings not designed for dive bars, which most of them inhabit.

So when we build our new arena and entertainment district can we ask the engineers to focus on sound? Or in the least can we staple egg cartons to the ceilings?

I've been told again by my music homies, popular singers like Zach Bryan pick and choose the venues they like to play.

What is an important deciding factor? Acoustics! Or how well they sound in the venue.

My music homies, especially those averse to the Live Nation/Ticketmaster monopoly, go on to say this is why we see groups like the Eagles play in Tulsa's BOK Center instead of OKC's Paycom center.

I do think the sound in the BOK center is better than the sound in the Paycom center.

Anyway back to the original question, has Zach Bryan ever played in Norman? I don't think so but prove me wrong. Email me at jcarterdvm@aol.com.