FINE FOLKS
OKIE ARTISTS HEAD TO 2016 FOLK ALLIANCE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
It’s a rapt, intimate, listening-room concert performed in the space of a tiny hotel room. It’s a potential networking opportunity, a career jump-start. It’s a movable, weeklong party, with dozens of close friends at the helm.
The Oklahoma Room showcase, fueled by an envoy of some of the state’s folk finest, will make its mark on Kansas City’s Folk Alliance International Conference this week, for the third year running.
“Our concept was to create a meaningful presence of Oklahoma artists,” said The Oklahoma Room co-founder and sponsor Larry White, a career music industry veteran. “The conference includes over 2,500 record company representatives, agents, managers, concert and club promoters, talent buyers and folk musicians from the world over. The Oklahoma Room provides a comfortable performance space for our artists.”
Like the better-known South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, the Folk Alliance International Conference in Missouri hosts artist showcases, panel discussions and mentoring opportunities for those just getting into the business of music as well as those with more experience.
But part of The Oklahoma Room’s appeal is what it offers apart from all that business opportunity.
“In that environment, you get some people following the ‘how-to-be-successful handbook’ and trying to do what they think they’re supposed to do,” said co-founder Brian Horton, of Oklahoma’s Horton Records. “The artists in The Oklahoma Room are a little different. There’s an authenticity; they’re just who they are. Along with that integrity, you immediately feel the sense of community between everyone. It really is a special thing to experience.”
Better together
This “coming up together” mentality isn’t unique to Oklahoma’s regional music scenes, but it is notably prevalent, particularly in Tulsa, the home of Oklahoma Room first-timer Kalyn Fay.
“I probably wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing if it weren’t for the Tulsa music scene,” she said. “I started at the Colony, playing open mic nights, then with Tom Skinner, and then I started playing shows on my own. Everyone’s been so positive, and we’re so tight-knit. I wouldn’t be doing this without them.”
Also among the Colony regulars on the bill at The Oklahoma Room are Jacob Tovar, Paul Benjaman, Beau Roberson and Jesse Aycock. The 2016 lineup also includes Levi Parham and Kyle Reid, who performed together in a song swap at the jam-packed fundraiser at the Colony in Tulsa the week before Folk Alliance.
Reid, who has participated in The Oklahoma Room all three years, said of his first impression, “It’s a place where you can make something happen. The first year, I was very underprepared, and the second year way overprepared. This year, I’m just going to be present and open and try to meet people.”
Parham, who performed in 2015 as well, recently signed to Music Road for the release of his upcoming full-length album, though he says his team is relatively hands-off with advice. He credits his best Folk Alliance tip to songwriter Rebecca Loebe, who told him to “just go.”
“That’s not very exciting advice,” Parham said, “but once you go, you just figure it out from there.”
Career realities
And for attendees of the conference who are not performing in The Oklahoma Room, the benefits do go both ways.
In its first two years, the bill and environment in the showcase created a tangible buzz among music fans and business types alike. No small thanks are owed to John Moreland, John Fullbright and Parker Millsap, all Oklahoma artists who have performed in The Oklahoma Room and elevated its profile at the conference, contributing in huge part to what Parham calls “Oklahoma allure.”
Reid agreed: “I feel like I’m not wrong in saying that there’s a certain romance in being from Oklahoma.”
Oklahoma mysticism aside, the reality of career musicians at this level is that financial burdens are often limiting, making the showcase’s sponsorship of artists’ travel all the more vital. The organization hosted a number of fundraising shows leading up to this weekend, and sponsorship partners also include the George Kaiser Family Foundation, Woody Guthrie Center, Folk Salad Radio, Oklahoma Film & Music Office and Tulsa Office of Film, Music, Arts & Culture.
“Expenses for attendees can be quite significant, including mandatory membership in FAI, a registration fee, hotel rooms, travel, food and parking,” White said. “For the average musician, the cost outweighs any potential benefit. The Oklahoma Room makes it possible for our artists to attend without having to shoulder the enormous expense for an individual participant. This enables the artist to focus on their performance and not worry about going into debt for the experience.”
Thankfully, for all parties giving of their time and talents, the return on that investment has been critical and shows no signs of slowing. White even noted that an A&R rep at Nashville, Tenn., firm Thirty Tigers watched John Moreland’s 2014 showcase, and Thirty Tigers is now Moreland’s management team.
“It’s been great to see how different artists and performances have resonated with different industry folks, musicians or conference attendees,” Horton said. “It hasn’t been one artist having an incredible performance that everyone is talking about; it’s really been the consistent quality of the performances in The Oklahoma Room from all of the artists ... that has led to things like record deals, distribution deals, festival bookings, house concert bookings, publishing arrangements and many other things. It really validates the time, energy, planning and resources behind the effort when you can see tangible outcomes.”