Tulsa

Wayne personifies the two great American musical inventions, jazz and country, and Tulsa creates its own style of uncompromising western swing; as much Gershwin as Hank; equal parts Art Blakley and Bob Wills.

Full Description

Tulsa—Wayne's third full length for us—is a testament to the version of America he loves; one decorated with lonesome desert highways, cheap hotels, dance halls, and lost loves along the way. Wayne Hancock personifies the two great American inventions of jazz and country and creates his own style of uncompromising western swing; as much Gershwin as Hank; equal parts Art Blakley and Bob Wills.

In typical Wayne fashion, Tulsa was put to tape in 2 days, capturing the band at their livest and loosest. Recorded by longtime producer and ally, Lloyd Maines (Wilco, Joe Ely, Richard Buckner, Uncle Tupelo), Tulsa is spurred on by Wayne’s "call-outs" to his stellar cast– Eddie Biebel, Dave Biller, Paul Skelton (lead guitar), Chris Darrell (doghouse bass), Eddie Rivers (steel guitar), Bob Stafford (trombone), and John Doyle (clarinet). This album swings like the hips on Bettie Page impersonator.

Don't miss the title track's infectious spelling lesson ("T--there's a lot of pretty women...U...and I'll be there.."). Shit man, every city should have a theme song as cool as this. It wouldn't be a Wayne record if there weren't some odes to the upside of the open road: ""Highway Bound," "Shootin' Star from Texas", and songs about the perils of the downside: " Drinkin' Blues", "No Sleep Blues."

Tulsa adds to Wayne’s stellar canon of musical documentation of an America, not spliced into red and blue states, but one where in any town, on any given night, with the right soundtrack, you can still take a real top shelf girl out for a spin and knock back a couple of cold ones.

CHOICE CUTS:
Tulsa
Shootin' Star from Texas
Gonna Be Flyin' Tonight
No Sleep Blues

Short Description

With songs about drinking, the road, heartbreak, Texas, and the joys of music and song, Hancock revives the honky tonk aesthetics of Hank Williams and Ernest Tubb and dips into the western swing well of Bob Wills making those old styles seem utterly contemporary.

— Montreal Gazette
Hancock is no mere imitator of a dead style; his country history is a living, breathing entity and the concerns of his down and out song subjects are contemporary yet as timeless as love and loss.

— Amplifier
Is August too early to start talking 'album of the year?' You can imagine Wills himself would give a hearty 'Haw!' shout-out to Hancock, to which we can only add 'Boy Howdy!'

— Creem
Tulsa is yet another beautifully crafted collection of stunning originals that finds him walking in the footsteps of giants; in fact, it might just be his best yet. While there are plenty of tunes here that call upon the swinging spirits of everyone from Cab Calloway to Gatemouth Brown to a thousand Western Swing kings whose names have been lost to the sands of time, Hancock’s way with a ballad is nearly unequaled.

— Offbeat New Orleans
One of the most shiver-inducing singers on the planet, who gets his nickname by virtue of the unstoppable power of his vocal chords, Hancock embodies the spirits of Hank Williams, Ernest Tubb and Bob Wills in his ferociously swinging honky-tonk—outlaw country to the max.

— San Francisco Chronicle