John Wooley

Tulsa

Radio Host, Swing on This at KWGS-FM (Tulsa, OK)

This is John Wooley, Oklahoma writer, etc. Please follow me for news of book signings and other entertaining events.

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Articles

Oklahoma Magazine

1 month ago | okmag.com | John Wooley

During her time as a New York-based performer, Tulsa’s Lynette Bennett rehearsed and recorded with a young piano player named Barry Manilow, got a kiss from Johnny Carson on his late-night TV show (after making him an honorary Campfire Girl), and broke bread with the classic Hollywood-star likes of Rita Hayworth and Betty Grable.
Oklahoma Magazine

1 month ago | okmag.com | John Wooley

It might indeed be, as Mike McClure laughingly calls it, a signal that “the Red Dirt apocalypse is coming.”For sure, it’s something that continues to amaze Cody Canada – who, like his good friend McClure, is one of its major participants. “I honestly thought, ‘If we do this, we’re going to have a good crowd,” says Canada.
Oklahoma Magazine

1 month ago | okmag.com | John Wooley

The long-running series of Tulsa musical events collectively known as Eicher Wednesdays provides, among other things, a pretty nice example of the old saw (often attributed to Alexander Graham Bell) about how when one door shuts, another one opens.
Oklahoma Magazine

2 months ago | okmag.com | John Wooley

It’s not a bit easy to sum up Don White’s long and impressive career as a singer, songwriter and musician in a phrase or two. But “not necessarily Nashville” and “music with a groove” fit the bill as well as any others. Those also happen to be the names of the two radio shows he’s done for stations in the Tulsa area. The former refers to the program he did with the former owner of Vinita’s KITO, Dave Boyd, before Boyd sold the station and it changed from a country-music to sports-talk format.
Oklahoma Magazine

Dec 22, 2024 | okmag.com | John Wooley

As northeastern Oklahoma resident Jana Jae recalls it, the whole thing began back in early 2017. That’s when she and several other alumni of the long-running Hee Haw TV show gathered for a meal in a Nashville restaurant, following a memorial celebration for the program’s recently deceased producer, Sam Lovullo. “There was a house band, and they asked me, ‘Where’s your fiddle?’” she says.
Oklahoma Magazine

Oct 29, 2024 | okmag.com | John Wooley

Although it’s been well over a half-century now, Edmond’s Greg Burgess still remembers with crystal clarity the first time he ever heard a Bob Wills song. “We were horse people, and me and my dad were going to feed horses one day when ‘Roly Poly’ came on the radio,” he recalls. “I’d never heard that style of music before. I didn’t even play music then. But it immediately touched my soul, you know?
Oklahoma Magazine

Oct 7, 2024 | okmag.com | John Wooley

If you’re ever in the mood to go looking for television pioneers, you could start right here in our state.
Oklahoma Magazine

Aug 27, 2024 | okmag.com | John Wooley

During a recording career that stretches back a remarkable 67 years, Tulsa’s Wes Reynolds has been inspired by a ton of different people, starting back in the late ’50s with classic rock ‘n’ rollers like Elvis, Chuck Berry and Little Richard. The inspiration for his newest disc, however, came from a much more personal and tragic place. “This album came about because I wrote a song called ‘In the Afterglow,’” he explains. “It was a tribute to my oldest son, Corey, who died some years back.
Oklahoma Magazine

Jul 29, 2024 | okmag.com | John Wooley

When it comes to star-studded musical resumes, Steve Wilkerson’s is a tough one to top. A professional saxophonist since the age of 11, when he joined his dad’s Bartlesville-based dance band, and a graduate of the University of Tulsa’s school of music, Wilkerson went on to work in the West Coast music scene for more than a quarter of a century.
Oklahoma Magazine

Jun 27, 2024 | okmag.com | John Wooley

Tending a garden. Hiking. Camping out. Just a few of the little pleasures in reach of most of us, should we choose to indulge in them. For some, however, simple things like those stay tantalizingly out of reach. If you’re a working musician who spends a lot of time on the road, for instance, you’re not likely to settle down anywhere long enough to start a garden, and whatever hiking you’ll be doing will be mostly in airport terminals, your camping out in hotel rooms, buses or vans.