Oklahoma Posts
New GRITZ List: Top Vocalists of the Southern Rock Era
"Way down in Alabama/Shoutin' Bamalama..." What a rocking song. What a great singer. I never get read more...
New Features, Capricorn Records, Southern Rock Lists
We are happy to add a couple of new ongoing features here at GRITZ. The first is our
Tom Waits Glitter And Doom Tour Dates (Mostly Southern)
Tom Waits Glitter And Doom Tour Dates Mostly Southern 5/6/08
The Legends of Southern Rock, a Guide
Greetings from Carolina. We are happy to present our new
Why Swampland Sports Loves the BCS
Despite winning back to back national titles in football, the SEC susre seems to hate the BCS. Lately, this hatred has been read more...
Bound For Glory
Snowflakes: Big 12 Tourney as Expected, but Change on the Horizon
The least surprising of all conference tournaments this March has been the Big 12 Tourney in Kansas City. Both Texas and Kansas have read more...
Snowflakes: Big 12 Hoops
* The Big 12 is looking quite solid as the postseason approaches. There is a strong possibility that half of the league gets an read more...
Snowflakes: Big 12 Hoops
* Texas’ stellar play throughout the season has put them into
Snowflakes: Big 12 Hoops
by Patrick Snow * The best storyline in the conference this season has easily been the Baylor Bears. At 16-3 overall and 4-1 read more...
Snowflakes: C-USA/Big East Hoops
by Patrick Snow * Could this week finally bring the contest where #1 Memphis actually loses a conference game? The read more...
My Favorite Southern Rock Song?
I was talking to one of my pals down Florida way the other day when the conversation shifted to great Southern Rock songs.We started read more...
GRITZ Best Albums of The Year
Lots of great music rocked my world in 2007. Here are my choices for the 15 best of the best. Feel free to log on and comment. Let me read more...
TF Conference Championship Preview
Today is the day we find out whether it will be an all-Swampland matchup in the BCS Championship Game. If all goes according to read more...
TF Rivalry Week Preview
Rivalry games define college football. More than bowl games or even conference championships, a win against your rival means read more...
TF Saturday Preview: The Year of Transition Nears An End
The wild year continues. In many ways this was just a sign of the transition college football around the Footprint has read more...
TF Saturday Preview: Everything's Still To Be Decided
Patrick Snow has it right. This year's
TF Saturday Preview: Pole, er.. Bowl Position
If you aren't a Florida or Georgia fan, this weekend might be a good one to spend with the kids. This is a pretty thin weekend read more...
TF's Saturday Preview: Act Like You've Been There Before!
It's the old saying when a player celebrates a little too much - act like you've been there before. This rules seems to also read more...
TF's Saturday Preview: The History Behind SEC Dominance
Tribal Fever would like to start this weekend's festivities by directing everyone to a fantastic series on
Tribal Fever's Weekend Slate (10/6/2007)
Let's start with this week's College Football Preview from Athlon. Swampland's own Patrick Snow hosts each read more...
Upset Saturday, or not?
Patrick Snow mentioned in his last column read more...
People Take Warning! Murder Ballads & Disaster Songs 1913-1938
Tompkins Square Releases Murder Ballads & Disaster Songs This Week 9/29/07
Swampland welcomes Tribal Fever!
It was only a matter of time before Swampland Sports starting covering the colleges in earnest. Today marks the start of Tribal read more...
An Urgent Message from John McEuen about George Grantham
We here at Swampland want to let everyone know about a message that
CD and DVD releases for week of September 18, 2007
New Releases Doyle Bramhall
The Shadow And the Truth
9/19/07 ...THE SHADOW AND THE TRUTH...
Steve Gaines' Birthday Today: The Late Ace Mooreland Talks About Steve (Video)
Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Steve Gaines has been read more...
CD and DVD releases for week of September 4, 2007
New Releases Collective Soul
CD and DVD releases for week of July 24, 2007
New Releases Billy Bob Thornton
CD and DVD releases for week of July 17, 2007
New Releases Raul Malo
CD and DVD releases for week of July 10, 2007
New Releases Chris & Rich Robinson
CD and DVD releases for week of June 26, 2007
CDs New Releases Charlie Daniels
Fire On The Mountain
6/25/07
Cormac McCarthy Wins Pulitzer Prize
4/16/07 Tennessee writer Cormac McCarthy won a Pulitzer Prize today for his heart-rending novel The Road. Congratulations to read more...
The Killer Plays Classic Boogie Woogie
4/2/07 After legend Meade Lux Lewis died in a 1964 car crash, Jerry Lee Lewis recorded this tribute to the boogie read more...
Appalachian Culture: Shaped-note Singing
3/20/07 In this Asheville, North Carolina, news article, old vocal traditions are highlighted and how they integrate with read more...
Toby Keith's Surprise Duet with Crystal Gayle
New Johnny Cash DVD's On The Street
2/9/07 Two new Johnny Cash DVDs are on the market. Johnny Cash-Live From Austin, Texas, and Live In read more...
...Possum On The Road...
1/1/07 Texas born, country legend George "The Possum" Jones prepares to go out on the road in 2007. Rehearsals read more...
Emmylou Harris Plays New Years Eve In Nashville
12/22/06 On December 22-23, Emmylou Harris performs Christmas shows in Seattle, Washington. Emmylou appears at The Ryman read more...
Concord Music Group Reactivates Stax Records
CONCORD MUSIC GROUP REACTIVATES STAX RECORDS; FAMED SOUL LABEL’S 50TH ANNIVERSARY TO INCLUDE REISSUES, NEW read more...
Steve Earle Signs with New West Records
12/11/06 Steve Earle signed a deal with New West Records. Earle's upcoming CD is due in early 2007. New West is also read more...
Oklahoma Reviews
The Very Best of Outlaw Country
(Legacy) The thing that sets this compilation apart from the plethora of others that are always being flooded into the read more...
Song of America
Song of America Various Artists 31 Tigers Records By James Calemine This 50-song, 3 CD read more...
The Wheel Man
(Northern Blues) Oklahoma’s Watermelon Slim is quickly becoming one of my very favorite blues artists. read more...
Runnin' With The Big Dogs
Part of [beating Texas] is that old Okie inferiority complex. There’s no better cure for that than whipping Texas’s read more...
The Bluegrass Sessions
The Bluegrass Sessions Merle Haggard McCoury Music By James Calemine Merle Haggard's new read more...
Angel In Disguise
Angel In Disguise Leon Russell MRI Records By James Calemine Angel In Disguise read more...
The Getaway
AKA Grafitti Man
AKA Grafitti Man John Trudell Rykodisc Records By James Calemine John Trudell, a read more...
To Tulsa and Back
To Tulsa and Back serves as J.J. Cale’s first studio album in eight years. Cale returned to Tulsa, his hometown, and read more...
All Star Bluegrass Celebration
(Sugar Hill) Both the DVD and the CD of this live show, recorded onstage at the revered Ryman Auditorium in read more...
If I Could Only Fly
The name Merle Haggard carries a heavy weight in country music. Haggard remains a maverick who stared into the face of decadence read more...
Mad Dogs and Okies
Jamie Oldaker’s Mad Dogs & Okies (Concord) Rock n’ roll read more...
The Road To Escondido
Some of Eric Clapton's biggest hits ("After Midnight" and "Cocaine") were J.J. Cale songs, so it's only fitting read more...
Oklahoma ArticlesThe Greatest Vocalists of The Southern Rock Era
by Michael Buffalo Smith 1.
GRITZ Southern Rock Lists
SWAMPLAND'S SOUTHERN ROCK LISTS We love lists! This is your one-stop index page for all of our lists. read more...
Southern Sporting "Events"
by Patrick Snow As I attended a Kentucky Derby function this past Saturday, it was never more evident that Southerners must throw a pretty good party. We are probably more known nationally for our college football crowds and pageantry, but the spring read more...
Gritz Legends of Southern Rock
A handful of bands from the Southern Rock Era have earned the title of "Legend." These are the bands that defined the genre and set the bar for all other bands in their wake. These are the few, the originals, the Legends of Southern Rock.
The BCS: A Friend to the SEC (and the Rest of the Footprint)
We at Tribal Fever find it odd that it would be the SEC who would call for a playoff system. We wonder how the SEC can be so blind to the fact that the BCS has been great for that conference. For those that love the idea of a playoff, we will list the reasons why most every proposal for a college playoff is a horrible idea for college football at large and especially read more...
Snowman's 2008 Draft Wrap Up
The annual NFL Draft is now over, and the critics will have a field day with opinions on who did well and who faltered with their choices. I thought I would take a look at the Draft from the collegiate view and see who from our region will have the biggest impact on their new read more...
Record Stores of the Swampland Footprint
ALABAMA CD Cellar Anniston AL Oz Music Tuscaloosa AL ARKANSAS Sound Warehouse Fayetteville read more...
Getting Realistic About College Hoops Coaching Hires
It’s a who’s who of college basketball in San Antonio with all of the #1 seeds making the Final Four. While the games should be great, there may be just as much drama at the Coach’s Convention, which takes place in conjunction with the Final Four. Many tough choices will be made there and by athletic directors in the coming weeks to see who will fill the read more...
The Top Ten Albums of Southern Rock
Southern Rock’s Top Ten Welcome to a new feature at GRITZ called Southern Rock’s Top Ten, where we will be asking the stars an journalists associated with the genre, as well as some of today’s country music stars, to share their Top Ten all time favorite read more...
The Top Ten Albums of Southern Rock According to...
On the heels of my own Top Twenty Five Southern Rock albums, we asked a few of our friends to share their own lists of Favorite Southern Rock albums, and we got a few real surprises, but one fact remains, The Allman Brothers Band Fillmore East album has a heck of a lot of fans read more...
Steve Grisham and Ghost Riders
As One Grits to Another... by Michael Buffalo Smith Steve Grisham is a Southern Rock road dog. A man with the Southern Rock running through his very veins. A Florida singer, songwriter, guitarist, producer and engineer, Grisham, also known as “Grits,” is a former member of
SEC: Conference King Once Again
By Patrick Snow It’s an argument that will never end-whose Conference is better? Fans will debate this topic vociferously every season, and the answer always tends to lie close to your address. I’m not sure that the Bowl games are the best way to evaluate league strength across college football, but it is basically all we have. Here’s my opinion read more...
Coaching Carousel
By Patrick Snow The end of the college football season always brings with it unfulfilled goals which translates into coaching changes. There has been quite a bit of movement in our region. Some of the firings were inevitable while others showed us just how unrealistic certain fan bases are with their expectations. I thought I would examine each job, and how it matches up read more...
NFL Label Book: Overrated
By Patrick Snow Just like many a bad segment of talk radio, another ‘label’ book was recently released into America to get football fans arguing with each other. We have Philly-based ESPN field reporter Sal Paolantonio to thank for this latest regurgitation of what former NFL player is either overrated or underrated. I hesitate to jump into the intended read more...
The Great Southern Sportswriters Series
Writing and storytelling have always been deeply ingrained in Southern culture. The people that combined that art with the Swampland Footprint's passion for sports make the whole experience more special and unique. Swampland Sports is proud to offer this series of profiles of the best sportswriters our Footprint has to offer. You've already probably read them read more...
Truck Driving Man (An American Roadsong)
Truck Driving Man (An American Roadsong)
Berry Tramel, The Oklahoman
Columnist Berry Tramel is a lifelong Oklahoman who grew up in Norman and read more...
Enjoy the Season
By Patrick Snow Another college football season--another initial release of the BCS standings. This annual ritual seems to send everyone running to call a local talk show to scream about a Playoff system and how the middle letter should be removed from ‘BCS’. Enough already. If all that you’re worried about is how January turns out, you’re read more...
SEC: Top Level for Coaches?
By Patrick Snow Many of us who grew up in the South have always believed that the SEC was King when it came to sports and our allegiances. We watched and cheered for professional teams, but our passion was always at the collegiate level. For many years, coaches have moved from the Amateurs to the ‘Pros’ mainly for monetary reasons, but you read more...
The State of Baseball in the South
By Patrick Snow (editor's note: Swampland Sports considers the following teams to be part of the Footprint: Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles, Cincinnati Reds, Florida Marlins, Houston Astros, St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, and Washington Nationals) I do want to sound too negative about a game that I absolutely read more...
A Modest Proposal: Southern College Conference Realignment
Now that Swampland Sports has launched Tribal Fever (TF), our dispatch dedicated to college sports in the South, we figured it was time to do weigh in on the current state of college football conferences. The college football conference landscape in the Footprint has become downright confusing. It used to be that there were three main conferences, the read more...
Post Game Tirades
by Patrick Snow The words and actions after last weekend’s games by two coaches left a lot to be desired. While I may agree with the sentiment of both coaches, there are definitely better ways to express their message. These football ‘CEOs’ have to remember that their job entails being one of the most visible leaders in their State, and they must act read more...
Athletic Directors: Be Ready To Ante Up
Southern college football-we live it and breathe it year-round, and it has become abundantly clear that the stakes of the game have been raised with some of the recent coaching hires. The ‘price of poker’ is increasing steadily, and if your school is not ready to ante up, your team will be left behind. We’re witnessing a changing of the guard when it comes to read more...
Clifton Taulbert at the 6th Annual Writers Conference
Ah, April in Alabama---blistering sun one day, pouring rain the next. A certainty regarding the South is that one just has to wait long enough and the weather will change. Outside the conference building at Calhoun Community College in Decatur, Alabama, a precious rain is falling, soaking the parched cotton fields and drenching the freshly turned gardens.
John Hammond
by Michael Buffalo Smith January 2007 After three decades, John Hammond proves he's still a vital performer in American music. One of the very few white blues musicians performing at the beginning of the first blues renaissance of the mid-'60s, he found himself onstage alongside artists such as Mississippi John Hurt, Rev. Gary Davis and Skip James. read more...
Vince Gill
VINCE GILL - FINALLY DOING IT HIS WAY “There was no skin involved. I didn’t drop my pants, but they got the message. I flipped them off and the police all gave me a standing O. It was really surreal. It was like a scene from Spinal Tap.” by Derek Halsey November 2006 Vince Gill has seen the read more...
JJ Cale
By Derek Halsey October 2004 J.J. Cale is one of the most famous songwriters in history, yet he can walk down the street and not be recognized by anyone. Eric Clapton was asked in an interview not long ago about which other musician in the world he admired most, and Clapton said “J. J. Cale.” read more...
Ace Moreland: A Remembrance
Ace Moreland: A Remembrance by Paul Doell February 2003 Ace Moreland’s most recent album (Give It To Get It, released on the King Snake-Icehouse label in 2000) includes a 1998 photo of the lean, lanky guitarist with his friend Jesse Stone, who wrote the mischievous "Mama Don’t Allow No Guitar read more...
Lucky Oceans (Asleep At The Wheel)
Asleep At The Wheel by Derek Halsey July, 2002 Lucky Oceans, along with Ray Benson and Lerroy Preston, were the founding members of the western swing, roots band called Asleep At The Wheel. In this interview Lucky talks of the crazy days back in the 1970’s when the band was formed, about the read more...
Leon Russell
STILL PLAYING A SONG FOR YOU Leon Russell On Bangladesh, Mad Dogs and Englishmen, and His Hot New Independent Label by Michael Buffalo Smith November 2001 As I dialed up the number, my mind was still busy filtering the many random memories of Leon Russell's music that flooded my mind, from my first copy of read more...
Labor Day Recipes
Yeah, It's Me and I'm Drinkin' Again Labor Day Recipes by Ron Williams August 15, 2001 Labor Day in the South means one thing: Barbeque. It also means NEVER buy any product that happens to be manufactured the day after Labor Day...
Mack Stevens
"Mr. Texas Heat!" by Ken Burke Summer 2001 Mack Stevens is the heir apparent to the great Rollin' Rock artists of the 70's. A prolific songwriter, his work sparks conflicting pinball associations of spiritual zeal, rhythmic celebration, and shockingly dark read more...
Steve Ripley (The Tractors)
FAST GIRLS AND COUNTRY MUSIC The Steve Ripley/Tractors Interview by Ken Burke June 2001 The 1992 hit "Baby Likes To Rock It" made Steve Ripley and his band The Tractors stars virtually overnight. Recording for Arista, they were multi-platinum symbols of Country radio's willingness to embrace elements read more...
Bobby Whitlock
Layla, and Many Other Songs of Love Bobby Whitlock Talks About Derek & The Dominos, Duane Allman, Gram Parsons, Eric Clapton and more... by Mitch Lopate Winter 2000 I see you released a new album on the Grapevine label, and it's called "It's about Time." Tell me (about) "It's About read more...
Ace Moreland
KINGSNAKE HAS AN ACE UP THEIR SLEEVE Ace Moreland Remembers Steve Gaines, Talks About The Blues, Recording with Edgar Winter, and His Friend Derek Trucks by Michael Buffalo Smith June 2000 When you're born to be a musician, it shows up early on. Ace Moreland, for example, couldn't put down the read more...