J. J. Cale Tribute at the Power House Bar

If You’re Ever in Oklahoma (Stop at the Power House Bar)

Contin­u­ing on the heels of his suc­cess­ful Roger Miller, John Prine, and Smiths trib­ute shows, last month musi­cian Jerrod Beck pre­sented another great show with the help of many tal­ented local musi­cians. On a cool, calm Sunday evening, the musi­cians gath­ered on the Power House Bar’s patio stage to per­form cov­ers of songs by the late, great Oklahoma song­writer J. J. Cale. As with the pre­vi­ous trib­ute shows, each per­former also show­cased a 1 or 2 orig­i­nal songs.

It’s a no brainer that local musi­cians would be eager to pay trib­ute to him. Aaron Pierce, a local song­writer and gui­tar player, pitched me the idea of set­ting up a trib­ute to Cale after the Smiths gig. Of course, I wanted to reach out to Tulsa song­writ­ers as well as Oklahoma City ones. Paul Benjaman, Rachel La Vonne, and Wink Burcham rep­re­sented Tulsa very nicely, Beck said.

J.J. Cale had a laid-back and seem­ingly effort­less way of song­writ­ing and per­form­ing. He blended the gui­tar work of rock ’n’ roll with the sim­ple deliv­ery of coun­try music and a blues and soul groove. That’s very appeal­ing to me.

Cale had grit and per­se­ver­ance in the face of strug­gle and obsta­cles. Sometimes it takes longer than we’d would like for our art to be widely rec­og­nized, but if it truly is great, peo­ple will even­tu­ally give proper recog­ni­tion and praise. Cale stuck to his craft and saw it to great heights.

The writer of many hit songs, includ­ing Cocaine, Call Me the Breeze, Crazy Mama, Cajun Moon, and Magnolia, the Grammy®-winning J.J. Cale was born in Oklahoma City in 1938 and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He died of a heart attack in 2013.

Be sure to read our pre­vi­ous cov­er­age of the series and see a gallery from the Smiths trib­ute.

The series returns on 20 November to The Plant Shoppe with a trib­ute to singer, song­writer, and activist Nina Simone.

Gallery