"Only One Angel" on ABC's "In Style"

LaFave's songs are distinctive

By Gene Triplett
The Daily Oklahoman
April 13, 2000

Jimmy LaFave's been traveling the back roads of Oklahoma looking for musical inspiration and chocolate Lab puppies.

He recently found the right dog just off a red dirt sidetrack outside Chandler and took him home to Austin, Texas. He recently brought the inspiration back to Oklahoma when he performed again at the Blue Door.

"I've definitely been tryin' to get some ideas," says the Texas-born singer-songwriter who reached his musical maturity in Stillwater.

"You know, we always had a theory livin' around Stillwater that the red dirt had all this magnetic iron oxide in it, you know, like the ancient Chinese thing, so I come up there to recharge my batteries."

Finding the pup was a bonus, since Jake, his beloved chocolate-colored Labrador retriever of 13 years, had just died.

"I saw the ad in the Stillwater paper, and just wanted a dog from Oklahoma, too, 'cause I'm still such an Okie. Matter of fact, I named him Okemah, after Woody."

Okemah-born folk music legend Woody Guthrie that is, one of LaFave's prime influences. It's true that he grew up in Wills Point, Texas, east of Dallas, where he played in a few garage bands during junior high school. But at 17 his family moved to Stillwater, and that's where he found his musical identity.

He switched from drums when his mom bought him a guitar with S&H Green Stamps.

"Yeah, it was an old Green Stamp guitar I taught myself some chords on. I never did go to music school or any of that," LaFave recalls.

"I grew up on a lot of country music. My mom just really loved everything from Hank Williams to Sonny James, Ernest Tubb. But for me, Bob Dylan was one of my big influences. And from there I just kinda went backward into a lot of the Woody Guthrie stuff."

Living in a college town, particularly an Oklahoma college town in the '70s, young Jimmy was exposed to music from many different regions and cultures, but it all went down with a heavy dash of Sooner seasoning. In addition to Guthrie, there were more contemporary homegrown talents to be heard, such as J.J. Cale, Leon Russell and the artists recording on his Tulsa-based Shelter Records, jazz trumpeter Chet Baker and Claude "Fiddler" Williams.

Aspiring singer-songwriters such as LaFave began to form a sound out of such diverse elements as folk, blues, country, rock, pop, bluegrass and jazz.
"There's a whole group of musicians that came from around that area that kinda like Hank Williams as much as they liked Jimi Hendrix," LaFave says. "That's pretty common in all parts of the country. You get this sound goin', and I think now they kinda call it the 'red dirt' sound.

"I think my most formative musical experiences were just sittin' around old farmhouses and stuff around Stillwater, pickin' and grinnin' with everyone who was doin' music in those days. I remember sharin' a couple of band members with Garth Brooks at the time while he was up there playin' music in the same clubs and bars."

LaFave formed the first version of his band, Night Tribe, did some independent recording and toured the Southwest while based in Stillwater, but in 1986 he moved to Austin in search of a wider audience -- and a record deal.

He found a regular gig at the now-defunct Chicago House, where he performed and hosted open mike nights for other unsigned songwriters. In 1988 his self- produced tape, "Highway Angels -- Full Moon Rain" won the Austin Chronicle Readers' Poll and landed a chance to work with Bob Johnston, producer of some of LaFave's favorite albums, including Bob Dylan's "Blonde on Blonde" and "Nashville Skyline."

Although these tracks were never released, by 1990 LaFave and a new version of Night Tribe were familiar favorites on the Austin music scene. With backing from computer entrepreneur Mark Shumate, LaFave finally recorded a debut album in 1992, "Austin Skyline," on the independent Bohemia Beat label.

The collection of live Austin performances drew enough attention to LaFave's talents to earn a publishing agreement with Polygram Music and a national distribution deal through Rounder Records.

LaFave's popularity grew steadily throughout the '90s, with the releases of "Highway Trance" (1994), "Buffalo Return to the Plains" (1995) and "Road Novel" (1997).

He's spread the red-dirt gospel nationwide and in Canada and Europe, won countless regional music awards, critical raves and the hearts of thousands with his emotionally charged voice and rootsy instrumental sound.

But it was "Trail," a two-disc collection of unreleased tracks covering 15 years of LaFave's career -- 31 songs including 12 Dylan covers -- that finally reached mainstream ears.

"I think it's almost become my most popular record," LaFave says. "It ended up getting a lot of really good reviews. The one that really set it off is it got a really stellar review in USA Today. After that it seemed like it was hard to keep it in the stores."

An Associated Press critic once said if LaFave wanted to, "he could probably join the ranks of rock 'n' rollers who are known by just one name -- Bruce, for example."

"I'm very happy with what I do and the level I'm doin' it at right now," says LaFave. "I think some artists say that but they have that kind of sour grapes attitude about it. Yeah, sure, I would love to get my music out to more and more people. I mean it'd be great to sell a million records, but doin' what we do now and makin' a livin' at it and seein' the country and the world is, y'know, perfectly happenin' for me."

Meanwhile, LaFave says his heart's still in Oklahoma and always will be. His family still lives here. He credits his benefit work for the American Indian College Fund to his Sooner experiences, and he's proud that Nora Guthrie asked him to speak and perform at the 1997 induction of Woody Guthrie into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame.

"I think even down here I'm pretty much known as a militant Okie to the Texans. I was born in Texas, so I think it helps me be a little more outspoken. They can't just say, 'Well, you're from Oklahoma.' Now look, I was born here, I'm a Texan, so I can say what I like. And I pretty much say that they don't know what they're missin' by not livin' in Oklahoma."

LaFave is homesick for the noticeable changing of the seasons, something Austin lacks.

"I really miss the spring and the summer, a little bit of snow -- all the great storms, the big thunderstorms, the beautiful sunsets. ... It's just amazing. You can't get that anywhere else in the country I don't think."

The shrill yip of a puppy in the background seems to punctuate that sentiment.

(below is the sidebar to the Jimmy feature)

In the songs of Jimmy LaFave, hearts can catch fire one minute and shatter the next, as unpredictably as the sky can change from blue to boiling black in the Southwestern settings his music evokes. White and yellow highway lines thread rapidly through searching headlight beams, and rusty, old neon motel signs rekindle bittersweet memories of love affairs long past.

Sometimes he rocks, sometimes he soothes, but whatever gear he's in, this Texas-born, Sooner-bred songsmith's distinctive high- lonesome wail can take you to beautiful places in the red-dirt wilderness of his blue-eyed soul.

Since he's returning Friday to the Blue Door and I've become a fan only lately (OK, I was asleep at the wheel), I thought I'd offer a primer of his recorded work for others who've yet to discover this Baja Oklahoman whose musical heart is pure Okie.

"Austin Skyline" (1992) -- Named in honor of a favorite album by a favorite artist (Bob Dylan's "Nashville Skyline"), LaFave's debut is a portrait of the artist as young man who's already honed some very sharp chops. His Night Tribe band was a well- tuned, top-fuel roadhouse rockin' machine ("Thru the Neon Night," "Deep South 61 Delta Highway Blues") while LaFave reveals himself equally powerful as a shouter and a balladeer, and as a fluent interpreter of Dylan on covers like "Girl From the North Country," "You're a Big Girl Now," "Leopard- Skin Pill Box Hat" and "Shelter From the Storm." Recorded live at several Austin venues in late '92.

"Highway Trance" (1994) -- Organ-drenched blues in the southern-fried tradition of the Allman Brothers ("Leslie, Talk to Me") beautiful acoustic lullabies ("Café in the Rain") and barroom strutters ("Austin After Midnight," "The Perfect Combination," "Route 66 Revisited") highlight an impressive if somewhat ballad-heavy studio debut.

"Buffalo Return to the Plains" (1995) -- A richer, more robust sound blossoms on LaFave's sophomore studio album, calling to mind the best of people such as Jackson Browne ("Burden to Bear"), the Allmans ("Amsterdam") and a melancholy Bruce Springsteen ("Worn Out American Dream"), while remaining distinctly LaFave.

"Road Novel" (1997) -- Often matching the rowdy spirit of his live recordings, this one features the rolling piano and R&B drive of "Vast Stretches of Broken Heart," the righteous blues rave-up "You've Got that Right," the bluegrass breeziness of "The Great Night" and the sweet sadness of Dylan's "Buckets of Rain."

"Trail" (1999) -- Intended as a limited edition "bootleg" gift to his fans, this two-disc, 15-year retrospective of unreleased live work and outtakes is by far his most entertaining album. Twelve of the 31 songs are great Dylan covers, answering fans' pleas for a LaFave Does Dylan collection. Start with this one, if you're new to him. .

(Webmaster's note: Thanks to Brad Stone for alerting us to this story.)



		LaFave's songs are distinctive By Gene Triplett The Daily Oklahoman April 13, 2000 Jimmy LaFave's been traveling the back roads of Oklahoma looking for musical inspiration and chocolate Lab puppies. He recently found the right dog just off a red dirt sidetrack outside Chandler and took him home to Austin, Texas. He recently brought the inspiration back to Oklahoma when he performed again at the Blue Door. "I've definitely been tryin' to get some ideas," says the Texas-born singer-songwriter who reached his musical maturity in Stillwater. "You know, we always had a theory livin' around Stillwater that the red dirt had all this magnetic iron oxide in it, you know, like the ancient Chinese thing, so I come up there to recharge my batteries." Finding the pup was a bonus, since Jake, his beloved chocolate-colored Labrador retriever of 13 years, had just died. "I saw the ad in the Stillwater paper, and just wanted a dog from Oklahoma, too, 'cause I'm still such an Okie. Matter of fact, I named him Okemah, after Woody." Okemah-born folk music legend Woody Guthrie that is, one of LaFave's prime influences. It's true that he grew up in Wills Point, Texas, east of Dallas, where he played in a few garage bands during junior high school. But at 17 his family moved to Stillwater, and that's where he found his musical identity. He switched from drums when his mom bought him a guitar with S&H Green Stamps. "Yeah, it was an old Green Stamp guitar I taught myself some chords on. I never did go to music school or any of that," LaFave recalls. "I grew up on a lot of country music. My mom just really loved everything from Hank Williams to Sonny James, Ernest Tubb. But for me, Bob Dylan was one of my big influences. And from there I just kinda went backward into a lot of the Woody Guthrie stuff." Living in a college town, particularly an Oklahoma college town in the '70s, young Jimmy was exposed to music from many different regions and cultures, but it all went down with a heavy dash of Sooner seasoning. In addition to Guthrie, there were more contemporary homegrown talents to be heard, such as J.J. Cale, Leon Russell and the artists recording on his Tulsa-based Shelter Records, jazz trumpeter Chet Baker and Claude "Fiddler" Williams. Aspiring singer-songwriters such as LaFave began to form a sound out of such diverse elements as folk, blues, country, rock, pop, bluegrass and jazz. "There's a whole group of musicians that came from around that area that kinda like Hank Williams as much as they liked Jimi Hendrix," LaFave says. "That's pretty common in all parts of the country. You get this sound goin', and I think now they kinda call it the 'red dirt' sound. "I think my most formative musical experiences were just sittin' around old farmhouses and stuff around Stillwater, pickin' and grinnin' with everyone who was doin' music in those days. I remember sharin' a couple of band members with Garth Brooks at the time while he was up there playin' music in the same clubs and bars." LaFave formed the first version of his band, Night Tribe, did some independent recording and toured the Southwest while based in Stillwater, but in 1986 he moved to Austin in search of a wider audience -- and a record deal. He found a regular gig at the now-defunct Chicago House, where he performed and hosted open mike nights for other unsigned songwriters. In 1988 his self- produced tape, "Highway Angels -- Full Moon Rain" won the Austin Chronicle Readers' Poll and landed a chance to work with Bob Johnston, producer of some of LaFave's favorite albums, including Bob Dylan's "Blonde on Blonde" and "Nashville Skyline." Although these tracks were never released, by 1990 LaFave and a new version of Night Tribe were familiar favorites on the Austin music scene. With backing from computer entrepreneur Mark Shumate, LaFave finally recorded a debut album in 1992, "Austin Skyline," on the independent Bohemia Beat label. The collection of live Austin performances drew enough attention to LaFave's talents to earn a publishing agreement with Polygram Music and a national distribution deal through Rounder Records. LaFave's popularity grew steadily throughout the '90s, with the releases of "Highway Trance" (1994), "Buffalo Return to the Plains" (1995) and "Road Novel" (1997). He's spread the red-dirt gospel nationwide and in Canada and Europe, won countless regional music awards, critical raves and the hearts of thousands with his emotionally charged voice and rootsy instrumental sound. But it was "Trail," a two-disc collection of unreleased tracks covering 15 years of LaFave's career -- 31 songs including 12 Dylan covers -- that finally reached mainstream ears. "I think it's almost become my most popular record," LaFave says. "It ended up getting a lot of really good reviews. The one that really set it off is it got a really stellar review in USA Today. After that it seemed like it was hard to keep it in the stores." An Associated Press critic once said if LaFave wanted to, "he could probably join the ranks of rock 'n' rollers who are known by just one name -- Bruce, for example." "I'm very happy with what I do and the level I'm doin' it at right now," says LaFave. "I think some artists say that but they have that kind of sour grapes attitude about it. Yeah, sure, I would love to get my music out to more and more people. I mean it'd be great to sell a million records, but doin' what we do now and makin' a livin' at it and seein' the country and the world is, y'know, perfectly happenin' for me." Meanwhile, LaFave says his heart's still in Oklahoma and always will be. His family still lives here. He credits his benefit work for the American Indian College Fund to his Sooner experiences, and he's proud that Nora Guthrie asked him to speak and perform at the 1997 induction of Woody Guthrie into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. "I think even down here I'm pretty much known as a militant Okie to the Texans. I was born in Texas, so I think it helps me be a little more outspoken. They can't just say, 'Well, you're from Oklahoma.' Now look, I was born here, I'm a Texan, so I can say what I like. And I pretty much say that they don't know what they're missin' by not livin' in Oklahoma." LaFave is homesick for the noticeable changing of the seasons, something Austin lacks. "I really miss the spring and the summer, a little bit of snow -- all the great storms, the big thunderstorms, the beautiful sunsets. ... It's just amazing. You can't get that anywhere else in the country I don't think." The shrill yip of a puppy in the background seems to punctuate that sentiment. (below is the sidebar to the Jimmy feature) In the songs of Jimmy LaFave, hearts can catch fire one minute and shatter the next, as unpredictably as the sky can change from blue to boiling black in the Southwestern settings his music evokes. White and yellow highway lines thread rapidly through searching headlight beams, and rusty, old neon motel signs rekindle bittersweet memories of love affairs long past. Sometimes he rocks, sometimes he soothes, but whatever gear he's in, this Texas-born, Sooner-bred songsmith's distinctive high- lonesome wail can take you to beautiful places in the red-dirt wilderness of his blue-eyed soul. Since he's returning Friday to the Blue Door and I've become a fan only lately (OK, I was asleep at the wheel), I thought I'd offer a primer of his recorded work for others who've yet to discover this Baja Oklahoman whose musical heart is pure Okie. "Austin Skyline" (1992) -- Named in honor of a favorite album by a favorite artist (Bob Dylan's "Nashville Skyline"), LaFave's debut is a portrait of the artist as young man who's already honed some very sharp chops. His Night Tribe band was a well- tuned, top-fuel roadhouse rockin' machine ("Thru the Neon Night," "Deep South 61 Delta Highway Blues") while LaFave reveals himself equally powerful as a shouter and a balladeer, and as a fluent interpreter of Dylan on covers like "Girl From the North Country," "You're a Big Girl Now," "Leopard- Skin Pill Box Hat" and "Shelter From the Storm." Recorded live at several Austin venues in late '92. "Highway Trance" (1994) -- Organ-drenched blues in the southern-fried tradition of the Allman Brothers ("Leslie, Talk to Me") beautiful acoustic lullabies ("Café in the Rain") and barroom strutters ("Austin After Midnight," "The Perfect Combination," "Route 66 Revisited") highlight an impressive if somewhat ballad-heavy studio debut. "Buffalo Return to the Plains" (1995) -- A richer, more robust sound blossoms on LaFave's sophomore studio album, calling to mind the best of people such as Jackson Browne ("Burden to Bear"), the Allmans ("Amsterdam") and a melancholy Bruce Springsteen ("Worn Out American Dream"), while remaining distinctly LaFave. "Road Novel" (1997) -- Often matching the rowdy spirit of his live recordings, this one features the rolling piano and R&B drive of "Vast Stretches of Broken Heart," the righteous blues rave-up "You've Got that Right," the bluegrass breeziness of "The Great Night" and the sweet sadness of Dylan's "Buckets of Rain." "Trail" (1999) -- Intended as a limited edition "bootleg" gift to his fans, this two-disc, 15-year retrospective of unreleased live work and outtakes is by far his most entertaining album. Twelve of the 31 songs are great Dylan covers, answering fans' pleas for a LaFave Does Dylan collection. Start with this one, if you're new to him. . (Webmaster's note: Thanks to Brad Stone for alerting us to this story.)