In 1934, a Texas band led by a charismatic fiddler named Bob Wills landed in Tulsa, and with the help of clear-channel radio station KVOO and a dancehall known as the Cain’s Ballroom, turned the city into the international epicenter for the fresh new movement that would become Western swing.

Blending jazz, hillbilly, pop, cowboy, and blues, Wills — and later his brother Johnnie Lee — ruled the Cain’s until the rock ‘n’ roll era, a major influence on Tulsa’s first wave of rockers.

Fun fact A member of Benny Ketchum’s Western Playboys — the band that succeeded Wills at the Cain’s — was Tulsa Sound architect Johnny (later JJ) Cale.

Tulsa’s history is steeped in jazz, especially as it was performed from the ‘20s through the ‘60s in the clubs in and around Greenwood Avenue.

The fondly remembered Rubiot Club, owned by jazz pianist Sonny Gray, featured national and local performers, as did the equally well-known Nine of Cups.

In 1959, Tulsa’s Ernie Fields achieved what every up-and-coming rocker hoped for, scoring a Top 10 pop hit with his remake of Glenn Miller’s “In the Mood.”

Hillbilly music — country before it went uptown — and its close relative, cowboy music, have long been part of the musical fabric of Oklahoma and Tulsa, the favored genres of the farmers and ranchers in our agrarian state.

Those were two of the strands Bob Wills wove into Western swing, and you can hear them in the early efforts of the Tulsa rockers — some of whom, like Tommy Crook, Bill Pair, and JJ Cale, cut their teeth in country acts.

Throughout his career, Tulsa Sound heavyweight Leon Russell returned to his persona of Hank Wilson to record albums of the country, western, and hillbilly tunes he loved.

In the ‘50s, Greenwood Avenue was alive with clubs that featured top touring performers as well as a stellar lineup of local talent.

Because those were segregated times, much of Tulsa’s white population — even those who loved rhythm & blues, blues, and jazz — were unaware of the musical treasures piled up just across the tracks. Tulsa’s early rockers knew, though.

They listened to Black deejay Frank Berry’s R&B radio show, and thanks in great part to legendary Tulsa figure Flash Terry, were able to get into the Greenwood clubs and sit in with some of the finest musicians Tulsa ever produced.