Church Studios home of Leon Russell

This spring, I retired after 47 years of teaching and coaching. 

Tough decision to leave something you have always loved.

Our good friend, Shannon came by the house with a gift for me.  She said she knew I wasn't really ready to retire and needed to have something to do. She gave me a gift card to buy a year's membership at Church Studios i n Tulsa.  

What great and cool gift ! I love it and I am very grateful to Shannon.

Church Studio is the recording studio that was built by Leon Russell in the early 70s.  I have been a Leon fan since I heard his first music. He was always the cornerstone of the Tulsa  Sound.  In the early 70s, he went together with Denny Cordell and they purchased an old church building ion Tulsa and built a modern recording studio there. 

The studio was famous. Besides Leon, it also served as a studio for anyone who signed to Leon and Denny's label, Shelter Records. Dwight Twilley band, Freddy King, J.J. Cale, The Gap Band, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers all signed and recorded there. 

Other famous musicians made the pilgrimage to record there including Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and Eric Clapton.  Even Ringo Starr and George Harrison have been there. 

Now, the studio is till an active studio, but it has become a land mark. They built on to the building and have added a gift shop, a bar and  a  small concert hall. The Church offers weekly music for member (free) and non members (a small fee) where local musicians can coma play.

I love live music and plan to go see someone play every week. I've been to three shows already and plan on being there often.

The Church is like a shrine to the local music scene.

Wikipedia link to the Church

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Church_Studio

The Church Studio link

https://www.thechurchstudio.com/

Alice Cooper finally

 I read that Alice Cooper is going on his final tour. 

Why do all of  my favorites have to get old?

I do  too, but the music I have listened to for decades never seems to age. Why should the player?

The first time I heard Alice was in 1971. I heard the song :"Eighteen" on the local radio station. The song spoke to me as a teenager. "I'm 18 and I don't know what I want!"  So, it was the first Alice album I bought.  The band had put out two previous LPs, but thye hadn't gotten airplay near me. 

 

By the time I graduated high school, the  Alice Cooper band had released several albums. "Killer," "Billion Dollar Babies," "School's Out," and "Muscle of Love."  There was a delicious edginess in those albums that were slightly diabolical and especially attractive to a teen boy who loved Horror and sci fi. Plus, they were rocking albums! The cvery guitar I loved to hear.

Thing was, I never got to see Alice. 

If he came to Tulsa, it was at a time I couldn't see him. I was an athlete through high school and college and that often cut into opportunities to see bands I liked.

I continued to buy Alice's albums. When he went solo and did "Welcome to my Nightmare" and the series of themed albums to follow. "Goes to Hell" and "lace and whiskey." I knew part of his stage persona was a always a bottle of whiskey, but when he went to rehab and emerged with the "From the inside" album, I thought it was one of his best,

For some reason, I lost track of Alice for a while. I was teaching and coaching full time. I eventually married and we had two sons.

But, Alice's albums were always a part of my play list.

I finally had the opportunity to get back in touch with Alice's music. In 2011, the sequel to "Welcome to my nightmare' came out. Plus, streamed music made it convenient to listen to all the Alice music I had missed. 

TA last, I got the chance to see Alice live. He appeared at "The Old lady on Brady" (recently renamed the Tulsa Theater). I was excited to see him live ! The theater is intimate and there are no bad seats . I took my ticket and looked for my seat. Turned out it was in the middle of a row. The seats there are old and made for skinnier people. Ironically, my seat was between two fairly big long haired older fans. I'm not a small guy either and we were squeezed in and cozy.

But, when the show started , it was great. You couldn't tell if Alice was 60 or 25! he was rocking the night away and playing his big hits. I left that night satiated and smiling.

Luckily, I got a second chance just a couple years ago. A friend of mine had a friend who got free tickets to casino concerts.  I think you have to spend a lot of money at the casino to get those perks, but he gave them to my buddy Cris , who took me. 

We got to sit in box seats with free food and drinks. That was great, but even better was the show. Alice was till putting on a great show. The music was rocking and he was in great form. he rocked us for the evening and once again, I left with a smile on my face. 

I may never get to see Alice in concert again, but I did get to finally. I loved every note.

If Alice truly retires, he deserves it for 57 years of making music for the fans.