Okie Adams

Okie Adams, born Carl Frederick Adams, was an expert banjo maker, having provided unique, hand-crafted banjos to the likes of Doc Watson and Tom Sauber, among many others.

Career

Okie's banjos were entirely hand-made using his custom 'block pot' technique, which consisted of turning out a glued together ring of wood, usually walnut or maple, or a combination thereof. They are heavier than most, with a slightly wider neck (Okie claims this was favored by the guitar players he was trying to convert to banjo) and often the peghead is inlaid with a variety of shapes and symbols that are Okie signatures - a tall cowboy hat, claw hammer or double claw hammer, and a crescent moon with star.

Allen Hart uses an Okie Adams banjo on his "Old Time Banjo" album, playing in the claw-hammer style Okie favored and encouraged.

Okie was a consistent presence on the West Coast folk festival circuit, and his son Jim 'Okie Jr.' Adams plays and competes often, wielding his father's prized banjos. Always a teacher, Okie's generosity touched and inspired many musicians and banjo makers, among them Greg Deering, founder of Deering Banjo company who recently stated that he'd produced and sent out over 60,000 banjos from his workshop and "there was a part of Okie Adams in every single one."

Okie

An Okie is a resident or native of Oklahoma. Like most terms that disparage specific groups, it was applied by the dominant cultural group. It is derived from the name of the state, similar to Texan or Tex for someone from Texas, or Arkie or Arkansawyer for a native of Arkansas.

In the 1930s in California, the term (often used in contempt) came to refer to very poor migrants from Oklahoma (and nearby states). The Dust Bowl, and the "Okie" migration of the 1930s brought in over a million newly displaced people; many headed to the farm labor jobs advertised in California's Central Valley.

Dunbar-Ortiz (1996) argues that 'Okie' denotes much more than being from Oklahoma. By 1950, four million individuals, or one quarter of all persons born in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, or Missouri, lived outside the region, primarily in the West. Prominent Okies in the 1930s included Woody Guthrie. Most prominent in the late 1960s and 1970s were country musician Merle Haggard and writer Gerald Haslam.

Okie (disambiguation)

Okie is a term meaning resident of Oklahoma.

Okie may also refer to:

Music

See also

Okie (album)

Okie is the third album by JJ Cale. It was first released in 1974.

Several songs from the album were later covered by other artists, including "I Got the Same Old Blues", by Freddie King, Eric Clapton, Captain Beefheart, Bobby Bland, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Bryan Ferry; "Anyway the Wind Blows", by Brother Phelps in 1995 and Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings in 1999; "Cajun Moon", by Herbie Mann on his 1976 album Surprises, with vocals by Cissy Houston. "I'd Like to Love You, Baby" was covered by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers in 2003, appearing on their 2009 album, The Live Anthology.

Track listing

All tracks written by JJ Cale, except as noted

Personnel

Tracks 2 & 3–10 May 1973
Columbia Studio B, Nashville, Tennessee
Engineer, Stan Hutto
Bass, Tommy Cogbill
Drums, Karl Himmel
Piano, Jerry Smith
Rhythm guitar, Harold Bradley
Electric guitar, Grady Martin
Track 2
Gut slide guitar and vocal, JJ Cale
Track 3
Trumpet, George Tidwell
Trombone, Dennis Goode
Saxophone, Billy Pruett
Guitar and vocals, JJ Cale