NORMAN MUSIC FESTIVAL: TEN YEARS STRANGE

NMF 

April 27-29 

FREE TO PUBLC 

It's that time of year. The time of year when the streets of downtown Norman, Oklahoma become a physical representation of the amazing musical pool of talent that this land locked, governor blocked, red state has to offer. Oklahoma's annual Norman Music Festival offers a handful of high caliber out-of-state acts but it's the local noisemakers that are the true honey bees all working as a hive, cultivating waxy hexagonal honeycombs that form a tight bond in the heart of Norman. I myself a local musician, have frolicked around the endless venues and stages of NMF nearly every year. For me, attending Norman Music Fest is a huge welcome home to a fictional town governed by the pentatonic scale where art serves as currency and patronage becomes the gold that backs it. I am adorned with pieces of plastic and colorful paper bracelets that notify others that I am entitled to endless beers and a few mouthfuls of whatever snacks the festival has provided. For three days, the jesters and kings get to switch roles without changing their professions. 

This year I get to play with all my best friends in a project called The Dirty Little Betty's! We just released our first record through Geykido Comet Records and we are super excited for a little show and tell at this year's 10th annual Norman Music Festival. The lineup this year is abounding and very exciting not only because the out of town acts are great but because right now I feel as if I am witnessing the biggest, most talented and diversified local music scene that there has been in fifteen years or however long ago it was that I played my first gig at Buzz's Subs off of Lindsey Street. There is so much great music this year that my "must see" list is unobtainable but here it is anyway in no particular order: 

Travis Linville 

Masterhand 

Husbands 

Jose Hernandez & The Black Magic Waters

Judith 

Wildings 

Helen Kelter Skelter

Kite Flying Robot 

Gum 

Warcopter 

Dorian Small

Sun Riah 

TJ Mayes 

Gabriel Knight Hancock 

Em And The Mother Superiors 

HEADBUTT

Softaware 

The Big News 

Limber Limbs 

Oklahoma Cloud Factory 

JARVIX 

Tequila Songbirds 

Go to www.normanmusicfestival.com to get the scoop on each band. You simply click on the bands to see where and when they play and if you scroll down there are band bios, pictures, tracks, etc. 

If you have been to the fest before then you know the drill. Admission and parking are free though parking costs between ten and twenty four brain points. Beer will fill you, the sun will burn you, and the music will carry you. If you get lost, meet your friends by the railroad tracks where you will hear the sad loud sounds of a kid who learned how to power a guitar amp with a car battery but forgot to learn the guitar. If you make it out Saturday then come watch my friends and I (The Dirty Little Betty's) at Bluebonnet Bar at midnight! Now share this article with ten friends and you will receive a personal miracle. Make sure they send it back to you or you will not receive your personal miracle and neither will they. 

Clinton Avery Tharp