Album Review- Jason Eady’s “Tulsa Turnaround”

Jason Eady isn’t just a master craftsman songwriter whose services are considered invaluable in the Texas scene and beyond. He’s a tireless student on the music as well, soaking up any and all knowledge he can about the various modes and dialects as he travels across the United States and regales intimate, but very enthusiastic audiences in an artisan approach to music making. Maybe the name doesn’t ring a bell to many on Music Row in Nashville. But in listening rooms from West Texas to Western Europe, it’s revered.

For his second album now, Eady has charged himself with exploring, preserving, and hopefully reigniting a regional influence in American music. With his 2023 album Mississippi, the former Air Force enlistee originally from Mississippi forwarded an inspired exploration into his native state’s musical heritage. Now for his latest record, he delves deep into the Tulsa sound, which might be comparatively tiny when it comes to population, but has always been dramatically outsized when it comes to influence.

From powerhouse names like JJ Cale and Leon Russell, to legendary venues like Cain’s Ballroom and The Mercury Lounge, to recording spaces like The Church Studio, Tulsa’s musical heritage is incredibly rich to an unusual degree. All of these iconic Tulsa musical institutions are cited in the verses of the title track of Jason Eady’s new album, which happens to be co-written by Oklahoma native and a man whose name is sealed in concrete in front of Cain’s, Ray Wylie Hubbard.

To evoke the classic Tulsa sound that’s known for mixing country, blues, rock, and R&B seamlessly into a greasy, sweaty groove for the music to lay down into, Eady traveled to the Route 66 town and recorded with Tulsa’s current patron saint of music, John Fullbright, along with other members of the current Tulsa wrecking crew such as Jesse Aycock and Stephen Lee on guitars, and Paddy Ryan on drums. If you record in Tulsa, these are the cats you want to cut a record with.

But Tulsa hasn’t just been famous over the years for its distinct sound that was carried across the United States and world when folks like Lynyrd Skynyrd and Eric Clapton covered JJ Cale songs, and Leon Russell became every musician’s favorite musician. The legacy of songwriting from the city is really where Tulsa’s outsized influence has been most pronounced in recent years thanks to John Fullbright, songwriting juggernaut John Moreland, the close association with the city and Evan Felker of the Turnpike Troubadours, and so many more.

Though you wouldn’t regard Tulsa Turnaround as a songwriting album, the track “Mean Spirits” with its sobriety message most certainly stands out, and was co-written by no less than Cody Jinks, along with Eady’s former life partner and A-list songwriter, Courtney Patton. But it’s really a song like “Stay Up or Get Down” where you hear that sweaty, groove-laden sound of Tulsa being paid forward with very positive results.

Jason Eady freely admits in a Substack post about the album, “My writing process has changed a lot as I get further into my career so the songs don’t come as frequently as they used to.” Just like his previous album Mississippi, Tulsa Turnaround relies more on sound than songwriting to make its statements, even though many regard Jason Easy still as a songwriter first. He never gives into the temptation to adopt an affectation to his voice, but the vernacular he writes in is sometimes not his own, and is more native to the regional influence he’s looking to call to mind.

You do wish you got more of those stellar songwriting moments from Eady on this album that were his signature early in his career, and won him Saving Country Music’s Song of the Year for the track “French Summer Sun” in 2021. But instead of ceasing or curtailing the music making process entirely, Eady has instead focused more on the sounds than the songs in a way than many of his core fans still appreciate.

Jason Eady’s not chasing stardom. He’s chasing the musical muse, and trying to hunt down those ghosts that still haunt so many of the songs from both yesteryear and today that we so thoroughly enjoy.

8/10

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