Tulsa definitely has an edge. It's an interesting mix of people to make up a discussion though. It looks like they at least tried to cover the bases from classical to contemporary. There has to be a demand for the music before it starts to thrive. If you go somewhere like Austin, you will have a hard time finding a restaurant that doesn't have some sort of live music every night. They have an insane number of musicians there, and there are plenty really good ones.

We have plenty good groups here too, but we don't generally see as many upcoming groups get past their own garage....practicality in lieu of the dream. We don't have as many people willing to "live out of their van" so to speak, so they don't really make the push as often. It's just a different mind set.

Now I think the first way to get that to change is to start an independant station that doesnt play the normal pop crap we hear everywhere else on the dial. I gave up local radio when I got XM 5 years ago. I pretty much stay on The Pulse, Sound of Starbucks, and Soundtracks. I love being able to hear new artists and songs that I would never hear in OKC. Eventually they make it into mainstream too, but it takes longer. I think it we had an outlet for people to hear our sound, then it would start to take off. But do we think we can fund it so it doesnt flop? Independants struggle financially but they are so incredibly important to the music world. For every one of the big name groups you hear on mainstream radio, I'm sure you'll find dozens of garage groups that influenced them at some point. Not to mention the number of these folks that took part in music education while in school!