It was recently announced that likeable-enough 90s bubble-gummers Hanson are going to be inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame. While many people who are only superficially aware of the HOF program let out cheers of misplaced nostalgic glee, for followers, historians and serious fans of the Sooner State’s musical contributions, the HOF continues to be a maddeningly jumbled mess that seems to favor flavors of the month many times over actual figures deserving of the honor; it seems as though inducting lesser-known but no less important figures is just an embarrassing afterthought.
For example, only this year—and, sadly, now posthumously—was a true genre-bender like Red Dirt forefather Jimmy LaFave even considered, while absolutely legendary pioneers like Lowell Fulson, Jimmy Webb and J.J. Cale were only inducted in recent years, playing second-fiddle to the already-inducted (and mostly undeserving) likes of Kristin Chenoweth, Carrie Underwood and, yes, Toby Keith. That being said, all in the name of pro-activity, here’s a handful of artists that I feel should be inducted come 2018, if only for the sake of history, diversity and ingenuity, as well as their solid contributions to Oklahoma’s cultural atmosphere.