Taylor Hanson (right) plays alongside Leon Russell (left) and Steve Ripley at Mayfest in 2005.
Words from Taylor Hanson: “I was on vacation recently and a Leon song came on and I suddenly got so emotional because I remembered how important he had been. It stopped me in my tracks.”
Hanson wanted to talk about Tulsa music legend Leon Russell.
That’s why Hanson popped in at The Church Studio on what would have been Russell’s 82nd birthday last week.
While there, Hanson chatted about some of Russell’s super powers as a person and music artist, including Russell’s ability to “connect the dots.”
Some of those dots are fellow icons.
Willie Nelson is on record as saying Russell was the best performer he ever watched. Nelson and Russell were tight. Also among Russell admirers: Elton John. Hanson shared an Elton John story while at The Church Studio.
“I sat with Elton John at BOK Center years ago before he made that record with Leon,” Hanson said, referring to the 2010 Elton/Leon album “The Union.”
“We didn’t know him well or anything, but we had met him before. We went back to see him. ‘Great to see you.’ ‘Thanks for coming to Tulsa.’ We started talking about Leon because of course we knew he was hugely influenced by Leon. And Elton started to cry. He started to tear up.”
Elton John expressed to Hanson a desire to reconnect with his musical hero.
“Essentially he was sharing this idea that he was hoping to do, which was get with Leon and really do something to honor him,” Hanson said.
“And of course what he did was incredible with that (‘The Union’) project and how he helped Leon personally. It was miraculous. He probably gave him several more years of life with the surgery that he helped pay for and all kinds of things. Willie. Elton. Go down the list. … (But) I don’t think it was just music (that brought them together). It was a cult of personality. It was a curiosity and a tenderness and an empathy.”
Memories of Leon
Never mind that Russell passed away in 2016, he is bringing music artists together, still.
Taylor and Isaac Hanson — two-thirds of the Tulsa pop rock trio Hanson — will be featured guests when Russell’s touring band performs Friday, April 26 at Tulsa Theater. The concert will continue a tradition of Russell birthday shows in Tulsa. Ticket-buyers can expect at least a slice of Mad Dogs and Englishmen, which of course is the name of the epic Joe Cocker tour that juiced Russell (the bandleader) to stardom in 1970.
Taylor Hanson is among the connected “dots” even though he wasn’t born until 13 years after Mad Dogs and Englishmen — and 10 years after Billboard named Russell the top touring artist of 1973. Taylor has cherished memories of Russell encounters, including joining Russell for birthday concerts. Taylor talked about a specific instance when the group Hanson “pulled Leon into one of our shows to celebrate him.”
“He was playing at Cain’s, and we were doing the Mayfest show back in 2005,” Hanson said. “We knew he was playing there. We were playing basically the same night. When it was first booked, we didn’t even know that. I thought, ‘This is crazy. I want to be at Leon’s show.’”
Another local music figure, Steve Ripley, shepherded Hanson to visit with Russell at Cain’s prior to the same-day shows.
“I went to see Leon with Ripley and said, ‘Leon, good to see you. I just wondered if, since it’s your birthday celebration and it’s your special show, we would love to celebrate you. Would you be willing to come and sit in on our set?’ Our sets fell just where we couldn’t go to his, but he could go to ours, because of where the times were.”
Responded Russell, “Well, what are you thinking about playing?”
“We said, well, we think it may be ‘Tulsa Time’ or we had a couple of other Leon songs,” Hanson said. “He wanted me to show him how we were going to play. It was like, ‘What were you thinking? How are you going to play it?’ I sat down with him (and played) the ‘Tulsa Time’ intro. He kind of looked across at me and said, ‘Yeah, I think that sounds good.’”
That was Russell’s way of accepting the invitation.
Hanson loves a photo from the night of that 2005 team-up “because it was just so real. My experience with anybody who has gotten to make music and break music, it is just such a miracle for it to happen. But then to have people you admire and people you respect, like a Leon or like a Ripley or so many others, and you then can stand on a stage together, it really is an experience that I think paints a picture for what creators hope to see, which is to sort of honor what you are inspired by, and then you start to pass that on.”
Continuing the legacy
The Tulsa Theater show should be a vehicle to carry Leon forward. Russell’s super fans (LeonLifers) will of course be there. Ideally, so will young people who will someday pick up the baton.
“When I heard about this show and was thinking about guesting, I really just went back to who else can we get in that room that is going to be the next music fan that is going to hear a Leon song and is going to hear ‘Delta Lady’ for the first time and is going to be with a friend or an uncle or a grandparent or a parent or somebody else and get inspired,” Hanson said. “I think that’s what gets me inspired about getting out there and sitting in and playing some of these songs that moved me so much.”
“We are so proud to honor Leon with this concert, and having special guests like Taylor and Isaac Hanson join us just adds even more to this celebration,” Russell’s drummer, Brandon Holder, said. “We just want to keep sharing the incredible music that he made throughout his career.”
While at The Church Studio, created during the era when Russell and label co-owner Denny Cordell had offices for Shelter Records in Tulsa and L.A., Hanson gave shout-outs to (A) current owner Teresa Knox for restoring the music landmark and (B) to Rick Huskey, who has owned and maintained Russell’s former Grand Lake studio. In their own ways, they are carrying the mantle forward, according to Hanson.
“Taylor is a great cheerleader for us and definitely is a great ambassador,” Knox said.
The Tulsa Theater concert will take place on a Leon-centric weekend. The Church Studio is hosting Carney Fest (which gets its name from a Russell album) the day after the show. Mike Campbell and the Dirty Knobs will headline.
A news advisory said the Tulsa Theater event will be sure to capture the spirit of the Tulsa Sound, which famously fused many influences including gospel, blues, country and rock ‘n’ roll.
Hanson said Russell’s legacy — and the legacy of Tulsa music — is, to him, about a crossroads of different styles and different people coming together.
“It’s about having the blues artists and the rockers and the horn section and the gospel,” he said. “That created the ‘thing’ that became known as the Tulsa Sound. Some of us didn’t even realize we were a part of it until you go, ‘wow, I am in the legacy of what was happening.’
“And when Leon built (The Church Studio) and when he got the lake house up at Grand, all the things that Leon was doing, he was always trying to bring people together. Mad Dogs and Englishmen is a great example. I really feel a kinship with that idea that the greatest thing about music is the ability to find common ground and find something that you can sort of share. Thinking about the future just for Tulsa and continuing to have a story to tell, I think there couldn’t be a better story than to try to continue that legacy. Let’s get more people coming together. Let’s get more chances to celebrate and more chances to get lots of different people of lots of different styles and musical influences to share stages. I think the show on the 26th is going to be a really special.”