Mayfest Thursday Headliner

[RecycleMichael]

Nice Story in today's Tulsa World...

Memories of a broken heart

Andy Griggs is the headliner Thursday at Mayfest, performing on the Tulsa World Spot Stage.


By MATT ELLIOTT World Scene Writer
5/13/2007
Singer-songwriter Andy Griggs puts his own stamp on new disc
Each time Andy Griggs sees the Broken Arrow exit on his way into Tulsa, he feels a faint tug at his heart, the lingering pain of a long-lost adolescent love. He'll never forget Broken Arrow, because that's where his high-school sweetheart moved to years ago, leaving a 15-year-old Griggs lost and lonely in his hometown of West Monroe, La. (he pronounces it "Loosiana").

It was one of those relationships that, when it ended, it seems like the world would end, too, Griggs said. Then, like 10 minutes later, the former lovebirds are making eyes at somebody else. Griggs is the headliner Thursday at Mayfest, performing on the Tulsa World Spot Stage.

Now 33, Griggs said he remembered "driving out there -- Tulsa was one of the first times (for me to) ever even go out of town," describing the trip to help his girlfriend move. Leaving West Monroe, he heard Keith Whitley's "I Wonder Do You Think of Me" as rain started to fall. "I remember that was a long, long depressing drive from West Monroe, La., to Broken Arrow."

The two went their separate ways, and in 1995 Griggs moved on to Nashville. RCA snapped him up in 1998, but despite his hits "You Won't Ever Be Lonely" and "I'll Go Crazy," the Tennessee resident started to chafe under the label's yoke.

He flew the coop and headed to Montage Music Group, where he's got the freedom to delve into his singer/songwriter roots, Griggs said. He has just finished his new record and sent it off to producer Frank Myers. Griggs said the album takes a darker turn on his Nashville sound.

"That's closer to what I've been hearing in my head this whole time than anything that I've ever laid down on track before," said Griggs, who spends his free time deer and elk hunting with Ada's Blake Shelton and Tracy Byrd, two other country music stars. "I think I probably had more fun making this record than any other. It was the freedom. It's having, I don't know, just a burden lifted off of your shoulders, to where you're saying, 'Hey, you know what? This is fun. I can have fun making a record.' "

Opening for Griggs is the tattooed and towering former West Tulsan, Brandon Jenkins, who is now a regular on the Texas music scene. The Austin resident's album "VII" has been popular with the Texas Music Charts ever since its release last year. Jenkins has been touring regularly, recently performing a show at the Mercury Lounge in Tulsa. He's even got his own day named after him here in Tulsa, coming up Sunday.

The free shows are part of a series of concerts planned, starting at 11:45 a.m. Thursday with Acoustic Ross on the Bartlett Square Stage at Fifth and Main streets. The Electric Rag Band will perform, as will Benji, Brian Parton and Crooked X, who'll take the stage at 9:30 p.m.

Crooked X, the band of 13-year-old metallers from Coweta, recently signed a multimedia management deal with Doc McGhee and Spencer Proffer, both of whom have been involved with 1980s-era rock bands who have sold millions of records.

This is his website... http://andygriggs.musiccitynetworks.com/

[inteller]

[}:)]  cry me a river.  that intro is so sappy.

[rwarn17588]

Inteller, you're just the epitome of warmth.

[Double A]

Mayfest sucks.

[jdb]

Right on, inteller.

Dredging up that first love - I'd just as soon forget I was ever that niave.

Can't you just feel the luv?
jdb