NOTES ALONG THE
Corridor
by RICK REILEY
THE MAGIC OF HOPE
The Music of Nightingale I was scrolling my social media feeds the other day and ran across some local music that gave my heart an immediate lift it hadn’t felt in a long time. This Tulsa group was called Nightingale. That made it even better to know such wonderful music seemingly anchored in the heavens was being made in my home territory. This positive music seems to be firm in the certainty that everything’s gonna be alright. The genre listed on their website is listed as folk/soul. And it is that, but it’s much more than that. It was just what I needed at the moment. The first song I clicked on was called ‘New Year’s Day’. It soothed my senses and elevated me to a new appreciation of being alive in the here and now. Something I’d almost, albeit temporarily, forgotten.
I was surprised and energized and quickly listened to more. And everything I heard was just as good as the first cut. I tracked them down in an attempt to find out more. How could people this good, this close to home, making such fine music, have escaped me until now, I wondered? So I went to work to find out. A couple of years ago they performed at the Hanson Brothers Hop Jam festival and were featured by local press as an “Artist to Watch”. They were also standout performers at Tulsa’s 2018’s MISfest. The group had a guest spot in 2018 at the performance stage at the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa as part of Tulsa Little Jam Music and interview series. They’ve also appeared on KOTV Channel 6’s In The Morning and at many other area venues. Their initial self titled recording was completed in February. Briana Wright, Nightingale vocalist (a powerful voice reminiscent of Sarah Vaughan or Dinah Washington ‘ delicate, breathy and bold), filled me in on some of the details.
