JJ Cale Joins Oklahoma’s Finest

After being celebrated again on the new album by his friend and musical devotee Eric Clapton and his guests, JJ Cale is to be inducted posthumously into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame.

With the tribute set ‘The Breeze (An Appreciation Of JJ Cale)’ about to leap into charts worldwide, Cale’s profound musical legacy will be celebrated in an induction ceremony and concert at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa on November 1.

The announcement of this year’s inductees was also made at Cain’s, and Cale will be joined in the Hall of Fame by bluesman Elvin Bishop, perhaps best-known for his work in the Paul Butterfield Blues Band; much-travelled drummer Jim Keltner, who plays on the new JJ tribute album; fellow drummer Chuck Blackwell, who played with Leon Russell, Little Richard and many others; and highly influential West Coast blues player Lowell Fulson.

This will be only the second time in the 17-year history of the event that the ceremony has not taken place in Muskogee, where the Hall of Fame is based. Last year’s show was also in Tulsa, but at Oral Roberts University’s Mabee Center, as that venue was one of the honorees.

Bishop, Keltner and Blackwell are all due to play at the ceremony, along with Tulsa Sound musicians such as Don White (another contributor to ‘The Breeze’), Gary Gilmore, Walt Richmond, Larry Bell, David Teegarden, Tommy Crook, Jimmy Markham, Rocky Frisco, Jim Byfield, Charles Tuberville and Jamie Oldaker.

A footnote that we can’t resist about Chuck Blackwell, who started playing in bars in Tulsa at the age of 13. At that tender age, he always carried a note in his pocket written by his mother and signed by both his parents that stated: “To whom it may concern: Chuck Blackwell has his mother and father’s permission to play in this bar.”