Scott Melott performs with the Groobees Friday night at Majestic.

Below, Susan Gibson performs with her band the Groobees Friday night at Majestic.
Photos by MICHAEL WYKE / Tulsa World

The Friday night show at Majestic was a pretty courageous booking for partners David Sharp and Tim Barraza. After all, the Amarillo, Texas- based Americana band the Groobees don't get played on the radio around here -- with the exception of the weekly "Folk Salad" program on KWGS -- and just about the only Groobees song most people have heard is "Wide Open Spaces," which became a giant hit-country radio song not for them, but for the Dixie Chicks.

So, Barraza and Sharp had to be gratified when the new venue filled up for the show with people who clearly wanted to see and hear something more than just another cover band. The Groobees had to be gratified as well: The only other time the members played Tulsa was at the late club the Fur Shop -- where, as guitarist Gary Thomason noted from the stage, "we outnumbered the audience."

This time, hundreds of people were on hand to see the Groobees' terrific show, which wed insightful and close- to-the-bone lyrics with big-beat music that drew equally from country, folk, and rock 'n' roll. Fronted by singer- songwriters Susan Gibson and Scott Melott, the band emanated a sense of joy that suggested the members were going exactly where their collective muse took them, undistracted by thoughts of commercialism, airplay or image. It's great fun to see a band like that, especially one as consistently entertaining as this one was.

Of course, one of the reasons the Groobees are able to take that approach is the relative financial freedom they've gotten from the runaway success of "Wide Open Spaces," which Gibson wrote on her own but whose substantial proceeds have been shared with the rest of the band. Friday, the Groobees did their own version of "Wide Open Spaces" near the end of their first set, with Gibson singing an extra lyric that didn't make the Chicks' version, and the rest of the players giving it enough of a different slant to show clearly it was their own tune.

Gibson was an independent but never strident presence, radiating a bonhomie both on and off the stage and playing, at various times, guitar and banjo in addition to singing both lead and backup vocals. She especially shone on a number called "My Best Feature," a wry self-assessment with genuinely humorous lyrics.

Melott, sharing lead-vocal time with Gibson, also played guitar, keyboard, and accordian, the latter to especially good effect on the train-beat "A Perfect World," with Gibson on vocals. His own voice often carried the laid- back sardonic quality of a Jerry Jeff Walker or Billy Joe Shaver, especially on the unabashedly country "Cheap Trucker Speed."

The only other cover song the band did in its first set was a wonderfully wild version of June Carter and Johnny Cash's "Jackson," with Melott and Gibson posturing and shouting at one another and bringing out every bit of the antagonism, insecurity and false pride in those classic lyrics.

Bobby Schaffer, playing an odd- looking upright electric bass, and drummer Todd Hall laid down a reliable part-rock, part-dancehall beat, and all members but Hall sang backup at one time or another, to good effect. Guitarist Thomason, also up front on stage, showed a distinctive style and appealing stage presence.

Simply, the Groobees put on a great show that surely appealed to folk-music and country lovers -- who both appreciate well-crafted, unpretentious lyrics -- as well as to those who like a bit more of an edge. Just like their music, the Groobees' appeal transcended boundaries. Tulsa-based favorite Jenny Labow opened the show with a 10-song acoustic set. Performing along with guitarist Nick Wheeler, and wielding her own acoustic guitar, she turned her pleasantly ethereal voice loose on nine original numbers, including a fine pop love ballad called "January" and the sparse and understated "Just A Doll." Her penultimate number found her slinging her guitar across one hip as Wheeler launched into the power chords that introduced Cheap Trick's "I Want You To Want Me." It was certainly an unexpected choice, and one that Labow pulled off engagingly.

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