Community Focus: Oklahoma City's varied music scene

OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — Oklahoma City's live music scene continues to grow, and more artists of different genres are making a space for themselves. Being a musician is often a passion project for many artists. In Oklahoma, you might be accustomed to hearing some red dirt or country, but many different genres are growing in popularity.

“I remember the first time, getting a guitar. My mom brought it from Mexico. She went down to visit her family, and she brought it back and it is just classical flamenco style guitar, and just like started playing,” says Jose Hernandez, musician.

Gigs are the life blood of local artists. Hernandez says he plays weddings and the bar scene. He credits his start to places like JJ’s Alley, and says places like this in OKC provide a lot of opportunity for local musicians.

Who is Hernandez as a musician? He says his love of music is fueled by his Latino heritage, but as an artist, he started with folk and country. Right now, he says that his sound has more of an R & B/ Soul vibe.

“Oklahoma has a very big niche on red dirt music, country music, folk music, which is great-- but sometimes they forget that there are a lot of awesome rap groups, there are a lot of awesome r and b groups,” says Hernandez when talking about Oklahoma City’s variety of Music.

As Oklahoma City’s local music scene continues to develop, Hernandez says the public should go out a support local acts, no matter the genre because there is plenty of talent in the city.

Hernandez is also a part of a band named J + The Bishops -- They play in Oklahoma and out of state, and are releasing new music next month.