Well, this is interesting. From the Tulsa World:
The Oklahoma Historical Society hopes to bring its first facility to Tulsa in the form of a $33 million museum of music and popular culture located in the Brady District.
Plans for the museum, which will be half the size of the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City and similar in appearance, will be unveiled Tuesday.
Bob Blackburn, Oklahoma Historical Society executive director, said the museum will cover music, movies, television, radio and westerns. […]
It will also cover Route 66, he said.
“Oklahoma is in the middle of the image of Route 66,” Blackburn said.
More details are coming at the news conference at 1 p.m. Tuesday.
My first reaction is I don’t have a problem with two museums in town dealing with Route 66. The second one, at Southwest Boulevard and 11th Street, will be a lot more comprehensive about the Mother Road. The music museum, I suspect, will detail Route 66’s influence on Oklahoma music, much like Highway 61, aka the Blues Highway, influenced that genre.
Second, I think a museum dedicated to Oklahoma music is overdue. I constantly marvel at the sheer number and quality of musicians that the Sooner State produces in spite of its relatively low population. And although the timing of the announcement probably was coincidental, the death of former basketball star and local jazz musician Wayman Tisdale a few days ago seems to underscore the need for such a museum.