Tulsa's Carney Fest to celebrate legacy of Leon Russell with music and more: What to know

For the second straight year, the past, present and future of Tulsa's legendary Church Studio will be celebrated at Carney Fest.

An all-day, cultural music festival, the April 27 event will boast a carnival-like atmosphere and include circus performers, food vendors, art installations, nonprofit exhibitors and a live music lineup featuring headliners Mike Campbell & the Dirty Knobs.

A Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Campbell was a founding member and the lead guitarist of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. He co-wrote the group's iconic songs “Here Comes My Girl," “Refugee" and “Runnin' Down a Dream," along with hits for Stevie Nicks, Don Henley, Chris Stapleton and many more. His side gig the Dirty Knobs became his main band after Petty died in 2017.

"We're so excited to welcome him because it was 50 years ago that he and Tom Petty and Benmont Tench and the rest of (the band) Mudcrutch, which turned into Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, recorded with us. They signed to Shelter Records, which was Leon Russell's record label, and the rest is history," said Teresa Knox, current owner of The Church Studio.

"So, to bring him back 50 years later really means a lot."

How does Carney Fest celebrate the legacy of Leon Russell and The Church Studio?

The Carney Fest mission is to provide a family-friendly outdoor experience that enriches Tulsa's community’s cultural landscape through the power of music. The festival also celebrates the enduring legacy of Russell, an Oklahoma native and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, and The Church Studio he founded.

The festival is planned during Russell's birthday month and named for Russell's seminal 1972 album "Carney," which is where the event's circus themes also come into play.

Born Claude Russell Bridges on April 2, 1942, in Lawton, the future "Master of Space and Time" grew up in Tulsa, where he was playing local nightclubs at age 14. Russell was still a teenager when he went on tour with Jerry Lee Lewis, and Russell took the influential Tulsa Sound — a mix of genres like gospel, blues and country that he helped pioneer — with him when he moved to Los Angeles.

That's where Russell joined the famed studio musicians known as the Wrecking Crew, who helped Phil Spector develop his signature “Wall of Sound” and played as a pianist on countless pop albums of the 1960s.

In 1969, Russell established his own label, Shelter Records, with producer Denny Cordell, and released his self-titled solo debut, which featured Beatles John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison. In 1972, Russell bought the historic church at 304 S Trenton Ave. in Tulsa and turned it into the studio and home-state office for Shelter Records.

The Church Studio brought a veritable constellation of stars to his hometown, from Jimmy Buffett and Willie Nelson to Michael Bolton and Stevie Wonder.

Russell remained with Shelter Records until 1976, when he and Cordell decided to part ways. While the singer-songwriter kept making music until his death in 2016 at the age of 74, The Church Studio continued under the ownership of Grammy-nominated Oklahoma musician Steve Ripley for 20 years.

But the legendary studio eventually fell into disrepair, and in 2016, Knox bought it and spent more than five years renovating it. She reopened The Church Studio as a National Register of Historic Places landmark, museum and recording studio on March 1, 2022, the 50th anniversary of Russell's original purchase of the building.

"The first year (for Carney Fest) was fantastic. We had the Reverend Horton Heat as our headliner, and all of the artists that performed are clients of ours, except for our headliner last year. But this year, 100% of our musical lineup are our recording clients, including our headliner," Knox said.

"We want to afford new opportunities to current artists. We certainly don't want to stay in the past when we honor Leon and the other Tulsa Sound trailblazers. But, hopefully, the young artists are inspired."

When and where is Carney Fest and what bands are playing there?

Tulsa's second Carney Fest is set for 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, April 27, outside The Church Studio at Third Street and Trenton Avenue.

"We're in an emerging, developing neighborhood called Studio Row. Eight years ago when I bought the real estate of The Church Studio, there was nothing there. Now we have a neighborhood that's evolving with restaurants, shopping and retail that's a destination spot," Knox said.

"We've had people the past week from the UK, from Brazil, from Canada, from Australia. ... Some of it is because they're traveling Route 66 — of course, Tulsa is the epicenter of that, approaching the 100th anniversary of the Mother Road — but it's also that they love American rock 'n' roll."

This year's Carney Fest musical lineup spans from rock and country to hip hop and R&B, with the first act, Tulsa metal band She Hates Me Not, taking the stage at 11 a.m. April 27.

The bill also includes Lexi Onyango, The Stylees, Steph Simon, Austin Allsup Music, King Cabbage Brass Band, Sam Burchfield and Ann Bell and the Tulsa Sound, with Campbell and his cohorts closing out the stage.

How much are Carney Fest tickets?

General admission tickets at $49 and are available online at https://thechurchstudio.com/carney-fest-2024.

Proceeds from Carney Fest 2024 will benefit the nonprofit The Church Studio Music Foundation and its grant program that allows Oklahoma artists to record at the historic studio at no charge, Knox said.

The festival is scheduled to go on rain or shine. For updates and information, go to https://www.facebook.com/carneyfest.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Heartbreaker Mike Campbell to headline Tulsa's Carney Fest: What to know