Bringing country back

In a country music landscape littered with frat-boy party anthems and glittery pop princesses, Jacob Tovar mines the tradition of the genre’s Honky-tonk roots.

(page 2 of 2)

Heartened by the encouragement from musicians he so admired, Tovar eventually built up his nerve and began “crashing their gigs” to sing a few songs, he said, and was soon offered his own standing gig at The Colony, dubbed “Honky-Tonk Happy Hour,” for which he recruited slide guitarist (and master luthier) Seth Lee Jones, and the wunderkind electric guitarist Cooper Waugh. The trio had so much fun that they gave themselves a name—The Saddle Tramps—and started getting more and more gigs around town, eventually around the state and the region, playing venues from Enid to Stillwater to Oklahoma City to Norman. Tovar earned an invite to play the Folk Alliance International showcase in Kansas City this year, and he has achieved what’s regarded as a pinnacle for any Tulsa musician: performing on the legendary Cain’s Ballroom stage. 

“Just to have the opportunity to step foot on that stage is amazing,” he said. “But to perform on it, where so many greats have performed, so many of my heroes—it’s one of the proudest achievements of my life.” 

Several Tulsa music heavyweights have said that Tovar is primed for breakout success far beyond the Sooner state. Some say it’s simply a matter of time and circumstance. Others say it could be a matter of overcoming one last hurdle. 

“I challenge him every day to write more,” said Burcham, who started as one of Tovar’s most fervent cheerleaders and has since become one of his dearest friends. “I know he can write great songs. He’s always got great stories to tell. He just needs more confidence. But, you know, it takes a lot of balls to write something from your heart and share it with people. I think the more he does it, and gets a positive response from an audience, that’ll give him the hunger to do it more and more.”

Burcham and other local songwriters are so steadfast in their belief in Tovar’s talent that they’ve gathered for group songwriting sessions, aiming to beef up his catalog of originals, and to offer him guidance, to coax him into realizing his natural capability. 

“Wink and those guys always say, ‘Don’t tell me you’re not a songwriter. You get up there and tell stories that entertain people, that captivate people. All you have to do is put that into a song.’

“I just haven’t found it yet. I haven’t overcome the fear yet.”

Not that Tovar doesn’t perform any original material. Two originals he co-wrote, “Tips and Beer” and “Good Spirits,” are among the strongest tunes in his repertoire, which also includes Honky-tonk and Western swing standards such as “Hey Good Lookin’” by Hank Williams, and “Take Me Back to Tulsa” by hometown hero Bob Wills. But at most local gigs, the expectation is for three or four hours of music, and Tovar simply doesn’t have the backlog of original material yet.

“I’m sure he’ll work his way into more songwriting,” said Jesse Aycock, the Tulsa-based musician currently touring nationally with rock supergroup the Hard Working Americans. “But the thing is, with the kind of music he plays, it’s not as necessary. Part of the tradition of old Honky-tonk music is to interpret. Some of the greatest Honky-tonk players didn’t write many songs. They were interpreters of songs that are part of the tradition. And Jacob is a phenomenal interpreter.”

Indeed, one of Honky-tonk’s most revered and enduring artists, Waylon Jennings (the namesake of Tovar’s firstborn), recorded more than 60 albums over a career spanning five decades, yet wrote fewer than 20 of the hundreds of songs he recorded. It was his unique and powerful voice, and his ability to inject his own soul into a song, that made him a country music legend.

What that means for Tovar and his musical trajectory remains to be seen. He could continue to hone his songwriting chops, or he could follow in the tradition of Honky-tonk interpretation. In the end, it may not even matter. Like Waylon, it’s Tovar’s one-of-a-kind voice—a booming baritone, with lilting hints of down-home twang, bouncing with ease from barroom boisterousness to tender vulnerability—that stands to propel him to the heights of his Honky-tonk heroes.

Nashville may crank out a hundred who have the look of a country music star, with their perfect hats and their shiny boots. But that sound—the sound of authentic country music—is not something that can be taught, or learned, or manufactured. That sound comes from a place. 

Jacob Tovar is from that place. 

 WATCH: Jacob Tovar performs his original tune “Tips and Beer,” featuring accompaniment by Wink Burcham and Cody Clinton, at the Woody Guthrie Center. TheTulsaVoice.com/tovar

GO: See Tovar perform every Monday at R Bar with Jeff Coleman. He’ll play with his band The Saddle Tramps Aug. 21 at Mercury Lounge. For more dates as they become available, make a habit of visiting TheTulsaVoice.com/calendar

LISTEN: Jacob Tovar & The Saddle Tramps’ “Good Spirits” appears on the Horton Records compilation “The Colony Presents: New Tulsa Folks,” available at HortonRecords.com and select local retailers.