STILLWATER OKLAHOMA MAGAZINE / 45
Rock music is making a comeback.
For some of us it never left.
Stillwater in the late 90s through the mid- 2000s was a mecca for rock, punk and alternative music. Most of my guy friends were in bands, and I grew up with a musician brother. You could find a band jamming out in garages and backyards all over town. Eskimo Joe ' s would even host Battle of the Bands competitions and have live music almost every weekend.
Stillwater is known for its Red Dirt scene, but many of us know that great music from other genres have come out of Stillwater including The All- American Rejects, Taddy Porter and Other Lives. If you ' ve been on social media lately you ' ve seen AAR ' s popularity soaring with their surprise backyard concerts all over the country the past few weeks. Getting back to their roots is top priority for these boys from Oklahoma as they ' ve just announced they ' re working on a new rock album.
More venues around town are opening up their spaces to live music including Stonecloud, Bad Brad ' s and The Bait Shop. Block 34 is also looking promising for hosting bands and music festivals, and we now know that Stillwater can handle a major concert series. There are still a lot of seasoned musicians in town who love to perform live. One of them is Steve Bynum.
After spending almost 20 years as a musician in Los Angeles, Steve relocated to Stillwater. He ' s a multi-instrumentalist and has performed at iconic LA venues the Roxy and Whiskey a Go Go over the years. Steve teaches guitar, bass, and banjo lessons at his studio – Steve ' s Workshop – here in town. As many businesses had to adjust during the pandemic, so did his in-person guitar lessons. Steve started teaching some of his old students through online classes. As he built this new business model, he started acquiring students from all over the country. As technology has evolved, Steve is now able to teach lessons worldwide and currently has a student in Qatar.
The majority of the music he teaches is alternative and rock, but the musical tastes of his students are all across the board. The overseas crowd loves The Cranberries and Radiohead. I got to sit in on his lesson with teenager Weston Bird, and he was learning " Astronaut in the Ocean "( please You- Tube it). Steve ' s Workshop is set up like an actual stage, complete with concert lighting. Steve has recently gotten into building his own wooden slide guitars, and some even have Abalone Shell embellishments. He wanted to make acoustic slide guitars that don ' t require an amp. He ' s even sold a couple.
It makes my rocker girl heart happy that people are still embracing good ol ' rock ' n roll! For information on lessons or a tour of his studio, you can contact Steve at 405-937-6069.
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Steve with handcrafted acoustic slide guitar
STORY BY: JENNIFER JALBERT Stillwater Oklahoma Magazine
PHOTOS by JENNIFER JALBERT
STILLWATER OKLAHOMA MAGAZINE / 45