New Release From Tulsa’s Jacob Tovar Brings Old-time Honky Tonk to a New Generation

Like a time machine, Jacob Tovar’s voice can transport you to another era, circa 1940. A time when Western swing was king, and Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys were royalty, filling Tulsa’s Cain’s Ballroom with a danceable blend of jazz, blues, big band, and country. A time when honky-tonkers like Hanks Williams and Webb Pierce ruled the airwaves. While Tovar’s beautiful baritone is a perfect fit for those classic country tunes, he and his talented band the Saddle Tramps are no one-trick pony nostalgia act. Yes, the band is a sure hit with the retirees, but just as often, Tovar finds himself playing to a crowd of his peers, millennials hip enough to know a good tune when they hear it – even if their grandparents would think so, too.

How did a young Tovar develop a taste for a style of music that was born half a century before he was? “I grew up listening to it,” Tovar explained. “My father loved that music, so did my mother and my grandparents, so I was always around them listening to that music.”

Tovar comes from a music-loving family. Although his parents never pursued music professionally, they both sang around the house. “My dad always had that classic vocal-break, yodel-type voice, that Hank [Williams] sound, so I think that’s where I got it.”

Tovar’s father even sang Tovar and his brothers to sleep, although not with your typical nursery lullaby. “Going to sleep at night, my father used to sing [Hank William’s] ’There’s a Tear in my Beer’. I say that on stage a lot just to say how screwed up of a song that is to sing to your kids to put them to sleep,” Tovar laughed.

Tovar’s brother Joshua (who passed away last year) was a talented guitarist who shared his love of classic country music with his younger brother. “He was a phenomenal picker, just a wonderful ‘chicken picker’,” Tovar remembered. “He studied country picking, and he really got into it heavy at a young age, and of course, he was a big influence on me and my musical taste.”

Tovar and the Saddle Tramps release their eponymous debut album next month on the Horton Records label. A collection of ten songs (a combination of covers and originals) performed by a group of talented players, the album recalls the rich vocals, twangy guitar, and toe-tapping rhythms of the classic country sound of the 30s, 40s and 50s, but in the hands of these gifted, young musicians, these tunes are equally at home in the bars, clubs and honky tonks of the 21^st Century.

Tovar is happy to be a honky tonk ambassador for a whole new generation of fans. After all, it’s a sound that’s easy to love. “You know, if you like music, you’re going to like that style,” he said of the genre. “What is there not to like? It’s good vocals. You’re really putting your heart and soul into it, and then the guitar work; it’s beautiful. It’s fun to listen to, fun to dance to, fun to move to. It’s fun music, so I don’t see why people wouldn’t like it!” 

*Jacob Tovar Photo Credit: Phil Clarkin

*Album cover art: Thomas Self

-With permisson from Red Dirt Nation.