Cain's Ballroom

Cain's Ballroom is a music venue in Tulsa, OK. It was built in 1924 to serve as a garage for one of Tulsa's founders, Tate Brady. Madison W. "Daddy" Cain purchased the building in 1930 and named it Cain's Dance Academy where he charged $0.10 for dance lessons. The academy was the site of the Texas Playboys' first regular radio broadcast where they continued to play regularly. In 1976, Larry Schaeffer purchased the building, refurbished it, and reopened it with the current name, Cain's Ballroom. In 1978, Cain's Ballroom was one of only a few venues to host the Sex Pistols in their only American tour.

Hosting the Sex Pistols underlined the Cain's Ballroom as the pioneering force of the history of Rock and Roll. It also opened the door to the second British Invasion in several sectors of the USA.

As early as 1927, the Tulsa Oklahoma structure was already making international headlines in the music industry. The original owner / commission investor of the building, Tate Brady, used this building as a garage upon its construction in 1924. His garage was soon renamed "The Louvre" and opened to the public. It quickly became an internationally known night spot for the nouveau riche oil boom town. At the time, the international playground for the oil elite was entangled in prohibition. Oklahoma catered to its oil elite, however, with gin joints, speakeasies, 'reputable houses', and boot leg border running. Needless to say, by 1929, this corner stone establishment effectively changed hands to suit the social environment standards.

'Daddy Cain' entered the scene. His involvement in Tulsa society on many fronts led to a turning point in the history of music and the role Cain's played in it. Hosting dance lessons and evening gatherings under the new clean cut name of Cain's Dance Academy, the hot spot hit full gear. Jazz, rag, blues, country, and other hot foot popular genres, were among the band styles booked consistantly.

Among this music rebellion seated in the lap of luxury, was a then un-named genre of music which was popular in the southern states. At the time, it was commonly known as "that hot hillbilly music". The musicians involved in this movement were the core root of what became known as Western Swing which gave birth to Rock and Roll.

Western Swing formed through a subversive net work of musicians across the country. Its home base was found in the oil elite states of Texas and Oklahoma. These musicians 'spoke' the language of music which was undergoing a drastic evolution of creativity and expirimentation. From Harlem, to New Orleans, to Chicago, to Oklahoma, to Texas and beyond, these artists were breaking the barriers of social taboo through music. During this time, racial and financial barriers were quite severe in the United States. Oklahoma, known as No Man's Land, held the keystone. The evolution of jazz had been rooted there since the early 1900's.

Cain's was well known for the artistry and diversity of musicians it hosted.

One of these artists was Bob Wills. Following the oil boom, there was an oil bust which heralded the Great Depression across the USA. Bob Wills entered the scene in the early years of these circumstances. By 1932, Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys took the basics of jazz, rag, honky tonk, blues, country, cowboy music, dixie land, swing, early big band and other genres to define the future of popular music. Their home base was Cain's Dance Academy.

Even in the midst of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys would pack thousands of dancers into Cain's each night they played. Their radio broadcast performances from KVOO (1934 - 1942) in conjunction with Cain's were heard coast to coast by popular demand. This unbefore seen level of popularity was due, in part, to their mastery of music and the dazzling Band Man Bob Wills. He led hundreds of musicians through three decades in Cain's with that famous grin which still holds court inside a picture frame hanging by Cain's stage today.

With Bob call-leading the band, they could play any song in their line up and customize it to a style or genre to suit the audience's evening. Harlem Jazz and New Orleans Dixie Land fused with the underlying rhythm of Blues, Swing and gin joint Honkey Tonk in a racially divided nation played by a Cherokee & White cowboy music swing band in Dust Bowl Depression No Man's Land formed the back bone of modern music inside the walls of Cain's Ballroom. Cain's and and the Boys defied racial, financial, and social boundaries with lyrics, music, and the first full force music and movie publicity campaign coast to coast.

Cain's Ballroom, KVOO and the Bob Wills legacy musically owned the country coast to coast for over thirty years.

The evolutions, inventions, and standard set outlines for swing, big band, and rock and roll evolved inside Cain's. The Texas Playboys' guitars and Bob's over hand fiddle work laid the foundation standards for modern music. All the early Rock n Roll greats were influenced by 'that guitar sound' that 'Tulsa sound' that 'Cain's hop' as can be heard in examples such as Twin Guitar Boogie, Fat Boy Rag and Cadillac in Model 'A'. Their drummers broke boundaries along side the piano players setting standards for modern percussion work, and even drums being allowed to be used on stage at The Grand Old Opry.

Their relentless touring created a new set of standards few modern musicians could keep pace with. They would travel hundreds of miles in a bus (remember, this is the 30's and 40's) for a one night dance hall set, return the next day to Tulsa for a KVOO Cain's live broadcast, do it again the next day and the next and the next all the while making it home to play Cain's Ballroom every Thursday and Saturday night.

Cain's polished wood dance floor rests on a series of springs which, well into the early hours of the mornings of the 1930's and 1940's and 1950's, would 'rock' and 'roll' in time to a churning mass of hundreds of dancers crammed back to back inside Cain's dancing in tandem. All the genres of dance from Jazz and Hot Foot to cowboy and American folk, to Dixie Land and walzing fused together to create dances which we now associate with Big Band Swing, Hop, and yes, even Rock n Roll. Riots of the kind never known before in music halls would break out as Bob and the Boys would play on. By 1938 the classic glossy 'star' head shot photo solidified out of Cain's and the Texas Playboys. That famous grinning Band Man glossy was included in a mail order exclusive book Hubin' It by Ruth Sheldon. The modern system of fan clubs is found in the roots of Cain's. Ruth Thomason was the clever Bob Will's fan who set the modern standards and led the way for fans swooning over stars from crooners to hip shakers. By the 1950's in the early years of rock n roll, Cain's was the birth place of 'turf' and those classic 'greaser gangs'. Rolled up Levi's found their way into fashion as dancers would file into Cain's straight from the cotton fields, ranches, and factories in their regimental cuff rolled blues.

In the late 1960's, Cain's went dark for a brief time as the onset of mass Rock and Roll took the limelight. It was purchased by 82 year old Marie Mayers, a Bob Will's traditionalist, in 1972. She planned to re-open Cain's as a full time dance hall. It experienced very limited success with traditional dance evenings and concert rentals. However limited it might have been, this began the renovation and next phase of history for Cain's.

In 1976, the year after Bob Wills passed away, Marie sold Cain's Ballroom to rock concert investor Larry Shaeffer, also a Bob Wills traditionalist. His investment in Cain's focussed on reviving the original elements and structure to its true historic roots. Late 1977 marked the re-opening of Cain's Ballroom with a concert by Elvin Bishop.

The Sex Pistols were booked through Malcom Mclaren in early 1978. The deep roots of Cain's influence remained. If Cain's would host this unruly, rank, publicity-riddled band from the UK, others followed suit. Cain's opened their doors and history was made. Past and future, two sides of the ocean, face to face, the history and branched history of music subversion had come home.

The Sex Pistols, members of the original Punk movement in the UK, were ironically a product of the original genres and influences which brought Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys to Cain's. Western Swing. The blues, rag, jazz, dixie land and swing influences which Bob and the Boys fused and evolved in those early years, had found their way to the UK in the fourties and fifties. Many of these early artists worked in the same subversive, underground circles along side Bob and even Cain's.

Many compilations found on the juke box in McLaren's original "Let it Rock" store front and later the subversive store front "SEX" shop, which he founded with Vivienne Westwood, can be traced directly to the Blues, Jazz, and Rag artists who made the first break through into the United Kingdom via Cain's influence through Bob Wills' international status.

(see Only Lovers Left Alive productions associated with Marco Pirroni for historical compilations of these juke box influences which the Punk music movement was inspired by. http://onlyloversleftalive.co.uk/)

After the Sex Pistols gig, Cain's enjoyed a wild range of successes primarily in music bookings and oddity performances. In the 1980's, Cain's embarked on a new Inter-continental fusion in rock history. Shaeffer took a business partner named David Souders who was influetial in the underground 'New Wave' scene. Tucked away in Tulsa was a branch of this 'Post Punk' movement. It was connected to Cain's and the tradition of subversive music expirimentation. Souders orchestrated the influx of international artists in this growing genre and solidified this emerging movement, once again, with-in the now sacred halls of Cain's Ballroom.

In 1994, Marco Pirroni and Adam Ant performed at Cain's while That Top Hand Famous Band Man Bob Wills' photograph grinned silently at the stage. Marco and Adam had created a new root movement, a new musical subversion after the official death of the original Punk movement.(Time of death: 12:03 am, the first day of January, 1977) Their work opened the door to the evolution of the 'New Wave' movement.

The reason this new root subversion happened? Malcom McLaren had 'appropriated' Adam's band during the Punk years. Adam simply liked the way that original Sex Pistols musician Marco played his guitar and got in touch with him. The rest, as they say, is history.

The new millenium has seen new ownership and an increase in acts, including Ministry, Bob Dylan, Marilyn Manson, Peter Murphy, Mighty Mighty Boss Tones, Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins, Cherry Poppin' Daddies, Jars of Clay, Dixie Chicks, The Melvins, and a vast array of our modern age of musical subversion and expirimentation.

Cain's was famous for hosting acts before they became internationally famous such as The Police, Pat Benatar, INXS, Huey Lewis & the News, and Van Halen.

Other artists and groups of note that have played at Cain's: Robert Plant, Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, Morrissey, George Clinton, Leon Russell, Wilco, 311, Nine Inch Nails, the Wailers, Gov't Mule, the Roots, Incubus, Marilyn Manson, Frank Black, Ted Nugent, Ministry, the Strokes, Beck, Sonic Youth, Foo Fighters, KoЯn, Limp Bizkit, The Killers, Primus, the Dandy Warhols, Tommy Lee, Melissa Etheridge, GWAR, Vanilla Ice, the Deftones, Death Cab For Cutie, Brooks & Dunn, moe., the Cult, Mountain, Queens of the Stone Age, Three Days Grace, Hurt, Shinedown, Cross Canadian Ragweed & Blues Traveler.

External links

• Cain's Ballroom Site

• WSM references

Lyrics, music, and spoken word resources of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys.

Discussions between 1976 - 2002 with local Oklahoma & Texas artists / musicians / historians.

Archives, records (recorded discs), and collected data of artists referring to American Recording Company, Vocalion records, Okeah records, MGM, Columbia recording and movie studios

"The King Of Western Swing Bob Wills Remembered" by Rosetta Wills Billboard Books First print - 1988

Fiddlin' Man: The life and Times of Bob Wills DVD - V.I.E.W video, Hal Leonard Corporation First release - 1996

Oklahoma history & news archives

Tulsa World

Country Music Hall of Fame

Rock And Roll Hall of Fame

Cowboy Hall of Fame (National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum)

• http://www.tulsaworld.com
• http://www.sandspringsmuseum.org/Virtual%20Tour%20WS.htm
• http://www.texasplayboys.net/Biographies/bobwillsbio.htm
• http://www.newforums.com/JFKsampleTulsa.htm