After months of renting out the Emporia Granada Theatre for special performances and presentations, the theater’s management will sponsor its first concert in the recently renovated building.
The program will feature two bands, Oakleaf and the Jared Daniels Band.
Oakleaf will be in Kansas City and in Manhattan on Wednesday and Thursday next week before coming to Emporia on March 13, for the concert.
Oakleaf describes itself in a news release as “a rock band laced with southern influence.” It is led by Lewis Brice and David Oakleaf.
David Oakleaf, who moved to Nashville three years ago, was reared in Howard, two counties south of Emporia in Elk County. He spent some of his childhood riding horseback and participating in team roping before music overtook him.
“Living in Howard, there’s not a whole lot to do as a kid unless you’re outdoors,” Oakleaf said in a telephone interview this week. “I kind of picked up the guitar as a hobby, I guess.”
By the time he was about 11, he was going to Jerry’s Little Opry in Howard.
“That’s kind of when I started playing with all the old-timers, the old pickers and grinners,” Oakleaf said. “It started off as just a pastime, something to do. It ended up more of a passion.”
Oakleaf said he attended Emporia State University from 1998 to 2000, then transferred to Kansas State University in Manhattan to complete a degree in communication, TV and radio production with a minor in music.
“We perform all types of music, and I like all types of music,” he said. “I think it’s good to have a broad mind, appreciate all types.”
Oakleaf the musician previously played in the Tin Til Blue band in Manhattan.
Oakleaf the band came together as a group after he moved to Nashville, where Lewis Brice had moved from his hometown in Sumter, S.C. The pair appeared in 2008 on CMT’s “Can You Duet” show, vying with other duos for a recording contract.
In Nashville, they met drummer Zach Grindle of Houston and Bruce Holloway and Colin Street, who both were from Tasmania, Australia’s smallest state. The Australians were successful in their home country before moving to Tennessee to join its song-writing community.
“Everyone has brought something to the table from a different culture, a different part of the world, and I think it shows in the music,” Oakleaf said. “It’s kind of cool.”
While Oakleaf plays rhythm acoustic and electric guitar and harmonica, Holloway plays lead guitar and Street plays bass.
“There’s a hint of southern rock harmonies,” Oakleaf said. “We’ve got four-part harmonies. The music we’re doing now, it’s got country roots but it definitely has more of a rock side of it, too, so it’s kind of modern country rock is how we would describe it.”
Their songs, often written by members of the group, hold threads of stories and the emotions that go with them; much of it is up-tempo and energetic.
“I like up-tempo stuff because, man, I like to have a good time,” Oakleaf said. “I’m full of energy, the guys are all full of energy and I guess we portray that to our audience.”
Oakleaf said he is happy for another opportunity to perform in concert, rather than the “honky tonks” and other venues that often are part of the group’s tour schedule.
In concert, he said, the audience is there only to enjoy the music, not to drink or socialize while a band plays in the background.
“I think that’s where you really see us shine, where we’re having a good time,” Oakleaf said. “We all just enjoy entertaining the crowd.”
The Kansas-based Jared Daniels Band will open the show. Oakleaf met Jared Daniels band members during an earlier swing through Kansas.
“We didn’t even really know who they were at first,” Oakleaf said. “... Those guys followed us to every single show. Their manager, I actually went to high school with.”
Jared Daniels Band will perform with Oakleaf in Emporia and in a next-day show at Caney.
“Being from Kansas, we want to help support the local music as well, so we think it’s important to include the local guys that are trying to do the same thing that we’re doing.”
Oakleaf said he is eager to perform at the Granada.
“I’ve heard it’s beautiful,” he said. “The sound system’s state-of-the-art.”
Oakleaf also is involved as a volunteer with the non-profit Musicians On Call, which brings live and recorded music to bedsides of patients in health care facilities. The group also raised $19,000 last year to help provide ongoing cancer treatment for a Kansas child.
Doors will open at 7 p.m. for the 8 p.m. performance. Tickets, at a cost of $15 each, are available at the Granada Theatre, Granada Coffee Co. and the Sweet Granada.
The bands’ performances have been underwritten by Roberts-Blue-Barnett Funeral Home, Mike Turnbull, Liquor Locker, Bad Ol’ Bern’s, CoreFirst Bank & Trust, Sigma Tau Gamma, and Michael and Joyce Reynolds.
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