Welcome to Oklahoma Music 101

Brief Introduction:

My name is David Joachims, I am a musician and writer, and I’ve lived in Oklahoma for most of my life. In 2020, I began engaging heavily with the Oklahoma music scene while producing a monthly “release roundup” under a brand called Circle Lotus Media, listening to any and all local artists I could find.

Since summer 2024, I’ve been consistently updating my own playlist called Oklahoma Music 101, a curated collection of music from artists across Oklahoma, presented for anyone to engage with and learn more about the diverse spectrum of sound forming across the state.

About OKM101:

In this publication I will recommend and review music from Oklahoma artists. These reviews are not meant to be exhaustive, but rather to entice listeners to form their own connections, and to encourage people to engage more with the music made by those in their community.

I might give context about an artist, I might analyze lyrics or breakdown musical structure, I might go off pure vibes.

This collection is not comprehensive—hence the 101—nor is it attempting to distinguish what “the best” music is.

My focus is primarily on contemporary (read: active) artists, so the majority of these selections will have been released relatively recently, although I might also occasionally highlight past projects that may have slipped under the radar or are worth revisiting.

If you want to skip the words and get straight to the tunes, any of these recommendations will be available on the Oklahoma Music 101 Playlist, alongside hundreds of Oklahoma artists.