Oklahoma's own, Mike Hosty

With a combination of upbeat drums, bluesy guitar rifts and satire relating to current events, Mike Hosty’s one-man band performances have entertained crowds on Campus Corner for years.

            Hosty received his first guitar when he was 9 years old and has played since.

“I got a Takeharu Special Acoustic nylon string guitar from Larson Music in OKC," Hosty said. "I got it to look just like Willie Nelson.” 

            Hosty embraced the college-town atmosphere of Norman and ran with it.

“I sort of fell into it,” Hosty said. “I was playing in pick up bands and playing frat parties. The frat and sorority shows really help give a nice paycheck to musicians in college towns.

Mike Hosty entertains a small crowd on Sunday night at
The Deli, 309 White Street, Norman. Fans sway to
the music as Hosty performs "Country Boy."

“I didn’t know a whole lot of covers, so I started writing my own and telling the folks in the audience it was from someone else.”

Melissa Smith, a five year fan of Hosty, enjoys his ability to incorporate the audience when he performs.

“I’d have to say my favorite part about his shows is how involved the crowd gets.”

            Kim Cory, fan, is moved by Hosty’s lyrics and energy.

“I like the lyrics that he gives us,” Cory said. "He reminds me of Bob Dylan. I think it’s amazing how one person can move so many people. The energy is just - it’s almost unbelievable.”           

   

Norman band introduces new music in anticipation of their second self-produced album.

The Samurai Conquistadors, a six-piece band from Norman, performed several of their newly engineered songs in front of an intimate crowd at 9 pm, February 11. The show took place at the Opolis, 113 N. Crawford in Norman.

            “Friday night, I think we played five songs off of the new album, four or five,” drummer Zach Nedbalek said. “We’ve got a little more than that tracked right now though. We’ve just kind of been adding more and more new songs every show we play,” Nedbalek said.

            The band has come to find, through recording and playing live shows, that their new music has a relatively wider appeal with their audience. “We really have been trying to not get obscure with our music,” Nedbalek said. “We’re not trying to alienate people, we’re trying to make them groove.

“A lot of our music has gotten more centered, less sporadic I guess. We didn’t plan it like that, it’s just what we started doing for ourselves first and then we realized it’s very similar to our old stuff, just a little easier for people to get into, I think.”

 The crowd gazed and moved in unison with the tempo of the music. “They reminded me a lot of Neva Dinova and Modest mouse, with their horn section,” newly acquired fan Jay Shropshire said of the band’s sound.

“They had a kind of slow core kind of rock. It was pretty cool.

            “I checked out their songs on Facebook, but before Friday, that’s all I knew. I’m definitely going to check them out again.”

            The Samurai Conquistadors anticipate the release of their new album to be within the next several months. “We’re hoping and we’re going to try really hard for it to come out in the summer,” Nedbalek said. “We’ve got a little more than half of it recorded right now, so I’m pretty optimistic.”