The Oklahoma Storyteller, A Docualbum

Sarah Popejoy's first album about Oklahoma, the crossroads of the American story.

The Oklahoma Storyteller, a Docualbum

When I was in my early 30's I had a great idea for an album. I wanted to create an album that was based off Oklahoma history. It seemed like a cool idea, but I had no idea on where it would take me.

Fast Forward to 2019.

A country at the height of division and the CoVID crisis had yet to begin; books, knowledge, and history were under attack. I knew the power of songs and how they could not only teach, but help people remember. I still can tell you 50 states in alphabetical order from a song I learned in the 4th and 5th grade. And, sometimes getting in the weeds with a book is not always possible for some people’s fast paced lives. (Although, the weeds is where I thrive.) I’ve written songs for years, lived in Nashville, recorded, studied, played out, and participated in the whole singer/ songwriter thing. In 2019, at a folk songwriter retreat made famous by Dar Williams called “Writing a Song That Matters” I opened myself to this journey and wrote the first song of 15 for this album. The song was about my Grandfather who grew up during the Great Depression as a boy in Oklahoma.

Over the course of the next, almost 5 years now, I’ve read books, articles, visited historical sites (listed and unlisted), and talked with people within their communities. Some people within those communities were even unaware of the significant historical events that happened a mile or two from where they live. These events often help shape the culture and landscape of where we live today. So, understanding our history, helps build community. And even though these histories can seem isolated from the present, isolated from other states and parts of the country, whether realized or not they are very much the fabric of the American story and effect how we live today. The Trail of Tears with the Cherokee may have ended in Oklahoma but started with Georgia, greed, and gold being discovered there. However, today the man responsible for the Trail of Tears remains on every one of our American $20 bills. He is scheduled to be removed by 2030 and replaced with Harriet Tubman.¹Knowing our history helps create empathy, understanding, and tighter-knit communities. That is the goal with the first album of “The Oklahoma Storyteller” to teach and create an appetite for understanding history. These substacks are an extension of those songs that go a little deeper into the subjects.

Speaking of Communities, Let’s Talk About This One

This community, I suspect will already be at least a little versed in historical knowledge. But what I hope to encourage those within this community is sharing some of these stories through the songs and articles. We are the caretakers of those stories and when we are gone if they are not shared, the history and story themselves are gone. This reality hit me all too close to home when I lost my father in November of 2022. I realized that although I remembered some of his stories, exact details were lost because they weren’t written down or recorded. Luckily, the story of my Grandfather during the Great Depression is not only written but recorded in a song. And thankfully I was able to share that song with my Dad before he passed.

What to Expect

Once a week you can expect an article on in depth research and behind the scenes of the stories through song I’ve written. I am a big fan of the “why” instead of just dates and names. Dates are important for reference and knowing what was going on then, but they don’t tell the heart of the story, which is what I hope to emphasize in these future articles. Articles will all be free for those who are on the email list.

For those who choose, and are able to support “The Oklahoma Storyteller” substack, you will get some behind the scene photos/video of some of the places I’ve been. The landscape tells a story in and of itself and I will also follow up with explanations of what you’re looking at and how it played a part of the stories. Here’s an example…

This may just look like an old dilapidated barn, but it is the site of where Mickey Mantle, one of the New York Yankee’s greatest switch-hitting baseball players, practiced daily with his father. Mutt worked in the Picher mines to support his family and would come home and pitch to his son Mickey, using the barn as a back stop.² If you look close you can see in the second photo the indents made from baseballs.

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1. https://www.businessinsider.com/harriet-tubman-20-bill-update-redesign-timeline-2030-2021-4

2. The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, by Jane Leavy