Tahlequah musician Autumn Ragland has been taken part in a musical career for several years, but she has recently started to break out from her band – Ragland – for the past few months.
Autumn was a part of the band for about five to six years, before making the switch to calling the shots.
“That is one of the main reasons we switched to this is because I kind of wanted to start making all of the decisions,”Autumn said. “I wanted to have complete creative control over everything.”
With this new path, Autumn said it will allow her to spend more time with her children, as well as take the reins creatively.
“I’m still with my band,” Autumn said. “It’s just more so my name is on top of it, so I don’t go out and just play totally by myself. It’s just more like I hire them, and I pay them to play for me, and I make the decisions overall, like I’m the CEO of my own thing now.”
Autumn said she was nervous to make the transition because she was worried about how others would respond since most people knew her from the band. Her biggest concern was that her fans would not want anything to do with her after she went out on her own.
“It hasn’t been like that at all, so I don’t know why I was worried,” Ragland said. “That was definitely my biggest scare.”
Autumn said the production and studio side might change, but the overall sound and Americana genre has stayed the same.
Even though Autumn performed in Ragland for several years, she started writing songs when she was as young as 7 years old.
“I really just loved it, and coincidentally, I was able to sing pretty good, so I decided I wanted to learn how to play an instrument so I could just put all that stuff together,” Autumn said.
Some of the difficult parts of the transition has been getting used to who makes which decisions for the business, as well as not having her husband, Sam Cox, performing on stage with her. Cox has since stepped down from the stage and now works as the booking agent and tour manager for Autumn.
Autumn said when she first began performing without her husband she found it to be sort of lonely, but it has since helped her to grow more as a musician.
“I feel like I relied on Sam for so much throughout most of my career,” Autumn said. “Having to make all of these decisions now has definitely made me grow up quite a bit, and it has given me a sense of self that I didn’t have before.”
The last album – “Guardian” – Autumn released was in September 2022 when she was still a part of Ragland. While Autumn is always working on her next record, she said she does not have a set date for releasing new music.
“I just really hope people can listen to [my music] and feel like, ‘I’ve never heard anybody say my feelings like that before,’ or ‘I’ve never been able to hear what I’m feeling or thinking in a song.’ That’s always good to hear,” Autumn said.
What’s next
Autumn Ragland will be performing with Jordan Nix at the Mercury Lounge in Tulsa on Dec. 1 at 8 p.m.
