Wyatt Flores-Oklahoma City-10.10.24

Wyatt Flores at The Criterion in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on October 10, 2024.

Photos and Review by The Pit Magazine Contributor Nicole Pollock.

Wyatt Flores has been a continuously growing country artist, especially loved by the people in his home state of Oklahoma where he kicked off his Welcome to the Plains Tour. The young artist has had a busy year already releasing the beloved Milwaukee single in January, then an EP titled Half Life that was released in April. Wyatt also participated in the, in my opinion, amazing and genius project that is Twisters: The Album where his contribution was released in July.

Looking at this year alone I would say Wyatt is a productive and ambitious musician who is seeing the benefits of his hard work as he sold out the opening night of his tour with Lance Roark. Wyatt also announced a new album that would be released October 18, Welcome to the Plains.

The Criterion in Oklahoma City was packed with country music loving fans looking their best in cowboy boots and western wear. I had never heard of Lance Roark before but I was impressed by the performance put on by him and his band. He took the stage solo with the spotlight on him for the intro of his first song. Then the rest of the band took their places and the lights were raised. Obviously they are performers but it seemed more like a comfortable, end of tour, well-rehearsed and memorized set even though it was the opening night of Wyatt’s tour.

Lance got personal with the audience, telling a sweet story of meeting his wife and how they had been together for years. The Criterion was full of lovers with arms wrapped around each other and hands held as Lance invited his wife on stage and sang her a love song, it was such a beautiful and unexpected moment of love.

I would describe Wyatt Flores as a traditional country/ folk artist so I think it was fitting that his show was not super flashy where a pop artist or rapper may include intense effects or dancers. He took the stage with his band while the lights were low, smile spread across his face, and started his opening song. There was no grand introduction with the lights or dramatic music needed because Wyatt Flores himself is such a treasure (especially to Okies). His stage setup was simple with enough open space for him to walk around with his guitar and have moments with different members of the band.

During one of his songs, he made his way over to the beautiful fiddle player, Kenzie, with his acoustic guitar and they played together for part of the song with smiles that showed us just how much they enjoy performing. Wyatt and his band performed his (at the time) unreleased song titled Little Town for the first time to his home state the night before it was released. The stage presence from everyone in the band was full and entertaining while still very much fitting the genre that we were there to experience.

Wyatt’s discography tends to be on the softer, folk side with raw emotion in his lyrics and occasional fiddle that pulls at your heartstrings. The voice of the audience was the echo of Wyatt as they sang the songs they love along with him. The experience of seeing Wyatt in concert was so beautiful, his performance and the attitude of the audience. I would highly recommend seeing Wyatt Flores in concert and I would highly recommend checking out his music as he is rapidly growing artist.