Friday Night Jam Features Music and Laughs

By Darren Brown, News9.com INsite team

MIDWEST CITY, Okla. -- Friday nights in Midwest City are fairly quiet, unless you happen to be at Sooner Acoustic Music.  

That's when pickers, strummers and watchers from all over the metro come out for the Friday Night Acoustic Jam.  And just because the instruments aren't plugged in doesn't mean that they're not loud.  

Terry and Annie Thrower opened Sooner Acoustic Music just 5 years ago, to serve the metro Bluegrass community.  They held their first jam shortly thereafter.  They weren't really sure how it would go over. 

"Our first jam we had, what, four people, and it's grown since then," said Annie.

That's an understatement.  The jam regularly draws 30-50 people.  It also draws many different instruments.  Banjos, guitars, and fiddles are a staple, but the jam also features mandolins and dobros.

Annie plays, piano, bass, and guitar, and teaches mandolin and dobro.  But it's her talent with a banjo that earned her multiple appearances on the Grand Ole Opry years ago.

Many of her current and former students attend the jam, all at varying skill levels on their instruments.  But for Annie, that's what makes Friday nights so enjoyable.

"It's the one thing that bonds all of us," Thrower said.  "We may never work together, we may not even get along in society, but you put us in a room and jammin', there's the glue."  

Annie's passion for music and laughter is not lost on her husband Terry.

He watches her from across the room, while he's keeping time on his stand-up bass.  And he can't help but smile.

"It's like a magic carpet ride to watch her," he said.  "It's almost a fairy tale thing, she lives for these Friday nights."