{"id":57980,"date":"2026-02-12T20:39:37","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T20:39:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/12\/johnny-mullenax-does-sunday-brunch-the-red-dirt-way\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T20:39:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T20:39:37","slug":"johnny-mullenax-does-sunday-brunch-the-red-dirt-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/12\/johnny-mullenax-does-sunday-brunch-the-red-dirt-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnny Mullenax Does Sunday Brunch the Red Dirt Way"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n\tWhen Johnny Mullenax<\/a> drops his guitar to his side and reaches for the beer at his feet, everybody inside Mercury Lounge knows what\u2019s coming.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTeam drink!\u201d Mullenax shouts into his microphone, raising his glass to the crowd gathered in this dive bar just south of downtown Tulsa. The patrons at Mercury \u2014 which would be pushing its capacity if a hundred patrons crammed inside \u2014\u00a0raise theirs in response and duly oblige Mullenax\u2019s request. Then, Mullenax and his band launch into another jam. It may be country, folk, or blues, and it\u2019s likely electric. If you didn\u2019t know the time of day, you\u2019d swear you were in Tulsa\u2019s hottest nightclub.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut this is Bluegrass Brunch, a two-hour residency that starts just after noon every Sunday, which Mullenax founded four years ago. Today, he plays it backed by a rotating cast of Tulsa\u2019s<\/a> A-list musicians. On any given Sunday, you can find Mullenax playing a freewheeling set with drummer Jake Lynn (Wyatt Flores), keyboardist Andrew Bair (Paul Cauthen) or pedal steel player Roger Ray (former founding member of Jason Boland and the Stragglers).<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOne beautiful thing about the brunch is, we can do whatever the fuck we want there,\u201d Mullenax tells Rolling Stone<\/em>. \u201cWe can try a song and crash-and-burn it, and it\u2019s OK, because it\u2019s our weekly gig.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Mercury Lounge was already established as the home of Tulsa\u2019s independent music scene before the Bluegrass Brunch was even an idea. The converted gas station and its tiny stage was a launchpad for the career of Turnpike Troubadours<\/a> in the late 2000s. Today it\u2019s nothing to see major Red Dirt<\/a> and Americana artists such as Flores, John Moreland, Ken Pomeroy, or BJ Barham playing a show on its tiny stage \u2014 next to a sign laying out the bar\u2019s only rule: \u201cAll are welcome here except racists, sexists, homophobes, assholes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBrunch has become something of a must-experience for fans in the Tulsa scene. It also served to foster the career of the 30-year-old Mullenax.<\/p>\n

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\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\t\u201cI think it was 2021,\u201d he says. \u201cThe first Sunday in January, Ashley Kirkley from Mercury Lounge, God bless her, hit me up: \u2018Do you want to play a bluegrass brunch show at the Merc?\u2019 I\u2019d been playing bluegrass around town. She said they\u2019d open the bar early for me. Now, I\u2019d played a thousand fucking weekly gigs before this, so I thought, \u2018That\u2019s not gonna work. You\u2019re gonna open the bar early, and no one\u2019s gonna show up.\u2019 Then they showed up, and we realized we needed to get serious about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKirkley is the general manager of Mercury Lounge and is well-versed in its history and importance to Red Dirt. In the year after the pandemic, she was seeking something unique that could be a local talker, and thought a Sunday residency with the energetic, profanity-prone Mullenax would be perfect. She set up a Bloody Mary bar in one corner, and let Mullenax take care of the rest. Now, on nice days \u2014 regardless of the time of year \u2014 the Brunch crowd spills out into the venue\u2019s yard and parking lot. Kirkley credits Mullenax for making it a standard.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFrom the moment Johnny started his residency, it was a hit,\u201d Kirkley says. \u201cIt has exposed so many people to the Mercury Lounge, and seeing people from all walks of life come out and enjoy his music has been incredible. It\u2019s also been amazing to see how the band has changed and grown since its inception, and I think the sky\u2019s the limit for him now. He\u2019s an incredibly driven individual who puts his heart and soul into anything he does.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat part is equally important to Mullenax. Bluegrass Brunch afforded him the opportunity to build out a fan base beyond his hometown. Oklahoma allows medical marijuana, with relatively lax laws about advertising and sponsorships, so Mullenax approached a handful of dispensaries about sponsoring the event for a few hundred dollars a week. He saved that sponsorship money, bought a secondhand church van, and hit the road. He started booking long runs across the Midwest and Southeast, and he expanded his musical footprint in Texas. Eventually, it went well enough that Mullenax could buy a proper touring van and trailer. \u201cSeems like every few weeks, there\u2019s something new to take care of, and that\u2019ll keep you on your toes,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tMullenax was born in Tulsa into a musical family. His first paying gig was playing guitar in a Tulsa rock band called Till Metro when he was 14, though it did not mesh with his weed habit. \u201cThat was the first band that I got fired from, because I was high as fuck all the time,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s a big lesson as a kid. You\u2019re like, \u2018Oh shit. Maybe that\u2019s not acceptable.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe kept at it, though. His high school had a jazz band program, and he figured out he could cut class if he went to the jazz room and practiced. He got a fake ID when he was 18 and started writing songs. Over the past decade, he has refined both his music and lyrics. This shows in his most popular streaming number, 2025\u2019s \u201cCouple Extra Hours,\u201d in which he laments his wanton ways through a refrain of \u201cI said, man, what do you need\/He said a couple extra hours, same for you and me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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