Gary Ogan

O’siyo Friends – I created this, my first blog, around the time I started working with Darrell Scott roughly eight years ago. It was only acitve for a couple of years and in recently reviewing the few entries I managed to post over that period, I was delighted to have documented my memories of that rich time. And delighted enough that I’ve opted to include them here now. It won’t be easy to bridge the time or impart how much has happened since that last posting in 2007, but let’s see what we’ve got.

From 2006 through 2009, I toured fairly steadily as the singing drummer in the Darrell Scott Band. We were usually never out for more than a few days at a time, but over the four years we managed to cover a lot of ground and play for a large number of critical music lovers around the world. I was exposed for the first time to a huge contingent of music lovers I had never seen, much less up close and personal. This is one of the many gratifying insights I was able to bring away from the experience. The world is still full of people that need their live music, and it’s still a life-altering joy to be able to provide it.

By around 2009 Darrell had accepted an offer to join Robert Plant’s Band Of Joy, which kept him occupied for the next couple of years at least. As luck would have it though, I was about to have to drop the bomb that he couldn’t rely on me for awhile anyway though, as I was about to begin promoting my own new product, which he was hugely responsible for me creating by the way. Things oddly and suddenly took care of themselves without me having to do anything, and that’s how I began working with Darrell too. Here’s the story.

I had just celebrated the five-year mark in a band I had been drumming in, when it became prudent for me to move on from that situation. On the day I gave notice, I was promptly lamenting that I suddenly had no outlet for drumming, aside from whatever time I put in at home. On the evening of that same day though, while out to dinner with friends, a call came from Nashville. The next day I found out I was being asked if I had any interest in auditioning as the drummer/singer in the Darrell Scott Band. Oddly, over the previous couple of years I had become a huge fan of Darrell’s work, and if someone had walked up to me the day before and asked what I would most like to do musically, I would have said “play drums in the Darrell Scott band”. For me it was more than a gentle reminder that sometimes by being more proactive with the tougher calls in life, we actually manifest what we want, and without having to wait. This was soon shown to me again the next time I tried the exercise.

After meeting Darrell I decided to take some advice he had offered up via telling me how he liked to work as a producer, by only accepting that kind of work from artists whose writing he absolutely loved, and artists for whom he thought he could bring something meaningful to the table as a producer. I had to cringe at the thought of what I might be setting myself up for by adopting a similar work ethic, but within days of getting that advice and processing it, a meeting had been set up for me to meet with Danny O’Keefe who was looking for a producer. I had always loved Danny’s writing and had been a fan of him as an artist, but especially given the nature of the project he was bringing to me, I knew he couldn’t have found a more perfect fit as a producer – the cache of what I could bring to the table in this case was blessed, magical, and anointed, and we absolutely went for it and took advantage. For the next two years we slaved over a wonderful project of his called, “Dreamers”, about the Nez Perce Indians. Although it hasn’t been released yet, Danny finally got the tribe involved and with a few final touches, plans to put it out. It’s been 40 years in the making for O’Keefe, so he’s making sure to present a very special offering with this particular release. I know I love it and can’t wait for everyone to hear it.

So with that, I’ll knock off and call it a post. Plenty more to share about Darrell Scott and crew, Danny O’Keefe, and the rest of what has gone on in my world since 2007, but this has been a start.

Starting my second year of bi-monthly shows in Portland, at O’Connor’s Vault, a week from tonight, so prepping for that and so much more.

Love & Wado –

Noxi