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Photo Credit: Official Artwork
Ken Woods and the Old Blue Gang didn’t come to play safe. Their debut single “Ride the Rails” explodes out of the gate with the furious momentum of a freight train barreling through the bones of American history — and it’s an absolute barnburner of a track.
This isn’t just a song. It’s a time machine with distortion pedals.
Blending Bakersfield twang, psychobilly swagger, and full-tilt roots rock attitude, “Ride the Rails” kicks off with a relentless train-beat rhythm that never lets up. Add in dozens of layered guitar tracks conjuring everything from dustbowl winds to the chaos of a riotous mob, and you’ve got a sonic landscape that feels alive, dangerous, and deeply cinematic.
“Ride the Rails” isn’t just inspired by history — it is history. Specifically, the violent expulsion of the Chinese community from La Grande, Oregon in 1893, a brutal act of racial scapegoating during an economic depression that saw mobs forcing entire families out of town and onto outbound trains at gunpoint.
It’s a story most people haven’t heard. And that’s the point.
Ken and the crew don’t sugarcoat anything. From the grinding pulse of the bass to the scorching twin guitar solos that tear through the track like a sonic wildfire, this song bleeds with urgency and injustice. It’s rock and roll that remembers, that asks questions, that burns with purpose.
Musically, the Old Blue Gang taps into a rich tradition of American jam-band magic: think early ZZ Top, Mountain, Allman Brothers, even a little Hendrix-style fire. It’s equal parts improvisation and intention. You can feel the live energy in the recording — this is a band that means it. The drums crack like whips. The guitars snarl and shimmer. There’s groove, grit, and gravitas.
Credit: Barry Morris
And while the vibe is classic Americana, the heart of the OBG’s sound is rooted in inclusive reclamation. The band’s name itself — drawn from the original “Old Blue Gang” of horse thieves who perpetrated the Hells Canyon Massacre — is a deliberate, defiant act of cultural reappropriation.
If “Ride the Rails” is any indication, the full album Silent Spike (out July 4, 2025) is going to be one hell of a ride. It’s a concept record that traces the long, often erased history of the Railroad Chinese — the migrants who laid the literal tracks of American expansion, only to be later erased, exiled, or massacred.
From their first ocean crossings to the tragedies at Dead Line Creek, from Sundown Towns to the quiet return of remains to the Chinese cemetery, the album promises to be an epic — not just in scale, but in emotional resonance.
And honestly—We need it. Now more than ever.
“Ride the Rails” is more than a great debut — it’s a gut-punch wake-up call wrapped in a face-melting guitar solo. It’s what happens when history meets distortion, when empathy meets energy, and when roots rock grows teeth.
Ken Woods and the Old Blue Gang have arrived, and they’re bringing the ghosts with them. Listen loud. Reflect harder.
We Spoke To Ken Woods about his journey so far. Read the exclusive interview below.
Photo Credit: Artist EPK
Do you have an interesting moment or story from your early life that has had a significant impact on your journey into music?
KEN: I think it all started in my parents living room with the family record collection. Looking back, I was doubly lucky in that I was exposed to not just a lot of great music, but, in particular, so many different kinds of music. I grew up in an environment were going from Shostakovich to the Dukes of Dixieland to Earl Scruggs to the Kingston Trio to Dave Brubeck was normal. I’m so grateful that came to know music as one great expanse, and not a bunch of silos.
Are there any artists that were influential to your musical journey? How have they inspired your sound as an artist?
KEN: Well, it’s a lonnnnnng list, especially if you start to include my classical life. But in terms of what I’m doing now, the musicians who inspired me to pick up a guitar and write songs in the first place remain huge to me – Hendrix, Brian May, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Billy Gibbons, Frank Zappa and Jimmy Page, for sure. There are others, like Neil Young, Michael Landau and Jimmy Herring who have taken on a bigger influence in recent years. And, certainly in terms of what I’m doing now, film is a big influence, whether David Lynch, Jim Jarmusch, Quentin Tarrentino or Sergio Leone.
How would you describe your sound to new listeners? What do you think sets you apart?
KEN: I tell people we’re trying to reclaim the sounds of America one song at a time. Too many times, we think of, say, Country and Blues as two different worlds, two different musical cultures. In this age of cultural commodification, AI, social media, and the wholesale takeover of the record industry by tech companies, I think the only meaningful difference is music from humans for humans, and music from business for money.
What’s your creative process? Where do you normally start when it comes to writing and recording? Do the lyrics come first?
KEN: Silent Spike (our forthcoming record) was a completely new kind of project for me. In the past, I’ve either come up with a musical idea and gone looking for lyrical inspiration once the song starts to take shape, or had a flash of inspiration for a lyric or even just a title, and fleshed it out from here. With Spike, I just knew I wanted to dig deep into the mysterious and dark corners of the history of Eastern Oregon, where I used to live. History feels very proximate there, yet somehow obscured behind a veil. I started reading and researching all kinds of aspects of Oregon history. Every once in a while, I’d find a story or event, like the one depicted in “Ride the Rails,” that seems to cry out for telling. Then it’s re-reading to find the words or phrases that resonate. It’s a terrible term, but ‘sundown town’ is a very musical-sounding expression, so that was a great starting point for a song. Once I had some key phrases and words, I started looking for music in the sound of the language, so a lot of the riffs and melodies really grew out of just listening to the sound of the text as it came into focus. And, because I knew it was going to be a concept album, as soon as the musical ideas started to emerge in one song, I began looking for how I could create connections between songs, so there are melodies and chord progressions that come back in all kinds of guises that all emerge in the opening of the first song and thread through until the last note on the album.
Over a couple of years working this way, I came up with about 20 songs or song fragments. Silent Spike came into focus first, but I would think there are at least two more records to be made about Oregon, covering the experience of Native Americans and African Americans in the 1800s.
Have you had any challenges or adversities in your life that you feel have shaped you as an artist?
KEN:You have to fail to learn how to transcend your limitations. When you fail, when you’ve got nothing left to lose, you’re in an incredible position to grow, to learn, to re-invent. Most recently, I had a very serious and unexpected heart attack. Talk about a challenge! But previous challenges, crises and failures had prepared me to look at the moment as an opportunity to make change, to grow, to solve entrenched problems.
Are there any moments or achievement from your career so far that you’re most proud of?
KEN: In my other life as a classical conductor, composer and cellist, I’m proud of the fact that I’ve found my own path in an industry that favours conformity and predictability. I’m really proud of having built two amazing music festivals and a great orchestra, all of which inspire me every day. And I’m probably the most proud of the new music we’ve commissioned, premiered and recorded, including nearly 20 new symphonies. In a field that is dominated by old music, I’m super proud that we’ve brought to life a body of work that will still be played and loved in one hundred years, if humanity lasts that long. As a guitarist/songwriter/singer, this is like a rebirth after decades away. I’m so glad I gave myself permission to have a go, to see if I still had something to say. I suppose I’m proud that I took the risk.
Which do you prefer, the creative process or live performance? Or do you enjoy both equally?
KEN: I value them equally, but I enjoy them very differently. The creative process is about 95% pain for 5% gain. Of course, the satisfaction of a creative breakthrough is like nothing else on earth, but the opposite is also true: nothing hurts like a creative block. For instance, while I was recovering from my heart attack, I felt completely disconnected from my creative spark for months. It’s an awful feeling. Also, sometimes you run into a creative problem you feel like you can’t solve. I’ve made a little mantra for myself when that happens – “create, complete, collaborate.” In other even if you haven’t found the perfect solution, better to finish, run it out with the band and then revise it than to sit on it for ten years, which is incredibly easy to do. Live performance has its own risks, compromises and frustrations, but there’s a certain joy and thrill in just going onstage and doing it, whether at the worst gig ever or in front of a huge audience when all the stars align.
Do you as an artist require fans to fully understand your message in each song or do you encourage subjective interpretation from every listener?
KEN: Not at all. I’ve always been a music-first guy. We all know about misheard lyrics. Back in the age of radio, pre-internet, the only way to know what some lyrics were was to buy the record and follow along with the notes on the sleeve, so there are tunes I heard hundreds of times without knowing what they heck they were talking about. In classical music, of course, lots of the vocal music is in languages I don’t speak, or speak well. For me, a song has to stand as music first. Heck, some of my favourite bands write lyrics that make no sense at all. That’s probably why I haven’t gravitated more towards songwriters where the balance of lyrical quality to musical interest is hugely tilted towards the words. But I do want my lyrics to be interesting enough to reward the listeners who engage with them, and I value songwriters like Pete Townshend, Hendrix, Lennon and McCartney et al who excel at both.
Does the political landscape have an impact on your music, or do you keep your personal opinions separate from your work as an artist?
KEN: I’ve struggled with this for years. As a conductor of an orchestra, I’m in a difficult position, because if I say something political that causes a donor to withdraw support from the orchestra, my colleagues suffer and the orchestra suffers. It’s a coercive situation, but I feel like I have to do what’s best for my colleagues within the current system, whether I like it or not. The wonderful upshot of keeping quiet on politics is that I’ve made many wonderful friends whose politics don’t align with mine as a result. But does that extend to my whole life, or just when I’m acting in that role? And does avoiding the tough issues and divisive topics water down art and make it less urgent and relevant. Also, in the last 30 years, the scope of what is ‘political’ has expanded to the point of insanity. Nowadays science, history, museums, scholarships, research, ecology, etc are all considered political when they really, really shouldn’t be, and both the left and right have contributed to this. I’m sure many folks will see Silent Spike as a political statement, but it’s really a history lesson and a call for empathy and accountability. Over the last few years, I’ve decided to reset where I draw the line and how vocal I can be, and I think my heart attack last year has also made me more aware that if you want to make change in the world, you’ve only got a limited time to try.
What are your future plans? Any new songs/projects on the horizon?
KEN: Oh god, yes. One thing about taking 25 years off is that you end up with a lot of built up ideas struggling to get out! Silent Spike is a pretty intense record, so I conceived a companion album which we’re calling Older and Bluer – The Old Blue Gang Rides Again, which will be more conspicuously fun. We recorded about half of that at the same time as Spike, and hope to get it out in the autumn. There will be a sequel to Spike called Century that focuses on the experience of African Americans across the first 100 years of Oregon Statehood. And then there is my sister project, The Electric Reckoning. That band is urban where the OBG is rural, and the subject matter is contemporary rather than historical. The musical language is funkier, heavier and nastier. It’s the kind of music I was playing before my 25-year hiatus when I had a band that wanted to find out what it sounds like when George Clinton, Jimi Hendrix, Olivier Messiaen and Led Zeppelin have a baby. We’re about halfway through recording a record called American Catastrophe, which is basically about exactly what it sounds like it’s about. With songs like Cocaine Charisma and Same Old Shit, there’s humour, but it’s also got a tough edge. At least I hope it does. I’m hoping we can get that out in late 2025 or early 2026.
“Ride the Rails” is available now on all major streaming platforms