Ken’s “Old Blue Gang” project emerged as the result of many years of musical daydreaming during his guitar hiatus.

The musical language of the OBG is grounded in American music and improvisation. It is a potent stew of blues, rock, western, country, roots and folk music that embraces elements of Jimi Hendrix’s transcendent tonal range and improvisational ambition, alongside the influence of groups like early ZZ Top, The Allmann Brothers Band, Mountain, Beck Bogert and Appice, Neil Young and Crazy Horse. It’s both a jam band and a band than jams, with a body of originals that cover subjects including love, humour, and also some of the darkest chapters in American history.

COMING SOON- The Debut Album “Silent Spike”

First Single Release: November 2024

Album Release: February 2025

Silent Spike is a concept album that provides a meditation on the experiences of the “Railroad Chinese”, or "Silent Spikes" who built the first Transcontinental Railways in Oregon, California and Washington. It’s a story nearly a century long, starting with the first ocean crossings of the migrant workers and the building of the railway that made America a true two-coastal nation. Subsequent to the backlash that led to the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Massacre at Dead Line Creek, the Sundown Towns where Chinese could be shot if seen after dark, and the expulsion of the entire Chinese community from La Grande, Oregon. The album concludes with a gentle meditation on the return of the remains of the Chinese buried in the Chinese cemetery in Baker City, Oregon to China.

Learn more

Cowboy hats and western shirts need not be just for right-wingers! Photo by Barry Morris

What's in a name?

The OBG's name has deep historical roots. The original "Old Blue Gang" were the group of horse thieves and murderers led by Bruce Evans who committed the Hells Canyon Massacre atrocity, which you can learn more about here. Ken felt that it was wrong to let such a great name stay the sole territory of a bunch of long-dead racist criminals. One of Ken's ideas behind the whole OBG project was that one shouldn't let any worthwhile musical tradition or subculture be dominated by an ideological group you may not align with. This instinct can be seen in his embrace of cowboy and western style, the incorporation of roots music from multiple traditions and in his choice of band name. It's all part of the Old Blue Vibe

What is the Old Blue Vibe?

It’s fiercely American.

It’s dirt roads, small towns, greasy joints and dusty fields
Mountains, deserts, prairies and empty places
Memories. The ghosts and the dark shadows, grim legacies and lost stories that haunt the landscapes of rural America

It’s fun

It’s BBQs and beers
Blues and boogie woogie
It’s about not letting the assholes have all the good music

It’s about the real America

It’s black, red, yellow and white America. And blue – especially blue
Mexican folk-art, the Chinese workers who built the American West and the African-American musical traditions that defined 20th C. music around the world
Those forgotten little towns in Texas where they still speak a weird mixture of Czech and German

It’s music touched by the magic of film, informed by the echos of history

It’s ZZ Top & David Lynch
Jimi Hendrix & Sergio Leone
Neil Young & Jim Jarmusch (yep, that already happened)
Ken Burns & Mountain

It’s a radical openness to musical experimentation, breaking barriers and combining traditions

It’s John Coltrane + Willy Nelson
The Allmann Brothers Band + Rush
Marty Stuart + Led Zeppelin
Jimi Hendrix + Jim Croce