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Gary Vogensen – Shot of Hope<\/h1>\n
RELEASE DATE: JULY 1st, 2021<\/strong><\/p>\nIt takes enormous talent and skill to be good enough to be on the stage at all\u2014stars are well and good, but without the musicians outside the spotlight, you don\u2019t have much.\u00a0 <\/span>Gary Vogenson has been one of those guys for nearly fifty years, and as you\u2019ll hear in Shot of Hope, there were excellent reasons why he\u2019s been up on all those stages.<\/p>\n\u201cMusic was always there,\u201d he recalls of his childhood in San Rafael, CA.\u00a0 <\/span>He grew up singing in choirs\u2014his mother said that he sang in tune before he could talk.\u00a0 <\/span>Then he heard James Burton, whose riffs propelled Ricky Nelson\u2019s \u201cHello Marylou\u201d and \u201cTraveling Man\u201d to the top.\u00a0 <\/span>Mom kindly bought Gary a guitar when he was 17, and he never put it down.\u00a0 <\/span>Vocally, he lists influences ranging from George Jones to The Mills Brothers, the Beach Boys and Ray Charles\u2026and about a million other Country, Soul, Gospel, and R&B singers.<\/p>\nAt the local College of Marin, he was in the Purple Fox blues band, which was memorable because everyone else in the band was Black, and their families were not only welcoming but tolerant; \u201cThey taught me how to eat, how to laugh, and how to love, and they let us get high in the yard before playing.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>When he headed off to Chico, there was a soul band, The Fabulous Dynamics, and of course a jam band.<\/p>\nHis commitment to music became absolute on the memorable night of November 1st<\/sup><\/span>, 1968, at the Avalon Ballroom.\u00a0 <\/span>Genesis was the opening act, which interested Gary not at all because they didn\u2019t have a guitarist.\u00a0 <\/span>The closers were the Byrds, with Clarence White playing his Telecaster.\u00a0 <\/span>But the middle act was Taj Mahl backed by Jesse Ed Davis, and it was Jesse Ed who got under his skin and heart and left him saying, \u201cI just have to do that.\u201d<\/p>\nHe was a normal Marin guy in the \u201870s, used to seeing Garcia drive out of the Dead\u2019s office at 5th<\/sup><\/span> and Lincoln, knowing that the Dead were a part of the community, even though he\u2019d not met any of them formally\u2026.yet.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>In 1972 he was hanging out at Marin Recorders, sitting in what was supposed to be a control room, smoking fatties and watching people rehearse.\u00a0 <\/span>One night during the recording of Barry Melton\u2019s record Melton, Levy and the Dey Brothers, the band was jamming with their producer, Mike Bloomfield.\u00a0 <\/span>Gary\u2019s friends more or less put his guitar in his hands and shoved him into the jam.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cCould I sit in?\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>And Bloomfield said sure\u2026In fact, he was so generous that he followed it up by looking at Melton and saying he should take Gary into the band and on tour as the rhythm guitarist.<\/p>\n\u201cSquare as a pool table and twice as green,\u201d Gary said of himself, but those first shows changed his life.\u00a0 <\/span>That band was followed by lots more\u2014Top 40 bands, blues bands, you-name-it bands.\u00a0 <\/span>A little more seasoned, in 1976 he ran into Bloomfield again, and through him came more high-level bands.\u00a0 <\/span>He backed Mike, then Norton Buffalo (and got to know John McFee in that band).\u00a0 <\/span>Maria Muldaur, for a tour.\u00a0 <\/span>Almost Frank Zappa\u2019s band, but it didn\u2019t work out.\u00a0 <\/span>Then Elvin Bishop, which led to a special moment.\u00a0 <\/span>They were opening for Etta James at Lake Tahoe, and her guitarist sprained his wrist.\u00a0 <\/span>Gary was drafted to substitute, and as he played, he had the thought that while Etta was something of a tortured soul, she was the real deal, the genuine article and what he was striving to be.<\/p>\nIn the 1980s he was part of Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen, and in the \u201890s he worked with John \u201cMarmaduke\u201d Dawson and the New Riders of the Purple Sage.\u00a0 <\/span>Later, he would be part of the band on guitar and harmonica for\u00a0 <\/span>Blues Broads, which features Angela Strehli, Tracy Nelson, Annie Sampson, and Dorothy Morrison.\u00a0 <\/span>Over the years and in between things, he worked with Boz Skaggs, Steve Miller, Rick Danko, Kinky Friedman, and Lloyd Price.\u00a0 <\/span>So many stages, so many roads.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAnd now he works at maintaining the Gary Vogenson School of Guitar, which is not only enjoyable, but where he continues to \u201cLearn, learn, learn.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cI\u2019ve settled down now and this recording project reflects my vision of what music is all about. It\u2019s an auditory portrait of who I am as a singer, a musician, an artist, and a producer.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s heartfelt, it\u2019s pure, a bit of pleasure, a bit of pain, a bit of gravity, a bit of levity, and\u2026you can dance to it!\u201d<\/p>\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>Song Notes<\/p>\nAs a long-time veteran of New Riders of the Purple Sage music, Gary\u2019s solo work is, as you\u2019d expect, pretty much in the country-rock vein, with a particular emphasis on his very fine voice.\u00a0 <\/span>Expect some heavy-hitting rockers as well, though\u2026Gary\u2019s made a living meeting the demands of many bandleaders in many styles and this project shows it. There are some originals, some covers, and even a traditional tune that\u2019s a nod to his past.\u00a0 <\/span>Gary plays all the guitars, some dobro and mandolin, and harmonia, and handles mkost of the backing vocals under the nom de voice \u201cMarin Slim.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>Here\u2019s a very partial listing:<\/p>\n\u201cBarbaric Splendor,\u201d written by Joe New (who\u2019s written songs for a crowd of people including Levon Helm, Nancy Sinatra, Jerry Reed, Nick Lowe, and Del McCoury), emphasizes Gary\u2019s voice.<\/p>\n
\u201cFriend of the Devil\u201d is authentic country, complete with pedal steel and banjo.\u00a0 <\/span>Gary performs duets on both \u201cFriend\u201d and \u201cRipple\u201d with his long-time NRPS partner, singer and multi-instrumentalist Russ Gauthier.<\/p>\nGary adds:\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cMusicians can spend a lifetime and never find a singing partner the likes of Russ Gauthier.\u00a0 <\/span>For me, he\u2019s a gift from heaven\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cDoing Time in Bakersfield\u201d was written by Jim Lauderdale, who many will know from his extensive collaborations (several albums\u2019 worth) with Robert Hunter.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeace Love and Understanding.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>Nick Lowe\u2019s timeless anthem, somewhat countrified with a terrific dobro solo.<\/p>\nYou have to be about as old as I am or a real student to know about \u201cLies,\u201d by the Knickerbockers.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s such a perfect Beatles tribute that everyone was convinced it was Them.\u00a0 <\/span>Superb version \u2013 Gary remembers.<\/p>\nThe album finishes with perhaps the two strongest cuts, a country-flavored \u201cDo Right Woman,\u201d and as Gary puts it, a nod to Taj Mahal and Jesse Ed Davis with a rocking version of the traditional tune, \u201cThe Cuckoo.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>Just terrific.<\/p>\nEnjoy!<\/p>\n
–\u00a0Dennis McNally<\/p>\n<\/div>
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