WOODLEG ODD: A BAND WITH AN ODD NAME, DISHING UP HOT BLUES FROM A COLD PLACE
SAN FRANCISCO (2008) -A powerful case can be made for American blues as true world music. From its origins in the rural South, the music of Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters has spread to Europe, across the vastness that was the Soviet Union, and even to Japan where the late Hound Dog Taylor is practically a folk hero. In fact, it’s getting hard to find a place where the sound of a guitar and perhaps harmonica playing roadhouse rhythms isn’t recognized.
Certainly blues has taken root in Scandinavia, where American bluesmen have long toured and such “ex-pats” as Eddie Boyd and Eric Bibb have chosen to live. Norway, in particular, has a thriving blues scene, with outdoor festivals a summertime staple and “down-home” musicians playing clubs year-round. Norway also has a home-grown group, Woodleg Odd, that is fast-emerging as a world-class blues band.
Woodleg Odd has a four-piece lineup, comprised of three Norwegians and a recently arrived American. Frank Utgård (med the “Ångström sign” over the “a”) plays electric guitar and does a lot of songwriting, Arne Moe handles bass, band namesake Odd Ludvig Lie is the drummer, and Virginia-born, Oklahoma-raised Adam Douglas is the man at the microphone.
Three Norwegians and a Yank vocalist, even one with Virginia roots, might seem an odd combination, but it makes sense on stage and in the studio. Just as blues has become an international favorite, English is the language that crosses the most borders. Fans expect to hear about “bad luck and trouble,” not “elendig hell og mange vanskeligheter.”
Plus the early blues masters who performed in Delta roadhouses and Chicago taverns are mostly gone now, and it’s up to their disciples everywhere to carry on the tradition. And that is what Woodleg Odd is doing, more than 150 nights a year across Scandinavia and the rest of Europe and even in America.
The Norwegian members of the band grew up listening to the guitar-driven music of B.B. King, Albert Collins, Eric Clapton, and Jimi Hendrix. They began to put into practice what they had heard when they launched Woodleg Odd in 2000. Over the subsequent eight years, the band has performed at venues ranging from tiny clubs in fjord-adjacent villages to the famed Bottomline in London, The Saloon in San Francisco, and at giant summer festivals that draw horizon-filling crowds.
It’s a good life being part of Woodleg Odd. The members get to see the world and make friends through their music. They have recorded four albums: Woodleg Odd, The Right Track, Norwegian Wood, and Foot Fetish, the earliest ones now collectors’ items. Here is some background on who these musicians are and what makes them special.
Let’s start with Odd Ludvig Lie, in case there is curiosity about the band’s odd name. He is the drummer, the man on skins who is the timekeeper for the band. But maybe it’s better to say he’s the heartbeat of Woodleg Odd.
Odd grew up in a picturesque village on the northwest coast of Norway called Sykkylven. With only 7,500 residents and an eight-hour drive from Oslo, it qualifies as remote. Local musicians sometimes play in the pubs on weekends, and there is church music on Sundays.
Odd got most of his early inspiration from recorded music, citing Hendrix, B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughan (and SRV’s drummer Chris Layton), the Icelandic funk/fusion band Mezzoforte, and fellow Norwegian Marius Müller among his favorites.
But listening to music is one thing and making a living is another. He played drums as a teenager but took a factory job as an adult that ultimately cost him a leg. “I was working in a factory producing corrugated paper boxes, and one day I was standing on a machine, putting paint into it, when my foot got hooked.” He lost his right leg up to the knee. “Shit happens,” he says with more stoicism than most could muster.
But perhaps things do happen for a reason. He refocused on his drumming, and that led to him connecting with guitarist Frank Utgård who had an opening in the band. “I’ve always been athletic, and now I put all my energy into the music,” Odd says. And the prosthetic limb lets him work that kick drum really hard.
Frank grew up in the same village, Sykkylven, as Odd. His chief early influences were the young gods of jazz guitar – Lee Ritenour, Larry Carlton, Allan Holdsworth – but he also had a liking for Steve Lukather, Jay Graydon, and especially for B.B. King, Albert Collins, Robben Ford, and, a bit later, Chris Cain.
Like Odd, Frank also started out playing drums but quickly determined that playing electric guitar seemed to attract more women – no doubt an important revelation for a young musician in a cold climate. He, Odd, and bassist Arne Moe came together in 2000 to form the band with another singer as a frontman.
Arne grew up not far from Sykkylven in the slightly larger town of Ørsta. He was able to see concerts on a more regular basis, catching Norwegian and touring international bands. He has fond memories of seeing the home-grown groups such as Lava, Popol Ace, and Ruphus play blistering sets. He, too, was a fan of Marius Müller and came to love Hendrix, B.B. King, and even Eddie Van Halen as guitarists and especially bassists Jaco Patorius and Phil Lynott (Gary Moore’s old bandmate from Thin Lizzy).
Arne played in several bands in high school but took a break while in the Norwegian Army and then joined a local rock/blues/folk band called Sunnmøre Baarelag that is still going after 27 years. Arne’s love of blues and an increasing market for the music throughout Scandinavia led him to Woodleg Odd.
The latest addition to the group is Adam Douglas, born in Charlottesville, Virginia, raised in Oklahoma City, and already a veteran musician at a young age with previous memberships in several good American blues bands.
Adam grew up hanging out at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, where he early on discovered Gov’t Mule and other blues-rockers. By the time he was in high school, Adam was playing professionally. In short order, he became the original bassist in The Rounders (now on the Blind Pig label) and then joined Watermelon Slim’s band. In fact, Adam and his cousin, the band’s drummer, saved Slim’s life in 2002 by rushing him to the hospital when he had a near-fatal heart attack.
Later Adam joined the Wisconsin-based Groove Hogs as the singer for the 10-piece band. “We set out immediately to record a new album. That time period was like a whirlwind of change, breathing new life into my abilities and confidence. Soon I was touring all over the U.S. and working in the studio with producer Jim Gaines (Stevie Ray Vaughan, John Lee Hooker, Carlos Santana and scores of others).”
Adam then moved on to settle in and play around Minneapolis. That’s where he was when the call came to join Woodleg Odd. “I got on a plane to Norway to play some festival dates, and things seemed to just click, musically and personally.” Now he’s living in a beautiful town called Aalesund, nestled between fjords and islands, learning the Norwegian language for conversation and singing the blues in English. He and his new bandmates think of it as a meeting at a cross-cultural crossroads illuminated by the Northern Lights.
For more information on Woodleg Odd, contact Christine Vitale, P.O. box 3200386, San Francisco, CA 94132-0386. Phone (415) 665-3091, fax (415) 665-0262, or e-mail cv@christinevitale.com.
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