OLALLA — Songwriter Danny O’Keefe and his band will perform at a fundraiser that will benefit the Olalla Community Club Renovation Project. The event is 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 18, at the Olalla Community Club, 12970 Olalla Valley Rod.
Tickets are $15 for general admission and can be purchased at Al’s Store, 13965 Cresent Valley Road, in Olalla. Tickets at the door are $20.
For more information, go online at www.alallacommunityclub.com.
In the 1970s, O’Keefe put out a string of albums that cemented his reputation as being among the best songwriters of his generation. These days, casual fans know him best for his Top 10 hit “Good Time Charlie’s Got The Blues” or Jackson Browne’s version of “The Road” from the classic Running On Empty album.
But the story didn’t end in the 1970s. He continued to release the occasional album and recently returned with “In Time” — his first solo release in nine years.
O’Keefe’s songs have been recorded by a who’s who of artists over a more than 30-year period that includes Elvis Presley, Charlie Rich, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Conway Twitty, Leon Russell, Dwight Yoakam, and Jerry Lee Lewis.
But that’s just who recorded “Good Time Charlie.”
Other credits include Alison Krauss (“Never Got Off The Ground”), Jimmy Buffett (“Souvenirs”), Judy Collins (“Angel Spread Your Wings”), Donny Hathaway (“Magdalena”), John Denver (“Along for the Ride”), Sheena Easton (“Next to You”), Jesse Colin Young (“Night School”) and Alan Jackson (“Anywhere on Earth You Are”).
“Well, Well, Well,” which O’Keefe wrote with Bob Dylan, has been recorded by Ben Harper, The Blind Boys of Alabama and Bonnie Raitt.
O’Keefe’s work this past decade constitutes the most moving musical meditations since Bob Dylan’s Time Out Of Mind. Unblinking, hammer-hard, love-wise and haunting, these songs stay alive in the mind and the heart long after the laser has moved on.”
O’Keefe’s reputation among his peers states volumes. Michael McDonald, who co-wrote a song on the new record, describes O’Keefe’s affinity for folk, country, jazz and more.
“Danny takes his rightful place in that ingenious and enigmatic tradition of unfettered poetic American song writing,” said McDonald. “Often traditional feeling music that is never completely identified with, or tied to, any one genre. (He writes) the kind of songs that ring with that sense of being classic and enduring, always having much to tell us lyrically.”
