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Bio & MUSICAL BACKGROUND
Inspiration to Improvisation
Ryan ‘Cooley Gojo’ is a multi-instrumentalist singer songwriter born and raised in West Virginia. Ryan’s early roots started in the church singing with parents and grandparents ‘particularly on my Mom’s Cooley side of the family’ in Fairchance, PA. As a young boy, Ryan also travelled Appalachia near his dad’s roots of Pocahontas County, WV, with his older brother. The family would play 8-track classics including John Denver, Willie Nelson, Merle Travis, and Merle Haggard. Ryan got a yard sale guitar at age 13 with ‘horrible intonation.’ Ryan took some ‘essential’ guitar lessons from Robert Eldridge of Colorado. Ryan’s singer songwriter cousin, Mark Rogers (markrogerssongs.com/home) also showed him his first cool chords progressions. He was inspired at an early age by bluegrass music and eventually saw and met his heroes including Peter Rowan, Sam Bush, Tim Obrien, David Grisman, and Tony Rice. Ryan attended the University of Utah where he was exposed to the various jam bands concerts and Rocky Mountain Music Venues including the Grateful Dead, Leftover Salmon, Hot Rize, New Grass Revival, the String Cheese Incident, Big Head Todd & the Monsters, Phish, the Samples, and other bands. Throughout the 1990’s, Ryan played acoustic music in various open mics, small venues, and mountain resorts. In 1999, he moved back to Morgantown to attend graduate school in Geology and was emersed into the local bluegrass and old-time scene. Ryan picked up his first mandolin and started jamming with many notable musicians including Ron Mullennex, Keith McManus, Bob Shank, and many, many others. Much more music came alive living with his cousin Jason Jaros and starting a singer songwriter duo The Cooley Gang (thecooleygang.com) https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-cooley-gang/1631905846based on the true stories of the Fayette County PA Gang and still performing today. At this time things started to come together, he married Jocelyn Smith, of York, PA, then wrote his first few ‘worthy’ tunes. Ryan was also inspired at this time by Michigan based band Steppin’ in it, including members Dominic Davis (now with Jack White), Josh Davis, Andy Wilson, & Joe Wilson. Ryan has jammed with many notable musicians through the Tommy Emmanuel guitar camp in Memphis, TN including Jack Pearson, and Jerry Douglas. In 2010, Ryan founded Green Rivers (greenrivers.net) and solidified a career in stream & wetland restoration as a registered professional hydrologist. Throughout this journey of water restoration, Ryan drew inspiration for songwriting and musicianship. In 2018 Ryan founded North Fork Recordings to publish his own artistic works as well as other local Artists. Ryan has played guitar, mandolin and sang backup vocals on many albums including Matt Lambert’s Tranquillo 2013, Hot Outta Da Oven 2016, and The Empty Project 2020, Mark Rogers Laying it Down 2019. Ryan produced his first EP Earth Highway in 2019 under the band name of Localmotive (https://music.apple.com/us/album/earth-highway-ep/1464318570). Earth Highway was produced with Cory Chase, Chris Quattro, and Seth Maynard also through North Fork Recordings. Ryan recently (2022) coproduced the self-titled album The Cooley Gang with Jason Jaros, Chris Bern, Greg Short Jr., Pat Sutton, and Mark Poole also through North Fork Recordings. For more information on bookings and events please contact Ryan Cooley Gaujot and North Fork Recordings. Photo by Donnie Riggs
The LocalMotive Story
After the local gigs, I realized the only way for me to evolve as a musician was to record an album. Over the next year, I produced Earth Highway with Chris Quattro, Cory Chase, and Seth Maynard. Our time in the studio proved crucial in shaping my sound. https://open.spotify.com/album/1RIGPA29v5G6YUUdDr7yS3
Looking to the Future
The Cooley Gang is packing up the gear for an extended WV tour in support of our new album. Our set list will prominently feature our new music. Check out our tour page for when we’ll be playing near you at TheCooleyGang.com.
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