The Oldfield Victory

In November of 2013 long time friends Jon Freeman and Casey Wallace decided it was time to start a new rock project in the dynamic Kansas City scene. This project would be a trio, or so they thought, that would borrow from the throwback sounds of Bad Company, Deep Purple or Kiss, yet channel modern rock sounds of say, The Foo Fighters.

To complete the trio, Dave Tanner was brought in with his Ric bass covering the low end and his cutting high-register backing vocals that blended just right with Freeman’s low, bluesy lead vocal.

Freeman had spent the last 20 some years playing bass in Kansas City hard rock bands. His love for the Les Paul and a desire to crank up a loud tube amp led to his switch to guitar for this project.

With this trio in place a rocking band came to life, and the project became known as The Oldfield Victory, a name in tribute to Barney Oldfield, the first man to travel a mile a minute in one of the first racecars.

The OV was a rocking unit but needed that certain someone to come in and really rip on the guitar at times. Enter Paul Hagedorn, Freeman’s former bandmate from his days in Lawrence, Kan. With the addition of Paul this rock machine started rolling.

Just a few months in and the band entered the studio with Paul Malinowski (Shiner, Season To Risk) engineering. Three songs: “Night Drive,” “Built For Speed,” and “The Crush” came to life. “Built For Speed” was quickly picked up as the theme song for Royboy Productions, Chrome Pipes and Pinstipes (royboyproductions.com) podcast and is still in use today after more than 50 episodes.

A few months later the band was back in the studio with Malinowski to record three more: “Wrecking Ball,” “A Thousand Doors,” and “She Disappears” and in June of 2014 the band’s first EP, “A Thousand Doors” was released; mastered by Chris Goosman, owner of Baseline Audio Labs (Ann Arbor, Mich.), who has mastered records from Freedom Hawk, Lo Pan, The Meatmen, and even Ted Nugent – among many others.

Music reviewer Michael Byars of The Deli KC said this about The OV’s debut EP: “Sometimes music does more than simply entertain – sometimes it just makes you feel like things are right in the world. This six-track EP hearkens to a time when rock was king, with willing subjects from coast to coast. Count me in as one of them, then and now. Long live The Oldfield Victory.”

Dave Tanner’s busy schedule playing in a professional Beatles tribute band, Liverpool, led to a necessary back up bass player for the band to continue to play certain live shows. Enter Jeremy Keeler, who stepped up and filled Dave’s position for those dates on the bass. Jeremy’s chemistry fit the project so well he was asked to become a full time member. He now plays guitar when Dave is available and switches gears to cover the low end when Dave is off doing the tribute.

In an online review of the first EP, The Equal Ground stated: “In an oversaturated market where a surplus of rock bands sound like something my eight-year-old daughter would consider weak it’s nice to hear guys making music with a bit more testosterone.”

In May 2015, the band completed its second EP, titled “Let It Ride”. Let It Ride was engineered by Freeman and local guitarist/engineer/producer, Todd Yarrow. Yarrow mixed and produced the record – Chris Goosman mastered. Shortly after its release, the title track was picked up for inclusion on LIVE WIRES, a comp disc from bands across the world. This disc was covermounted to Classic Rock Magazine #212 -a UK publication- and has worldwide distribution of over 70,000 copies.

The LIVE WIRES disc has opened new doors and gained many new fans for the OV. Music has been shipped to the UK, France, Russia, Finland, Norway, and other parts of Europe. The OV hopes to continue to grow their European fan base with a lofty goal to tour the area in the future.

Classic Rock magazine had this to say about the OV:
“Oldfield Victory are named after noted racecar driver Barney Oldfield – the fastest man alive in 1903. Like ol’ Barney, Oldfield Victory are bona fide no-compromise, no-surrender types – wholly dedicated to the resurrection and preservation of good ol’ US hard rock. Amen to that.”