Ol' Moose

Doug Anderson
(aka Ol" Moose) has taught philosophy for more than thirty years— PSU, SIUC, and now UNT. His love for music is the basis for his work and
is a fundamental part his lectures.
“I study a lot of philosophy of
pop culture,” Moose says. “I mean, I can do the technical logic and
stuff, but I’m not so interested in that as how our beliefs affect the
way we construct a culture, community, or anything else, whether it’s
religious beliefs or
Moose started playing the harmonica when he was fourteen. He learned guitar the following year.
“I
just hung out with people who played and taught myself,” he says.
“There was no Youtube in those days, so I watched what other people did
and listened to what I could hear on the records and started playing a
lot.... I started off just playing blues harmonica for local blues
players in New England, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and then
for people traveling through— we had mostly coffeehouses back in those
days, you could bring your own wine and beer.... So that’s where I
started. I started playing guitar— solo shows, what you would call
singer/songwriter back then, and I also played with a couple local bands
when I got to college. I started a band with two guys who are quite
well-known in the folk singer/songwriter genre, and that’s John Gorka
and Richard Shindell.”
Along the way, he also picked up a nickname.
“We
used to have a flatbed truck and we would haul out an upright piano—
strap it to the wall of the flatbed, up by the cab— and we would drive
around and play music off the back of the truck. This was before you
could get in trouble for that early hippie stuff, and I would get one
end of the piano, because I was working at a sawmill at the time, and
was more like 220 pounds— I could lift stuff pretty well; I was a lot
bigger than I am now— so they started calling me Moose. As I got older,
it became Ol’ Moose. In the music world, I was always Moose.”
Since
2005, Moose has been playing solo, with friends, his son, and in various
bands in Carbondale. Venues range everywhere from PK’s and Tres Hombres
to Fat Patties to the wine trail. He blends folk and blues and country,
and he’s got many long setlists to choose from, but he prefers to play
to the audience by taking requests. Stumping him is not easy.
“Music
is evolving all the time, so you have to stay as current as you can,”
Moose says. “I try to see what audience we have, then try to angle what
we’re doing in the direction of the audience, because you never know.
PK’s is completely different than Rustle Hill.”
One of the groups Moose plays with is Bone Dry River Band.
“Bone
Dry River Band was started when I first came down here— actually it was
Randy Auxier’s band, my colleague in philosophy, and Randy did a lot of
singer/songwriter stuff and had a little band which he called the Bone
Dry River Band after a song from David Carter— a lyric from a song— and
so when I joined we made it more rock, country, covers. We cover
everything from blues to folk to country music. We just opened it up to
all kinds of Americana music and didn’t leave anything out.”
Moose and Auxier also play in a duo, the Transcendental Cowboys.
Listeners can stream Moose’s originals, including “Mason Jar Whiskey” and “Stoned Alone,” at Nightlife’s web project at <http://www.CarbondaleRocks.com>.
“I
started writing as a kid, started writing poetry and sort of never
stopped,” Moose said. “I didn’t get a chance to record anything until I
moved down here back in 2005. Put together two CDs with a bunch of local
musicians. I’m currently working on a couple more. I just kind of
wander through them slowly, work over at Misunderstudio in Murphysboro,
but I’m not in any hurry. I’ve been working on these songs for a long
time and I am taking my time. I have some really talented local
musicians working with me.... I’ve never been able to sound like anyone
else, I just like to listen and sort of inherit the tunes and make it so
I’m comfortable with how it sounds.... Southern Illinois has an amazing
music scene. I’ve played all over the country, and some in Europe, and
this area has musicians that tend to work together, help each other, and
that’s pretty rare.”