Meet the Minnesota musicians who helped make Bob Dylan's 'Blood on the Tracks'

By Jon Bream Star Tribune

October 31, 2018 — 11:46am

RENÉE JONES SCHNEIDER • renee.jones@startribune.com

Minnesota musicians Billy Peterson, Gregg Inhofer, Kevin Odegard and Peter Ostroushko got together recently to discuss their contributions to Bob Dylan’s 1975 album “Blood on the Tracks.”

Billy Peterson, bass: Before the Dylan sessions, he played with everyone from Lawrence Welk and the Righteous Brothers to Leo Kottke and Natural Life. He has since become one of Minnesota’s most recorded bass players, working with the Steve Miller Band for 23 years, Cat Stevens, Ben Sidran, Neal Schon, Phil Upchurch, Irv Williams and his own family jazz band, the Petersons.

Gregg Inhofer, keyboards: He played with the jazzy rockers This Oneness, which became Olivia Newton-John’s backup band. He’s made a couple of solo albums and still gigs around the Twin Cities.

Kevin Odegard, guitar: He was an active Twin Cities singer-songwriter, leading the KO Band before moving to Los Angeles for executive jobs in the music industry at the Recording Academy and the National Academy of Songwriters. In 2004, he co-authored “A Simple Twist of Fate: Bob Dylan and the Making of ‘Blood on the Tracks.’ ” This year he released a career retrospective album, “Artifacts.”

Peter Ostroushko, mandolin: He quickly became a regular on Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion” and a mainstay in the Minnesota acoustic scene. A virtuoso mandolinist/fiddler, he has played with such big names as Willie Nelson, Chet Atkins and Emmylou Harris, performed with the Minnesota Orchestra, lent his music to Ken Burns’ TV specials and released more than a dozen albums under his own name. He suffered a stroke in January 2018.

Bill Berg, drums: After playing with the likes of Leo Kottke and Flim & the BB’s, he moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as a Disney animator on such movies as “Beauty and the Beast.” Now living mostly in North Carolina, he does artwork and occasionally plays in a jazz group.

Chris Weber, guitar: He ran the Podium guitar shop in Dinkytown for years and relocated to Northern California, where he’s been repairing guitars.

Original Article: http://www.startribune.com/meet-the-minnesota-musicians-who-helped-make-bob-dylan-s-blood-on-the-tracks/499161371/