MUSIC
Gregory Ormson’s music education started when he was 10 and performed in a city boys’ choir at the New York World’s Fair in 1966. He’s worked as a folk music singer, overseas ministry musician, an Irish traditional band musician, a member of a country western band, and leader of chant and bakti or yoga music.
He writes and plays original music in combination with lyricist Russell Thorburn and musician Randy Anagnostis.
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Thanks to Brief Wilderness for publishing. Direct link https://briefwilderness.com/2025/07/19/everything-was-noise-and-splinters-by-gregory-ormson/ Growing up, I didn’t think I was fat or stupid even though my mother said I was. She didn’t say it all the time, just enough that it registered; but I didn’t feel the full weight of ridicule until I wrote a poem when I was
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At BhaktiFest in Joshua Tree, I watched Fantuzzi play his song, Universal Lover and thought I’d try it. Played here in DADGAD guitar tuning on my Taylor 414ce. I have to be careful with this instrument; it spent four years with me in Hawaii where it was soaked in humidity. The last eight years its
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A magnetic north of the heart draws me back again. It’s all rain and wind in my beloved Midwest where dusk is augmented by a beautiful amber-orange sunset. It means fires are raging in the west and people are getting hurt. I’m reading, Let It Be Told In A Single Breath, by Michigan poet Russell
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The grand American narrative of the open road is more compelling on a motorcycle. It captures the imagination of wanders and seekers because it looks like a story of independence and freedom. It’s not always true, but there is a universal search playing out in every riders quest for the open road, and that is
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Russell Thorburn (Marquette, Michigan) and I have collaborated for years to create songs and audio stories. One ongoing subject has been John Lennon. Russell writes the poems and I massage the words and arrange them into songs. Our music triptych to Lennon was completed recently. Listen in on these Lennon stories: John Lennon Rows to
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Gregory Ormson lyrics, vocal, and a Taylor 414 ce tuned in DADGAD. Guitar and vocal recorded on iPhone, mixed on audacity with strings by Randy Anagnostis playing a PB125 Yamaha Keyboard & Focus Scarlet Gen 3 Audio Interface. This is one of several Anagnostis/Ormson “Desert Inspirations” collaborative pieces.
GREGORY ORMSON'S Notes, Articles, Blogs, Vlogs Gregory Ormson writes from the ecotone, the vibrant intersections of landscape, spirituality, and physical presence. His essays and poems have appeared in literary journals, anthologies, and print magazines. Author of *Yoga Song* and other works, Ormson blends lyrical observation with grounded reflection drawn from his Midwestern roots and global travels. He lives in Arizona and Wisconsin, seeking stillness where stories emerge like bears. 