Jamie Oldaker was born on September 5, 1951, in Oakland, California, and moved with his family to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1958, the city that would define his musical identity for the rest of his life. His father, a former drummer, inspired him to take up the drums , and Oldaker began playing at age nine after hearing a recording of jazz great Gene Krupa. As a teenager he was already gigging around Tulsa, playing in local groups including one called The Rogues Five, which saw regional success and opened for other more popular bands such as The Doors at the Tulsa Convention Center . This early grounding placed him at the heart of what became known as the Tulsa Sound, a loose, groove-driven blend of rock, blues and country that shaped his entire career.
Oldaker's breakthrough came through a chain of Tulsa connections. In 1971 he joined Bob Seger's band, working with Seger until 1973 , and it was during a session at Leon Russell's studio that he met bassist Carl Radle, who had previously worked with Eric Clapton. Carl was instrumental in bringing Jamie into the studio for Eric's 461 Ocean Boulevard sessions in 1974 , and Clapton claimed that hearing a demo recording of Oldaker alongside keyboardist Dick Sims helped inspire him to get back in the studio after years sidelined by addiction. That album became a massive success, including Motherless Children, Willie and the Hand Jive, and Clapton's famous cover of Bob Marley's I Shot The Sheriff , and it launched Oldaker into the upper ranks of rock drummers almost overnight.
Over the following decade Oldaker became one of the most in-demand drummers in rock and blues, known for a laid-back shuffle feel that few could match. He remained with Clapton's band through 1980, returned for a second stint from 1983 to 1986 that included playing on Clapton's Behind the Sun album, released in 1985, and performing with Clapton at Live Aid that same year , and later rejoined briefly for Royal Albert Hall dates in 1990 and 1991. In total he appeared on eleven Clapton albums. Alongside this he built an extensive session and touring resume, working with the Bellamy Brothers, Asleep at the Wheel, Peter Frampton, Stephen Stills, Leon Russell, Ace Frehley, Freddie King, the Bee Gees, and many others . He was also briefly a member of Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley's project, Frehley's Comet, appearing on the 1988 album Second Sighting , and later became a founding member of the country group the Tractors, who hit platinum out of the gate with their self-titled debut album on Arista Records in 1994 . For his contributions to Oklahoma music he was inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 2010.
In his later years Oldaker turned increasingly toward producing and preserving the music of his home state. In August 2005 he released Mad Dogs & Okies on Concord Records, a collection of tunes celebrating the music and musicians of Oklahoma, featuring collaborators including Eric Clapton, Vince Gill, J.J. Cale, Willie Nelson, Ronnie Dunn, and Bonnie Bramlett . He remained active as a mentor and advocate for Tulsa's musical heritage, and was a guest at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas and had been working with organisers on the building of the OKPOP museum in his hometown of Tulsa . Jamie Oldaker died in Tulsa on July 16, 2020, after a battle with cancer, leaving behind a reputation, in Peter Frampton's words, as a drummer whose playing was unique, a laid-back style of drumming with an incredible feel . His shuffle groove remains a touchstone for drummers studying the classic Clapton catalog and the wider Tulsa Sound tradition.
For this archive, Oldaker's presence is a quiet but meaningful thread. Wayne Dennon photographed the artist at one show in 2007, and the resulting 18 photographs, viewed 13,938 times by archive visitors, stand as a small but treasured record of a musician whose steady rhythm helped define some of rock's most enduring recordings.
