THE TARBOX RAMBLERS
“Between the fiddle, string bass, drums and slide guitar,
you won't know what hit you.” - The New Yorker
News Flash! On the heels of two recent sold-out reunion shows The Tarbox Ramblers’ original lineup has decided to book additional shows, focusing on the band’s early repertoire of rural blues, hillbilly and gospel music.
Taking listeners to a place where rock, backwater blues and Appalachian music come together in unexpected combinations, The Tarbox Ramblers have drawn praise from The New Yorker and Rolling Stone to All Things Considered. The Washington Post calls them “a force of nature.” Robert Plant saw the band play and recruited them, on the spot, to open a string of concert dates.
The Ramblers’ repertoire reaches way back, to the earliest recordings of what people now call Americana. If their their approach is reverent, it’s only in the sense that they love the old songs. Beyond that, they play them as a roadhouse band of the 1950s might have, as songs band members all heard growing up, but were reinventing with drums and electricity.
The Tarbox Ramblers’ sound is fueled by Michael Tarbox’s tough-as-Texas-barbwire guitar, Dan Keller’s virtuoso violin and the hard-hitting rhythm section of rockabilly string bassist Johnny Sciascia (pronounced “sha-sha”) and Jon Cohan on New Orleans parade drums. Tarbox’s unmistakable voice is right up front, with Keller and Sciascia contributing vocal harmonies.
The Tarbox Ramblers have released well-received albums on the Rounder label, and played countless shows throughout the US and Canada. Venues the band has played include: Lincoln Center, The Orpheum Theatre (Boston), Roseland (NYC), City Winery, The Ark (Ann Arbor), Fitzgerald’s (Chicago), The Birchmere (Washington DC), and Wolf Trap (Virginia).
The band’s festival appearances include: Bumbershoot, Pickathon (Portland OR), Philly Folk Festival, The Green River Festival (Massachusetts) and California’s Strawberry Music Festival. In Canada, The Tarbox Ramblers have played The Toronto Harbourfront Festival, Alberta’s Salmon Arms Festival and, in British Columbia, The Burnaby Blues Festival.
PRESS
All Things Considered: “Homemade rock ‘n’ roll with a dose of rattlesnake venom and gospel-drenched howling.”
The New Yorker: “Between the fiddle, string bass, drums and slide guitar, you won't know what hit you.”
The Washington Post: “The Ramblers put across a sound that is at once reminiscent of the past yet wholly original.”
Calgary Sun: “Tarbox is the most evocative and distinctive blues-roots artist to come down the pike in ages.”