Traditional bluegrass from Tennessee moonshiners with a whiff of rock and roll attitude.
Moonshine is inextricably linked to the music of the American South, so it seems natural that the Po’ Ramblin’ Boys got their start when mandolinist C. J. Lewandowski gathered friends and local musicians Josh Rinkel on guitar, Jereme Brown on banjo, and Jasper Lorentzen on bass, to play as the nightly house band at the Ole Smokey Distillery in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, where he worked. That was ten years ago, Laura Orshaw joined later on fiddle and vocals, and they have since been nominated for a Grammy and have released four band albums plus one with fan Jim Lauderdale documenting their take on traditional bluegrass with a modern twist. “Wanderers Like Me” is band album number five, and is the first time they have worked with an outside producer, Woody Platt, and recorded as much original material.
When Bill Monroe first recorded bluegrass it was the rock & roll of its day because of the hard-driving rhythms and the mix of old-time music, blues and jazz. The title track ‘Wanderers Like Me’ echoes this with vocals to match on a song that celebrates the rambling nature of working musicians. The acoustic bass is to the fore on a tribute to farmers and vocals capture the high lonesome sound of traditional bluegrass. There’s the feel of the honky tonk to ‘Clouds in My Mind’ that takes a non-judgemental view of using alcohol to forget emotional trauma. The banjo is to the fore on the hard-driving ‘Streets of Chicago’, which is fitting because it was written by banjo player Tommy Brown who is now the Po’ Ramblin’ Boys’ bus driver.
Laura Orshaw’s fiddle and vocals underline the heartache at the core of ‘Trying to Live the Dream’. Trains, hoboes and Merle Haggard inspired ‘The Old Santa Fe’ which is another look at the travelling life of working musicians. The band raids the catalogue of Tommy Brown again for the County Line Grass gospel tune, ‘In Remembrance of Me’ which also hints at the blues that is also at the heart of bluegrass. The Osbourne Brothers are giants of bluegrass, and the story song ‘The Condition of Samuel Wilder’s Will’ honours their legacy. You can’t think of traditional country music without thinking of the great country duet acts like Loretta Lynne and Conway Twitty or Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner, and the Po Ramblin’ Boys give their take of this classic sound on ‘I’m Still a Fool for You’ with the vocals of Laura Orshaw and Josh Rinkel. The band take it back home to the Smokey Mountains which first helped form the band on ‘My Smokey Mountain Home’.
There is no hint of the theme park band around the Po’ Ramblin’ Boys, their music is real and reflects their Smokey Mountain Heritage. Too often bands who play music of earlier generations are too reverential and in the process lose something of what made the music great in the first place, this is certainly not the case with this band. While they sprinkle their bluegrass with some traditional country it is the energy and attitude that stands out. They certainly capture that pre-rock and roll rock and roll attitude that made Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys such a success all those years ago. So, grab a jug and just let the music transport you to the Smokey Mountains, and kick up a little dust as the mood takes you.
