1.Since she's been away 2.Don't let the stars get in your eyes 3.Midnight rambler 4.You're gonna want me 5.A peck and a bushel 6.Beneath the western skies 7.Roll back home to me 8.Well oh well 9.I'll never be free 10.Gonna pick up the pieces 11.Still a loser over you 12.Can't take this double talk nohow 13.Hot dang 14.Blues on my mind 15.Window sneakin' mama 16.Raining and crying are 'bout over 17.Alnico jump boogie 18.Sure have got the blues hanging over me 19.Turning the tables 20.Keep right on travelling 21.The call of the canyon
Okeh Wranglers
The Okeh Wranglers' first album - brilliant 'retro' country.
"Close your eyes tonight and you were at the Broken Spoke in Austin or Roberts in Nashville. Open 'em and the effect was pretty much the same. The Okeh Wranglers turning the Railway Inn, Winchester into a Texas or Tennessee beer joint. Playing a mix of Western Swing, hard rocking country that was reminiscent of those flying aces Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen. Cody and the boys last blew through this area way back in 1976. That unforgettable night when the Gaumont was rocked back on its heels by a nine piece carrying the torch for Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys. Dave, the Okeh Wranglers' 'roadie' kinda rounded off my thoughts on this one. He was stood there in his Harley Davidson t-shirt drinking beer and preaching to the converted when he remarked 'Hot Licks, Cold Steel and Truckers Favourites (Commander Cody and the LPA) is about the greatest'. So who are the Okeh Wranglers and why ain't they being championed across this land? Word is that some learned chap at the BBC didn't take to their latest CD 'Lonesome Vistas'. Said it wasn't 'country' enough or some such claptrap. It beggars belief stood here, beer in hand, listening to the originals of Lonesome Vistas mixed amongst the country and rock'n'roll originals that anyone but a dead parrot would fail to hear the country in the Okeh Wranglers' songs. The Okeh Wranglers are a complete family unit. Mum plays double bass and wanders about barefoot like she might have been lazing on a Tennessee back porch. Dad is the midfield key carrying the back beat from his son behind the traps to the frontline on a truck full of driving acoustic rhythm chords. First time you hear that Okeh Wranglers front line, unless you are a dead parrot or close to it listening to drivel radio, nope the first time you hear that front line you are going to curl up. The Kyme sisters, with all that jet black hair, look like they might have inspired some of Hank Williams most saddest love songs but forget the visual for a moment because their playing is wow, I need another beer, wow. Louise Kyme is a regular contributor to the uk.music.country internet newsgroup. She plays accordian with plenty of that drawling Texas cum Louisiana half step swing. Her sister at the middle mic not only sings lead on most of the songs but plays a Gibson like a Telecaster. I have no doubt if Dale Watson had been sat in the bar tonight he would have asked the whole band to come support him on the strength of the guitar playing alone. And when the pedal steel kicked in from Louise's sister he'd have been in much in love with the sound as I was. After one night listening to the Okeh Wranglers I'm not right up on all the originals they did but the first one about having a cigarette had my head full of images. Like being back in those mid-Western towns of nowhere waiting at the truck stop for another Greyhound to take you to somewhere out nowhere in the West. A real great love song. Of the covers. Louise's Dad does Jimmy Rodgers with soul. The Lefty Frizzell arrangement he would tell me at the bar. Going to California and I sure wish I was again. A couple of fine Hank Williams, the original cowboy poet, done with passion. Merle Travis, lots of Elvis stuff not normally heard like Baby Let's Play House and someone who is clearly close to Louise's guitar playing sister's heart Joe Maphis. The Nat King Cole songs were both excellent and one rocked the joint. A Peggy Lee song done beautifully by both Louise and her sister and perhaps the stage announcement of the night from Dad when he introduced Carl Perkins' Matchbox: 'A man who is God to any reasonably sane person . . .' On hearing the depth of their musical knowledge tonight both on stage and off I'd say they ought to be doing their own radio show instead of the lame brained stuff we are now thrown from computer playlists and drivelling DJs. I'd love to hear this whole family sharing their passion for country music from the forties to the present day instead of all those neat suited, pressed tied mobs. The audience here tonight knew what they liked. They crammed into the tiny front bar of the Railway Inn, loved the Okeh Wranglers to a song applauding all night long. Unplugged by the BBC but coming right at ya wherever you want to hear a band with a mess of country in their souls. Wahooooooooo!" Mike Plumbley
The Okeh Wranglers' first album.