Many years ago in a sleepy little suburb of Albuquerque called Bosque Farms, four children grew up with seemingly normal lives, until ten years ago. During college at UNM Valencia campus, these four youths got together and formed The Saltine Ramblers. They are not your standard college band. These guys didn’t get into music for the babes or the status, they just wanted to have fun and play some music. They never set out to be an actual band, but their fans saw it differently.
Cory, Dave, Kevin, and Dave all came from different musical backgrounds and styles, but can all agree that their major influences are Ween and The Grateful Dead. Some of you may be thinking, ‘I would never go see them’, but they are much more then their influences. In ten years, they have become adapt when it coming to playing for their crowds. At the drop of the hat they will go from six-minute covers of The Cure to a bluegrass tune to keep the audience on their feet. “I just wanted our fans to come out to have fun,” says Cory.
All the members take turns singing and writing music for the band. “We come up with ideas, bring into practice, and we all sit down and work on them,” shares Kevin, the band’s comic relief and rhythm guitar player. I personally am not sure how they can tell who the comic relief is in this band. If these guys have half as much fun on-stage, (which they do) as they have off-stage, you will always leave their show with a smile on your face.
The band has recently released their second CD, produced in Santa Fe, at Frogville Studios. The first album they were able to record in a matter of hours, and the new one in two days. “We started out limited on time because we were limited on funds,” Cory says, “But since we are such a well-practiced band, it took less time then we thought” Frogville does the entire recording live with the whole band playing at the same time, which suits The Ramblers just fine.
You can find The Saltine Ramblers playing all over the state of New Mexico, including local brewpubs. They have no solid plans to tour outside of New Mexico at this time, as they are still in it for fun, not fame. Check out http://www.thesaltineramblers.bandcamp.com to hear their latest tracks and see where they are playing next or their Facebook page for the latest dates.
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