Country Standard Time
May 2004
by Brian Steinberg

Red Stick Ramblers Bring It On

[Fiddle] player [Linzay Young's] voice doesn't necessarily conjure up Bob Wills. But his playing - and that of his band mates in The Red Stick Ramblers - certainly does.

This six-man combo raises many ghosts, and the first few notes on the band's second album "Bring It On Down," (Memphis International) make one nostalgic for toe-tapping swing tunes from the nation's past.The Red Stick Ramblers add a little spice to the gumbo, with Cajun influences and other interesting bits.

"We kind of started out playing mostly swing, hot jazz, genuine early jazz from the 1930s and Western swing," [Young] recalls.

But one of the group's fiddlers hails from Eunice, La., he says, and things began to evolve. "It's in the air around here. We were playing swing, and every once in a while we threw in a Cajun tune more and more - until today, it's more of a balance of swing-inspired stuff and Cajun stuff."

"Bring It On Down" is a rollicking affair, with seductive blues, call-and-response vocals and all sorts of musical bells and whistles. What else would you expect from a band that boasts - at various points - fiddles, banjo, steel guitar, piano and even triangle?

"We try to throw in a hodge-podge of stuff, but I'd say that the two guideposts of what we do is Cajun swing and the music of southern Louisiana and Texas," Caffery says.

The Ramblers met in Baton Rouge, where they were living, working and attending school around Louisiana State University. Caffery made a trip with a band mate to a weekly Cajun jam session at the Savoy Music Center in Eunice to learn about and listen to Cajun music. While there, he learned that fiddler Joel Savoy was a freshman attending LSU, according to the band's web site.

Eventually, Savoy joined Caffery and drummer Glenn Fields, in a Baton Rouge band called Brother Teresa, and Savoy began honing his fiddle chops. The band played regularly in the area, but graduation meant migration, and the band members moved in various directions.

Brother Theresa disbanded, but Savoy eventually met Chas Justus, a musician from Memphis. The two began taking part in daily jam sessions. Acoustic bassist Ricky Rees came to the group by way of an ad in a local paper. Fiddler/vocalist Linzay Young, a childhood friend of Savoy, also joined up.

A first gig was booked at a coffee house in Mandeville, La. In tribute to legendary Cajun music players The Hackberry Ramblers, the group outfitted itself in fancy suits, now a hallmark of their performance, according to the web site. As time went by, the set list grew to encompass everything from bluegrass to so-called "gypsy jazz."

In early 2002, the group released its first disc, a self-titled effort, and began playing several big-name festivals. The second disc came out last year and included a range of cuts, everything from the peppy Bob Willis tune "Bring It On Down" to Caffery's bluesy piano stroll, "Main Street Blues," a perfect remedy to a tough day at work. There are waltzes such as "Two Step des Condamnes" and "Parting Waltz" and the dark, haunting "Rattle My Cage."

Different songs have different inspirations. "Speaking for myself, I'm sort of inspired by the landscape down here, the culture, I would say, just the way people are, the way people act, the way the land looks here. Natural settings, the beauty of, just the natural environment. That's just personally what I'm into. The other guys would say (they are inspired by) heartbreak," Caffery says.

While [Young] reveres older songwriters like Jimmie Rodgers, he also has a taste for modern forms.

"I'm honestly really into rap. I like Outkast, of course. I think everyone does these days. I'm definitely inspired by rappers. I think the cadences of the songs and some of the rhythms are more like what you might find in a rap song," he adds. In a demonstration of how wide personal musical tastes can range, Caffery also enjoys Bob Dylan albums including "Highway 61 Revisited" and "Blood on the Tracks."

Count on a lot of travel in the Red Stick Ramblers' future. "Around here, we are one of the only bands playing swing that's more rooted in an early jazz sort of feel, sort of more straight swing. On the festival circuit that we play - hmm, I don't know that there are other bands doing what we do."

Fellow disciples might include Hot Club of Cowtown or Asleep At The Wheel, he says. Still, most of what Caffery hears "seems to be centered more on bluegrass and old time and Appalachian roots. There is a lot more of that than there is Deep South roots music, like south Texas music and southern Louisiana music. There aren't that many bands out there on the circuit."

By the end of the year, that circuit will be a well-traveled one. "This summer, we're going to be out, pretty much all of May, June, July," he says. Festivals are in the offing, as are trips to New England, Texas and French Canada.

Even with all the travel in the next few months, the Ramblers have another album in mind, he says, and have some early plans to start "recording a little bit, just on our own."

He envisions a disc "really based on some of these traditional musics that we have been learning how to play since we became musicians and sort of creating something new and very exciting and solid."

Country Standard Time - live review
Johnny D's, Somerville, Mass., May 12, 2004
By Jeffrey B. Remz

SOMERVILLE, MASS. - The back of the 2002 debut album from the Red Stick Ramblers says to file the music of the Louisiana band under "authentic cajun gypsy swing."

And the description is just about on target in describing the sextet, who play country, Cajun and Western swing music to very fine effect.

When mixing those three ingredients, that makes for one potent, lively mix. The musicianship of the group, which released a very strong second album, "Bring It On Down," last fall, is the highlight with Josh Caffery a very strong mandolin player often giving the country edge to the music. Lead singer Linzay Young and Joel Savoy brought a double dose of fiddle playing, which sounded awfully sweet at times. And electric guitarist Chas Justus often plucked the right notes without ever overdoing it.

Drummer Glenn Fields set a very very steady beat throughout the evening, never letting the songs drag.
After the sterling first set, the inevitable break slowed them down. Think of it similar to a basketball game where a team has its legs in the first half and is scoring at a will only to have their momentum broken by the required half-time break.

For the Ramblers, it took them awhile in the second set to find their groove. They played a few too many covers instead of relying on their own material. The effect is that they could have been accused of being more a covers band.

Not that they didn't do a good job with Bob Wills' "Take Me Back to Tulsa" and "Roly Poly" (though can a band into western swing play something besides these two songs?) and "Stay All Night."

One of the best songs of the set was the unrecorded "Closing Time Blues," written by Justus.

However the Red Stick Ramblers may be described musically, the emphasis should be that they make lively, fun music.