D. Rangers

Aug 5, 2004

If you’ve never seen D. Rangers play, you can rest assured the Winnipeg quintet is aptly named.

Though The Perpetrators might argue the claim, the Rangers are probably Winnipeg’s foremost up-for-anything party band. If there’s pickin’, grinnin’ and late-night hijinks to be had in this town after the bars close, chances are you’ll find a D. Ranger at the centre of the action.

This propensity for musical fun and frolic has earned D. Rangers a feel-good reputation that is quickly spreading beyond the confines of Winnipeg.

“We’ve already been hired by a couple of music festivals specifically to host their jams, at Ness Creek (near Big River, Sask.) and at Regina,” explains Aaron Goss, the band’s mandolinist and unofficial spokesman. “We are becoming known as the guys who are always good for staying up till 5 a.m., playing songs and drinking whiskey.

“And it seems that bluegrass draws people to it who like to jam because it is instrumentally driven music that attracts people who play and sing.”

Since the May release of D. Rangers’ second full-length album, We Stay High and Lonesome, the band has been hitting music festivals across Canada — playing shows, making friends and killing vans as they go. (The group’s last vehicle recently gave up the ghost in Canmore, Alta.)

An Eastern swing is about to take the group out to Montreal and back, and Goss says the band is especially stoked about playing at singer/songwriter Fred Eaglesmith’s annual picnic show in Aylmer, Ont., and at the Maberly Meltdown in Maberly, Ont., where jam opportunities will abound.

While he admits that it is difficult for bluegrass musicians (or ‘mutant bluegrass’ players, if you prefer) to make a living in Canada, Goss says things are getting better and better for D. Rangers with each sojourn the band makes outside Winnipeg.

“We do well in Saskatoon, and Vancouver is a really good city for us, as well,” Goss says. “Everybody who plays in Toronto starves but I think even that city will be a good one for us, eventually.”

The key to the charm and growing popularity of the D. Rangers is that these five guys — Goss, banjo player Jaxon Haldane, guitarist Chris Saywell, muckbucket bassist Tom Fodey and fiddler Don Zueff — don’t exactly play your grandmother’s bluegrass.

Matching kerchiefs and cowboy hats are not the trappings of D.Rangers. Nor do they take a stiff-backed approach to performance. They certainly revere and honour the form but do so in a fashion that befits young men in their late 20s and early 30s who are as steeped in the sound and attitude of punk rock as they are in the lonesome wail of Appalachian fiddle tunes.

“We do run into people who come up to us and say, ‘That’s not bluegrass and you shouldn’t use that term,’ and to them, I guess, we’re not traditionalists,” says Goss, 31.

“But I do think we are a valid variant of bluegrass. There’s just a lot of people out there who don’t want to admit that bluegrass did not stop developing in 1955.

“We like to play with fire in our bellies and we like an energetic connection between performer and audience, where we metaphorically kick their asses,” he explains.

D. Rangers was initially formed in 1999 as a side-project for the core foursome (Zueff, who’s in his 50s, is a recent addition) while they played in other Winnipeg outfits, such as Off the Wagon and Rodeo Date. As those groups dissolved, the Rangers remained standing and its members realized the one-time side project had developed a following of its own.

“We started getting more and better gigs and we realized we had something,” Goss says.

The name came from Haldane, who had used it with a band he had while living in Oklahoma.

“It was so good, so apt for what we do that he wanted to use it again,” Goss says. “So we registered it right away.”

The first D. Rangers recording, Good Times Are Coming Back Again, was released in 2002 to positive reviews and has attracted buyers from as far away as Florida and Minneapolis — which is ultimately where the group must head if it hopes to reach as many people as it can.
“We know that we have to go south,” Goss says. “Canada is pretty small and Europe is too far away, so we have to go to the States.”

An American release of We Stay High and Lonesome is slated for later this year, to be followed by a springtime tour.

In Canada, the album is currently available on Fred Eaglesmith’s AML label, distributed by Outside Music.
- Uptown Magazine, by John Kendle

Apr 1, 2004

If there's such a thing as alt-bluegrass, the D. Rangers are cultivating it. The local quintet are living up to their mischievous moniker by taking traditional bluegrass and mutating it into quasi-anthemic party rockers which sometimes have more in common with punk than the traditional old-time mountain music which inspired the genre.

"We love to make our dead heroes spin in their graves. What the hell else would they rather be doing?" says banjo-playing vocalist Jaxon Haldane.

For three years Haldane, mandolin player Aaron Goss, guitarist Chris Saywell, fiddler Donny Zuesf and muckbucket provocateur Tom (Twisty) Fodey have been putting their own spin on the style pioneered by Bill Monroe in the 1930s.

Most of the D. Rangers come from punk and metal backgrounds but fell in love with traditional acoustic music as they got older.

"As individual musicians we've always been obsessed with the roots of whatever we've listened to, so if you trace punk rock way back to its origins you ultimately end up back to Bill Monroe and Hank Williams," Haldane says.

The D. Rangers are part of the city's burgeoning bluegrass scene, which includes groups like Doug and Jess, Mayes and Carmichael and Half Grassed. Haldane believes the style is growing in popularity because of its grit and honesty -- there's no way to sterilize the sound of a mandolin or banjo.

In the D. Rangers case, they use the muckbucket to carry the bottom end. It is similar to a washtub bass used by a jug band, with a few modifications. The muckbucket Fodey plays features a plastic wash tub, two strings of nylon braided rope, a two-by-two piece of wood and clothesline winches for tuning.

"The difference with ours is the actual playing style is more akin to an upright bass. A classic washtub relies on tension to change the pitch, where this is like a guitar," says Haldane, who built the group's first one with material from a hardware store.

The band are known for their classic bluegrass numbers and originals, but also throw tracks by bands like Motorhead, AC/DC and the Dead Kennedys into their live set. They are set to release their sophomore album, We Stay High and Lonesome, Saturday. The title is a reference to the former Times Change(d) High and Lonesome Club on Main Street.

"This album veers from the traditional side of things a little more than the first one did. It's more a reflection of our comprehensive influences. The first album has its fair share of crazy, but this is more diverse in styles. The one is more a twisted approach to honky-tonk, western swing and bluegrass. There's more of a country idiom," Haldane says.

We Stay High and Lonesome is being released on Fred Eaglesmith's A Major Label next month, but is available in Winnipeg this weekend.

The band will launch the CD Saturday at the West End Cultural Centre with some friends from Toronto: Crooner Matt Masters and his Gentlemen of the Rodeo, along with "intergalactic western swing" artists Pat Temple and Pineapple Frank. The music starts at 8 p.m. Admission is $13.
- The Winnipeg Sun, by Rob Williams

On their second album of freakishly energetic bluegrass, Winnipeg's D.Rangers drop the phony southern-U.S. shtick and stick to their instruments. The feverish performances speed past bluegrass and into country-punk territory and even a little jam-band weirdness--Kandahar, Saskatchewan sounds like a low-rent Camper Van Beethoven. - Winnipeg Free Press, by Bartley Kives

On their second album of freakishly energetic bluegrass, Winnipeg's D.Rangers drop the phony southern-U.S. shtick and stick to their instruments. The feverish performances speed past bluegrass and into country-punk territory and even a little jam-band weirdness--Kandahar, Saskatchewan sounds like a low-rent Camper Van Beethoven. - Winnipeg Free Press, by Bartley Kives

May/June 2002

I distinclty remember the first time I heard a banjo and thought it was cool, in the spring of 1993. While the Butthole Surfers' "the Ballad of Naked Man" no longer holds the same power over me as it did when I was 15, it was what led me to the Bad Liver's "Horses in the Mines" album which sharply changed the course of my musical tastes, if not my entire post-adolescent developement.

Jaxon Haldane, who goes by the name of Dink Jebkins when he plays banjo for Winnipeg band the D.Rangers, undoubtedly comes to bluegrass from a punk rock perspective too. The group's self-titled debut has at least as much in common with the Ramones' "Rocket to Russia" as it does with the latest Alison Kraus or Del McCoury album.

There's the assumed names, of course (muck-bucket bass player "John T. Plumeray" is an easy classic), but more than anything, there's the unbridled energy of youth finally delivered of boredom; be it Manitoba or Queens, there's no better reason to start a band than teenage doldrums. Their manic cover of Bob Wills' "Take Me Back to Tulsa" is reminiscent of the Ramones' remake of the Trashmen's "Surfin Bird".

As creeping gentrification looms large over bluegrass, it's good to know there are still punks picking up banjos and mandolins. While they certainly have the technical prowess to pull off more traditional bluegrass, the D. Rangers are thankfully unhinged enough to really rip it up. - No Depression Magazine, by Emmet Matheson

May/June 2002

I distinclty remember the first time I heard a banjo and thought it was cool, in the spring of 1993. While the Butthole Surfers' "the Ballad of Naked Man" no longer holds the same power over me as it did when I was 15, it was what led me to the Bad Liver's "Horses in the Mines" album which sharply changed the course of my musical tastes, if not my entire post-adolescent developement.

Jaxon Haldane, who goes by the name of Dink Jebkins when he plays banjo for Winnipeg band the D.Rangers, undoubtedly comes to bluegrass from a punk rock perspective too. The group's self-titled debut has at least as much in common with the Ramones' "Rocket to Russia" as it does with the latest Alison Kraus or Del McCoury album.

There's the assumed names, of course (muck-bucket bass player "John T. Plumeray" is an easy classic), but more than anything, there's the unbridled energy of youth finally delivered of boredom; be it Manitoba or Queens, there's no better reason to start a band than teenage doldrums. Their manic cover of Bob Wills' "Take Me Back to Tulsa" is reminiscent of the Ramones' remake of the Trashmen's "Surfin Bird".

As creeping gentrification looms large over bluegrass, it's good to know there are still punks picking up banjos and mandolins. While they certainly have the technical prowess to pull off more traditional bluegrass, the D. Rangers are thankfully unhinged enough to really rip it up. - No Depression Magazine, by Emmet Matheson

June 5-11, 2003

Few string bands can split a crowd of bluegrass and old-time music fans like Winnipeg's D.Rangers.

It's not just their smartass throwback aliases - Eldon Maines Sr., Dink Jebkins, Dixon Mason and John T. Plumeray - that cause problems, nor their repertoire, which draws on Western Swing and honky-tonk favourites. What enrages the traditionally-minded segment of the D. Rangers audience is their irreverence.

Their background in punk-rock adds a confrontational edge to the D. Rangers performances.

"What Bob Wills and Bill Monroe were doing was taking what had been done before and adding their own ideas and spirit to create something new. In a similar way, we're much more interested in interpreting the music of the past than in recreating what's already been done.

"Some people come to our shows and yell 'That's not bluegrass', and that's all right with me. I've seen so many bluegrass bands standing still onstage --their expressions don't even change when they're taking a solo -- and that just leaves me cold.

"When we play, you'll see some funny guitar face, mandolin face and maybe even some banjo face, too." - Now Magazine, Toronto, by Tim Perlich

June 5-11, 2003

Few string bands can split a crowd of bluegrass and old-time music fans like Winnipeg's D.Rangers.

It's not just their smartass throwback aliases - Eldon Maines Sr., Dink Jebkins, Dixon Mason and John T. Plumeray - that cause problems, nor their repertoire, which draws on Western Swing and honky-tonk favourites. What enrages the traditionally-minded segment of the D. Rangers audience is their irreverence.

Their background in punk-rock adds a confrontational edge to the D. Rangers performances.

"What Bob Wills and Bill Monroe were doing was taking what had been done before and adding their own ideas and spirit to create something new. In a similar way, we're much more interested in interpreting the music of the past than in recreating what's already been done.

"Some people come to our shows and yell 'That's not bluegrass', and that's all right with me. I've seen so many bluegrass bands standing still onstage --their expressions don't even change when they're taking a solo -- and that just leaves me cold.

"When we play, you'll see some funny guitar face, mandolin face and maybe even some banjo face, too." - Now Magazine, Toronto, by Tim Perlich

Apr 3, 2005

Taking advantage of extended bar hours, the D.Rangers showed no sign of slowing down – at 2:45 a.m. Friday, the twisted bluegrass group was still going strong, cranking out Nick Cave covers, fielding requests for Dirty Deeds and generally pleasing the affectionate, boozy crowd. There may not have been any celebs to stalk, but it was one of the more genuine performances of the night.

“I’d like to totally dedicate my platonic love for these guys up here,” proclaimed Jaxon Haldane, and the audience clearly shared the sentiments. At least half the tiny room sang along – in harmony, no less – with the track Three Barriers (“This is about the night we risked our lives to play for 12 people at the worst hotel in British Columbia”), which featured Haldane on saw.

“It smells like a hockey rink in here.” – Patron entering the crammed Times Change(d) at 2:30 a.m. Friday.
- Winnipeg Free Press

Apr 3, 2005

Taking advantage of extended bar hours, the D.Rangers showed no sign of slowing down – at 2:45 a.m. Friday, the twisted bluegrass group was still going strong, cranking out Nick Cave covers, fielding requests for Dirty Deeds and generally pleasing the affectionate, boozy crowd. There may not have been any celebs to stalk, but it was one of the more genuine performances of the night.

“I’d like to totally dedicate my platonic love for these guys up here,” proclaimed Jaxon Haldane, and the audience clearly shared the sentiments. At least half the tiny room sang along – in harmony, no less – with the track Three Barriers (“This is about the night we risked our lives to play for 12 people at the worst hotel in British Columbia”), which featured Haldane on saw.

“It smells like a hockey rink in here.” – Patron entering the crammed Times Change(d) at 2:30 a.m. Friday.
- Winnipeg Free Press

The Sadies / D.Rangers
The Red Room, Vancouver, BC
Thursday, May 5th, 2005

I may be a drunkard, I may be an idiot, I may not know a hell of a lot about anything - but I know musical brilliance when I see it. That right there is a band that has the audacity and talent enough to bring a frickin handsaw on stage and make sweet music with it and that band is the D.Rangers. Nothin’ like a sad, eerie saw solo to make a grown man want to weep tears of joy, in public no less. This band has been a favourite of mine for some time, and despite being plagued with horrendous “opening band” sound (y’know - all the sound and levels are turned down, and the suck is turned up just a bit, to ensure higher quality from the headlining band), these prairie boys know how to deliver some real good, knee slappin’ bluegrass. For the life of me I couldn’t figure out why everyone was sittin’ down like a bunch of goddamned hippies on the floor in front of the stage instead of gittin’ up and gettin down. We had fiddle solos, geetar solos, mandolin solos, a muck bucket solo - all whilst lead yodeller, Dink Jebkins, switched between pluckin’ banjo and bowin’ saw. Unfortunately for The Sadies, by the end of the opening act, there was nothin’ else that could have impressed me musically. Despite how much I’d love to be in a band that sounds and plays like The Sadies (minus the silly “Alt Country” label – let’s strike that term from our vocabularies from this point on, no?) an hour of spaghetti western soundtrack with vocals wasn’t gonna do it for me after seein’ my boys the D.Rangers play. Hell, they even borrowed The Sadies lap steel player. Talk about showin’ ‘em up. No wonder they turned the sound down…

- The Nerve Magazine (Vancouver)

The Sadies / D.Rangers
The Red Room, Vancouver, BC
Thursday, May 5th, 2005

I may be a drunkard, I may be an idiot, I may not know a hell of a lot about anything - but I know musical brilliance when I see it. That right there is a band that has the audacity and talent enough to bring a frickin handsaw on stage and make sweet music with it and that band is the D.Rangers. Nothin’ like a sad, eerie saw solo to make a grown man want to weep tears of joy, in public no less. This band has been a favourite of mine for some time, and despite being plagued with horrendous “opening band” sound (y’know - all the sound and levels are turned down, and the suck is turned up just a bit, to ensure higher quality from the headlining band), these prairie boys know how to deliver some real good, knee slappin’ bluegrass. For the life of me I couldn’t figure out why everyone was sittin’ down like a bunch of goddamned hippies on the floor in front of the stage instead of gittin’ up and gettin down. We had fiddle solos, geetar solos, mandolin solos, a muck bucket solo - all whilst lead yodeller, Dink Jebkins, switched between pluckin’ banjo and bowin’ saw. Unfortunately for The Sadies, by the end of the opening act, there was nothin’ else that could have impressed me musically. Despite how much I’d love to be in a band that sounds and plays like The Sadies (minus the silly “Alt Country” label – let’s strike that term from our vocabularies from this point on, no?) an hour of spaghetti western soundtrack with vocals wasn’t gonna do it for me after seein’ my boys the D.Rangers play. Hell, they even borrowed The Sadies lap steel player. Talk about showin’ ‘em up. No wonder they turned the sound down…

- The Nerve Magazine (Vancouver)

Jake Troughton
Senior News Editor

You’ll have to forgive The D Rangers if they aren’t quite themselves at tomorrow’s show: the Winnipeg-based bluegrass/roots band has recently lost a loved one.

The band’s beloved one-ton Chevy camper van broke down for good outside of Medicine Hat earlier this week, the latest in a long string of vehicular troubles.

“But this last one, we have to say, it owed us nothing,” says lead vocalist Jaxon Haldane, who also plays the banjo and, on occasion, the saw. “We bought this van for $400 in Airdrie about two and a half years ago. I did the math, and it was like 40 000km that the thing had done for $400, so that’s like a penny a kilometer.

But while he confesses to certain tender feelings for the departed vehicle, Haldane says losing it was much easier than some of the previous adventures, such as pushing a van up a snowy mountain, an incident detailed in their song “Three Barriers.”

“It was a really great van, and we loved it very much, but the van going down the highway was a very atypical D Ranger breakdown situation; it wasn’t stressful, really,” he says. “I’ve compared it to losing a loved one who’s been sick for a long time. It’s like, ‘Oh, you’re in a better place.’”

That wasn’t the only atypical incident on the band’s current tour, which isn’t even a week old; on Monday, they happened to be in the right place at the right time and ended up participating in the shooting of Corb Lund’s new video.

“That was a pretty odd thing to do on a day off on-tour. We were all dressed up in 1800s period costumes, and hung out and waited for them to say ‘roll,’” says Haldane. “We were just extras; mostly, we were just sitting around and drinking. We come by that pretty honestly, so I think we delivered a pretty authentic performance.

“It was good fortune for us, because CMT won’t take the videos we’ve made, so we’ve got to get in the back door somehow.”

It’s no surprise that CMT would pass on The D Rangers; for a station that passes over mainstream bluegrass, The Rangers must be downright terrifying. They’re all-acoustic and—with the exception of the aforementioned saw—stick to your basic bluegrass instruments, but with a sound that’s been described as “mutant bluegrass,” they bring an energy and edge rarely heard on any commercial music station, let alone pop-country stations.

They can even have trouble getting into bluegrass festivals, although, paradoxically, Haldane says the more traditional the music a bluegrass crowd is seeking, the more likely they seem to be to latch onto The D Rangers, which he attributes to a similarity in spirit, if not entirely in sound.

“If you come wanting to see the real gritty Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs kind of stuff, we’re not going to play the music like that, but I think there’ll be something about our show that’ll appeal to you,” he says.

“Bill Monroe, Hank Williams and Bob Wills were the original influences, directly, on the band. We always wanted to be edgy like Hank and Bill, and always be experimental and somewhat avant garde like Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys were at their height. Monroe was the original punk rocker in many senses, musically ... He revved the music of his time up more than a lot of the music that I thought was so extraordinarily edgy as a teenager.”

So despite the fast-paced rock feel to a lot of their music, one could argue that The D Rangers—rather than the purveyors of “adult-contemporary music that they call bluegrass these days,” as Haldane says—are the natural heirs to the heritage of bluegrass.

“I think a lot of bluegrass people would disagree with that, but we won’t,” Haldane laughs. “We’re just sort of striving for that. Someday we’ll probably end up making a real traditional bluegrass album that’s right in that vein, very honest and authentic. But for now there’s too much piss and vinegar, so whatever; we’re not gonna suppress that.”
- The Gateway - Edmonton, Nov 24/05

Jake Troughton
Senior News Editor

You’ll have to forgive The D Rangers if they aren’t quite themselves at tomorrow’s show: the Winnipeg-based bluegrass/roots band has recently lost a loved one.

The band’s beloved one-ton Chevy camper van broke down for good outside of Medicine Hat earlier this week, the latest in a long string of vehicular troubles.

“But this last one, we have to say, it owed us nothing,” says lead vocalist Jaxon Haldane, who also plays the banjo and, on occasion, the saw. “We bought this van for $400 in Airdrie about two and a half years ago. I did the math, and it was like 40 000km that the thing had done for $400, so that’s like a penny a kilometer.

But while he confesses to certain tender feelings for the departed vehicle, Haldane says losing it was much easier than some of the previous adventures, such as pushing a van up a snowy mountain, an incident detailed in their song “Three Barriers.”

“It was a really great van, and we loved it very much, but the van going down the highway was a very atypical D Ranger breakdown situation; it wasn’t stressful, really,” he says. “I’ve compared it to losing a loved one who’s been sick for a long time. It’s like, ‘Oh, you’re in a better place.’”

That wasn’t the only atypical incident on the band’s current tour, which isn’t even a week old; on Monday, they happened to be in the right place at the right time and ended up participating in the shooting of Corb Lund’s new video.

“That was a pretty odd thing to do on a day off on-tour. We were all dressed up in 1800s period costumes, and hung out and waited for them to say ‘roll,’” says Haldane. “We were just extras; mostly, we were just sitting around and drinking. We come by that pretty honestly, so I think we delivered a pretty authentic performance.

“It was good fortune for us, because CMT won’t take the videos we’ve made, so we’ve got to get in the back door somehow.”

It’s no surprise that CMT would pass on The D Rangers; for a station that passes over mainstream bluegrass, The Rangers must be downright terrifying. They’re all-acoustic and—with the exception of the aforementioned saw—stick to your basic bluegrass instruments, but with a sound that’s been described as “mutant bluegrass,” they bring an energy and edge rarely heard on any commercial music station, let alone pop-country stations.

They can even have trouble getting into bluegrass festivals, although, paradoxically, Haldane says the more traditional the music a bluegrass crowd is seeking, the more likely they seem to be to latch onto The D Rangers, which he attributes to a similarity in spirit, if not entirely in sound.

“If you come wanting to see the real gritty Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs kind of stuff, we’re not going to play the music like that, but I think there’ll be something about our show that’ll appeal to you,” he says.

“Bill Monroe, Hank Williams and Bob Wills were the original influences, directly, on the band. We always wanted to be edgy like Hank and Bill, and always be experimental and somewhat avant garde like Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys were at their height. Monroe was the original punk rocker in many senses, musically ... He revved the music of his time up more than a lot of the music that I thought was so extraordinarily edgy as a teenager.”

So despite the fast-paced rock feel to a lot of their music, one could argue that The D Rangers—rather than the purveyors of “adult-contemporary music that they call bluegrass these days,” as Haldane says—are the natural heirs to the heritage of bluegrass.

“I think a lot of bluegrass people would disagree with that, but we won’t,” Haldane laughs. “We’re just sort of striving for that. Someday we’ll probably end up making a real traditional bluegrass album that’s right in that vein, very honest and authentic. But for now there’s too much piss and vinegar, so whatever; we’re not gonna suppress that.”
- The Gateway - Edmonton, Nov 24/05

D. Rangers "We Stay High And Lonesome", teh sophomore follow-up to 2001's self-titled debut, doesn't stray much from the direction laid out on the first disc - just a little more skewed. In case you haven't heard of these guys, they hail from Winipeg and play what some might call "alternative bluegrass." Traditional bluegrasss lovers might have a few other names for it. The band has been known to play Motorhead and AC/DC covers in their live set - all with a decidedly bluegrass bent - and they make it work! All you need is an affinity for teh genre and a decent sense of humour. Songs about wronged women, whiskey and blood abound. Oh yeah - I almost forgot - these guys can sing and these guys can play! Tight harmonies, quick pickin' mournful houndawg melodies - yee haw! The group is now apparently at work on a Devo cover - can't wait.
-Don Peterson - Vancouver Island Insight - Victoria

D. Rangers "We Stay High And Lonesome", teh sophomore follow-up to 2001's self-titled debut, doesn't stray much from the direction laid out on the first disc - just a little more skewed. In case you haven't heard of these guys, they hail from Winipeg and play what some might call "alternative bluegrass." Traditional bluegrasss lovers might have a few other names for it. The band has been known to play Motorhead and AC/DC covers in their live set - all with a decidedly bluegrass bent - and they make it work! All you need is an affinity for teh genre and a decent sense of humour. Songs about wronged women, whiskey and blood abound. Oh yeah - I almost forgot - these guys can sing and these guys can play! Tight harmonies, quick pickin' mournful houndawg melodies - yee haw! The group is now apparently at work on a Devo cover - can't wait.
-Don Peterson - Vancouver Island Insight - Victoria

By Gerry Klassen

To say that the D. Rangers (drangers.ca) are a bluegrass group would be incorrect; to say that they are a band whose set list is about 60% bluegrass and 100% fun would be correct. The band’s approach to bluegrass is sort of like an old car, or truck (in their case), whose steering and brakes are suspect. It’s an adventure staying on the road but it takes you from point A to point B and it’s a heck of a ride. Other descriptions of their music are: mutant bluegrass, uncountry, and arm swinging hillbilly stomp. Myself, I would say they are just a jug short of “skiffle” (skiffle music involves household objects – think jug band). That is not to say that their playing is amateurish, not by a long shot. They’ve been on the national camps charts and shared the stage with the Sadies, Bill Bourne, the Be Good Tanyas and the Corb Lund Band. Their latest record “We Stay High and Lonesome” was released on Fred Eaglesmith’s AML label.

The band seems to have come to bluegrass through the basement window. Most of the group knew each other from various punk and blues bands in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with the exception of the elder statesman Don Zueff who has classical training the thirty-plus years of professional experience playing in bands such as Prairie Dog and the Chicken Flat String Band .The road from punk to bluegrass can be long, perilous, and dusty, unless you stop and take a big drink of the blues. I recall hearing an interview with Bill Monroe where he said, “It’s the blue notes in the song that gives it its soul.” The common threads here is that each one of them were playing blues or R&B as a last stop before bluegrass. The high, lonesome songs of Hank Williams had a lasting effect on these boys and the world will never be the same. The D. Rangers bring a punk sensibility to the genres of country, swing, and bluegrass.
I must admit that when I first saw the D. Rangers perform I was quick to categorize themes a novelty band. It’s like that old banjo joke: How many banjo players does it take to change alight bulb? Five, one to change the light bulb and four to stand around and say Earl wouldn’t have done it that way. Being a student of bluegrass, I was quick to dismiss what was beyond the realm of traditionalist instrumentation. Somewhere along the road I forgot that music is fun. This band is fun, good and fun. Go to one of their shows, if you can get in, and the first thing you’ll notice is a lot of people dancing. When was the last time you say 50 young people dancing wildly to “Shady Grove” or “Old Joe Clark”. Honestly, when? I you talk to almost any bluegrass society in North America, one of their prime focuses is to attract younger people and this band does that.

The D. Rangers have a strong national fan base and are in high demand for session work: what song would be complete without the warm thump of a Pomeray Muk3? Each band member ha their own unique style whether it’s Chris Saywell’s (acoustic guitar) bluesy full steam ahead bluegrass licks or Don “the Fid” Zueff’s fiddle playing the sweet swing of Bob Wills. Aaron Goss provides solid mandolin rhythm and his breaks are diabolically clever, having been compared to Yank Rachel. Lead vocalist Jaxon Haldane never holds back with his good set of pipes and also plays the banjo, mandolin, saw, fiddle and guitar. When I asked Jaxon about his unorthodox banjo style he replied, “If somewhere would teach me a three-finger Scruggs roll, I’d stop playing my banjo like an electric guitar.” Jaxon is also proficient on mandolin, fiddle, and guitar as well as construction (he built the muck bucket bass, which Tom “Twisty” Fodey plays).

If you asked anyone who has had the fortune of meeting or jamming with these madmen, I know the response would be unanimous. They are gentlemen, scholars, road warriors, and freaks. You can’t ask for more in a band. If you don’t make it to the late night D. Rangers jam after the stage music’s done, you’ve missed out.”
- Bluegrass North Magazine, September/October 2005

By Gerry Klassen

To say that the D. Rangers (drangers.ca) are a bluegrass group would be incorrect; to say that they are a band whose set list is about 60% bluegrass and 100% fun would be correct. The band’s approach to bluegrass is sort of like an old car, or truck (in their case), whose steering and brakes are suspect. It’s an adventure staying on the road but it takes you from point A to point B and it’s a heck of a ride. Other descriptions of their music are: mutant bluegrass, uncountry, and arm swinging hillbilly stomp. Myself, I would say they are just a jug short of “skiffle” (skiffle music involves household objects – think jug band). That is not to say that their playing is amateurish, not by a long shot. They’ve been on the national camps charts and shared the stage with the Sadies, Bill Bourne, the Be Good Tanyas and the Corb Lund Band. Their latest record “We Stay High and Lonesome” was released on Fred Eaglesmith’s AML label.

The band seems to have come to bluegrass through the basement window. Most of the group knew each other from various punk and blues bands in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with the exception of the elder statesman Don Zueff who has classical training the thirty-plus years of professional experience playing in bands such as Prairie Dog and the Chicken Flat String Band .The road from punk to bluegrass can be long, perilous, and dusty, unless you stop and take a big drink of the blues. I recall hearing an interview with Bill Monroe where he said, “It’s the blue notes in the song that gives it its soul.” The common threads here is that each one of them were playing blues or R&B as a last stop before bluegrass. The high, lonesome songs of Hank Williams had a lasting effect on these boys and the world will never be the same. The D. Rangers bring a punk sensibility to the genres of country, swing, and bluegrass.
I must admit that when I first saw the D. Rangers perform I was quick to categorize themes a novelty band. It’s like that old banjo joke: How many banjo players does it take to change alight bulb? Five, one to change the light bulb and four to stand around and say Earl wouldn’t have done it that way. Being a student of bluegrass, I was quick to dismiss what was beyond the realm of traditionalist instrumentation. Somewhere along the road I forgot that music is fun. This band is fun, good and fun. Go to one of their shows, if you can get in, and the first thing you’ll notice is a lot of people dancing. When was the last time you say 50 young people dancing wildly to “Shady Grove” or “Old Joe Clark”. Honestly, when? I you talk to almost any bluegrass society in North America, one of their prime focuses is to attract younger people and this band does that.

The D. Rangers have a strong national fan base and are in high demand for session work: what song would be complete without the warm thump of a Pomeray Muk3? Each band member ha their own unique style whether it’s Chris Saywell’s (acoustic guitar) bluesy full steam ahead bluegrass licks or Don “the Fid” Zueff’s fiddle playing the sweet swing of Bob Wills. Aaron Goss provides solid mandolin rhythm and his breaks are diabolically clever, having been compared to Yank Rachel. Lead vocalist Jaxon Haldane never holds back with his good set of pipes and also plays the banjo, mandolin, saw, fiddle and guitar. When I asked Jaxon about his unorthodox banjo style he replied, “If somewhere would teach me a three-finger Scruggs roll, I’d stop playing my banjo like an electric guitar.” Jaxon is also proficient on mandolin, fiddle, and guitar as well as construction (he built the muck bucket bass, which Tom “Twisty” Fodey plays).

If you asked anyone who has had the fortune of meeting or jamming with these madmen, I know the response would be unanimous. They are gentlemen, scholars, road warriors, and freaks. You can’t ask for more in a band. If you don’t make it to the late night D. Rangers jam after the stage music’s done, you’ve missed out.”
- Bluegrass North Magazine, September/October 2005