The Westbound Rangers
Gig Seeker Pro

The Westbound Rangers

Nashville, Tennessee, United States | SELF

Nashville, Tennessee, United States | SELF
Band Americana Folk

Calendar

This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

Music

Press


"Bluegrass Band Has Local Tie"

For as nearly long as he can remember, Graham Sherrill has loved to sing and play music. When he was still in kindergarten Sherrill was singing solo at church events and by the time he graduated from Apex High School in 2006 he could play guitar, piano and mandolin.

Yet, it wasn't until he moved away to college - and learned to play the banjo - that Sherrill decided to play in a band.

As a sophomore at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., Sherrill and college buddies guitarist Read Davis, mandolin player Mike Walker and bass playerWes Burkhart formed the group the Westbound Rangers.

The bluegrass playing foursome will perform Saturday, April 9 at 7 p.m. on the town campus between town hall and the community center.

The show kicks off the 2011 Concerts on the Campus series.

The band, which recently released their second album, "Southern Bread and Butter for It," is gaining popularity in the competitive Nashville music scene.

More importantly, the good friends are having a lot of fun.

"It's been pretty awesome," said Sherrill. "We are all really good friends and we have a similar way of looking at things. We like to make each other laugh and we tend to write along those same lines.

"We have fun on stage and if we weren't having a good time we wouldn't be doing it. We're just trying to keep it real and stay grounded." Sherrill first started listening to bluegrass in eighth grade and became a fan of the Avett Brothers and the Duhks.

"The more I listened to them the more excited I became about that music," said Sherrill. "I really enjoy the folk music, Americana stuff." Moving to Nashville only whetted his musical appetite.

Sherrill and Davis began playing music together informally their freshman year and within a few months they had recruited Walker and Burkhart and formed the band. After playing shows in the Nashville area, the group started travelling as far south as Alabama and as far north as Michigan.

"We've been playing mostly in the southeast but then last year we got invited to some festivals up north," said Sherrill.

"They invited us back this year so we will be heading up to Michigan." One of their favorite spots to play is much closer to home. The Station Inn is a legendary bluegrass holein-the-wall located in Nashville.

"It's really cool for us to play there," said Sherrill. "When people come to Nashville who love bluegrass music they go to the Station Inn. It's that well known." But the most memorable concerts for the band members are those shows held in front of friends and family in their old hometowns.

The Westbound Rangers have played in Apex before but this one promises to be even more special for Sherrill.

"It should be a lot of fun," said Sherrill. "It's always super sweet when you play in your hometown. People care about you and everyone has a good time. "We played at the Halle Center before but this time I'm going to have a lot of extended family at the show. Both of my parents are from North Carolina and they invited a lot of relatives.

I'm also hoping to see some old high school friends." The opening act for the show is The Charade featuring Shannon Schaible and Leah Becton of Apex.

Lawn chairs and picnic blankets are encouraged by alcohol is prohibited.

The show will be held at the Halle Center in case of inclement weather.



- Apex Herald


"How the Westbound Rangers Became One of the Most Colorful Young Unplugged Act in Town"

How the Westbound Rangers became one of the most colorful young unplugged acts in town
Strings Attached
by Jewly Hight

Playing Saturday, 12th at Station Inn

It matters that the Westbound Rangers are a string band made up mostly of guys who only a few years ago had no particular desire to be in a string band. That's one reason they're becoming such a broadly appealing one.

Graham Sherrill — the group's soft-spoken de facto leader in all things old-timey — got to Belmont freshman year and checked out the musical competition. "I looked around," he says, "and I was like, 'This ain't gonna work. There are way too many guitar and piano players that are way better than me. ... Let me try banjo, because I don't see any banjos on campus so far.' "

And since he admired the lively energy that Old Crow Medicine Show, the Avett Brothers and the Duhks summon on their albums, he figured he'd rather play with others than be a clawhammer banjo-packing lone ranger. He jokes that he used an on-campus gig as bait to get a couple of fellow students to join him.

Read Davis — who'd arrived from Texas an electric guitar-playing Stevie Ray Vaughan devotee — was one who happened to be at the right place at the right time. Or, as Davis puts it, "I rode with [Graham] when he went and got his first banjo." After that, it seemed only fitting for Sherrill to enlist him on acoustic guitar.

Then there was Mike Walker. He'd led Southern-fried party bands, but as Sherrill learned, that wasn't the whole story — as a kid, he'd also been drug around to church-sponsored bluegrass jams. Says Walker, "He knew I'd played some mandolin growing up and he wanted me to dust it off."

A slightly later addition to the group, Wes Burkhart had played electric bass in his share of bands before college, and was one of the few on campus who owned an upright. "Somehow," Burkhart says with a smile, "Graham heard that I had one."

But rounding up the necessary instruments didn't make Sherrill, Davis, Walker and Burkhart stick as a band — their blended sensibilities became the glue. They had a blast working up material to fit the four of them. "As a songwriter," Walker says with a laugh, "as close as I could have gotten at that time to where Graham wanted to be was Neil Young, which is not very close at all."

The Rangers did their first recording a few years back, flying through nine songs around three microphones in Sherrill's living room. The result was a self-titled, self-released search for band identity that showed promising instincts, a good sense of humor and an aversion to stick-in-the-mud traditionalism.

With school behind them now, they've made what feels like their first true album — Southern Bread and Butter for It — upgrading to a proper studio, John Prine and David Ferguson's Butcher Shoppe. Easy as it would be for any band of the musical generation after the Avetts and Old Crow to try to copy their proven models, the Rangers resist the temptation.

You can tell from the rollicking album opener "Pushwater" that they get what's great about the hot young string bands who hit in the aughts — that they rock, literally. But they're also tuned in to John Hartford's storytelling jaunts (see their "In Tall Buildings" cover and Sherrill's own "Natchez Under the Wheel") and even SteelDrivers-style acoustic Southern rock. (For the record, Walker may sing a lot about steel driving in "John Henry," but he wrote the song back in high school before he'd ever heard the band.)

Sherrill and Walker — the group's primary songwriters — each have their specialties. Says the latter, "Basically if Graham writes it, we don't even have to ask. It's guaranteed. It's a Rangers' song. And with me, I throw whatever I have up against the wall and a little bit of it sticks."

He means Sherrill is the one who comes up with stuff tailor-made for a string band — like the silly historical romp "Stonewall" and the fiddle tune "Way Out West" — while he might stretch the group in other directions with a pop-country ballad like "Wanna Call You Mine."

"It's like nine out of every 10 songs that I start are ballads," he says, blaming it on all the Jim Croce he listened to growing up.

All this is to say, the Rangers do some sprightly spotlight-sharing between their songs and singing — in all its varieties — and their playing. They also put on a good show. As soon as they had a band name, they wrote a yell-along theme song. "Being the kind of novelty upstart, not-take-ourselves-serious band that we were for sure at that time," says Walker, "I was like, 'Well there's nothing better than to have our friends yell our new name right back at us.' "

Nowadays their friends — or college-age crowds in general — definitely aren't their only target audience. They're proud to report that they've also won over small children and nursing home residents with their live shows. And that sprawling age range is no doubt why "Pushwater" is a tongue-in-cheek song about craving coffee instead of the harder substances old-timey acts are always singing about — say, moonshine or cocaine. "We made a conscious decision on the record to leave out swear words," says Davis, "because we'd played a gig at the Frist for a kids' day at the museum. So we knew that we could entertain the heck out of them." - Nashville Scene


"Westbound Rangers On Track"

2/10/11
Westbound Rangers on track
Once underdogs, members of the Americana/bluegrass group (including Hartselle native Mike Walker) have found their niche
By Catherine Godbey

Could four individuals with four distinct musical identities form one cohesive group?

The students at Belmont University doubted it, but packed a coffee house to find out.

There was the bluegrass banjo player from North Carolina, the rock-’n’-roll guitarist from Alabama, the Southern rock musician from Virginia and the electric guitarist with a love for Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Clapton from Texas.

“There was no bluegrass scene on campus. People came out because they couldn’t imagine what we would play,” said Mike Walker, the rock guitarist turned mandolin player. “They knew us by our separate identities.”

By the end of the debut performance, the crowd was hooked.

The Westbound Rangers had arrived.

A year later, the four students, who attend the private Christian liberal arts college, performed at the school’s annual country showcase. The crowd greeted them with cheers.

“We played our theme song, where people shout back at us, ‘Westbound Rangers,’ ” said clawhammer banjo player Graham Sherrill. “There’s no way to describe hearing your band’s name yelled out.”

“It was like our Rudy moment,” added Walker, referring to the movie about the Notre Dame football player. “We were the underdog. You can’t help but root for the underdog.”

After three years, two albums and a standing invitation at the famous Station Inn in Nashville, the band is no longer the underdog.

To celebrate the release of their second album, “Southern Bread & Butter for It,” the Westbound Rangers will perform in Nashville and Hartselle — Walker’s hometown.

The CD is the band’s first studio cut album.

“It’s very organic as far as the sound. We just set up the mikes and played,” said Texas guitarist Read Davis. “You will hear every movement on the frets and maybe bumps on the mike.”

“It’s not flawless, but neither are we,” Sherrill said. “It’s a step up from our first album that was done around one microphone in my living room.”

Scheduled for Feb. 18 at the Hartselle Fine Arts Center, the concert will feature the group some define as bluegrass and others refer to as old-time country.

“We’ve been described as Old Crow Medicine Show meets Riders in the Sky,” Davis said. “We have the raw sound of Old Crow with more attention to harmony and the energy of Riders.”

The sound is one the musicians tweaked and honed during the past three years.
Becoming a band

The group credits Belmont’s random roommate assignment, class schedules, course assignments and talent shows for their formation.

“I lived across the hall from Graham freshman year and heard him playing bluegrass music,” Davis said. “I used to play in my church’s bluegrass group so I went over. That was the start.”

An impromptu jam session on the quad landed the duo a mandolin player — Sherrill’s classmate Walker — and their first gig — a performance at a church event.

“That was the first time Graham, Mike and I played together,” Davis said. “It was the era before Wes (Burkhart).”

When tasked with recording a song for class, Sherrill went in search for a bass player. He found Burkhart, the Virginia drummer turned electric bass guitarist turned stand-up bass player.

From that point, events “snowballed,” Walker said.

“Graham and Mike wrote a song for class, ‘Johnny’s Song.’ I guess we decided then we had a band because we had a song and we had booked a show at the campus cafe,” Davis said. “All we needed was a name and fliers.”

The Westbound Rangers topped the potential band name list, which also included Rattlesnake Ridge, the Boot Stompers and Foot Tappers.
Gaining attention

The name “The Westbound Rangers” is gaining attention. The group performed for the International Bluegrass Music Association’s emerging artist concert series, and at the 85th birthday bash for WSM — the radio station of the Grand Ole Opry.

The band brings an edge to the iconic and old-fashioned Americana music scene. Without fear, they test the boundaries of the genre.

Their song list spans from the bluegrass classic “Tall Buildings” by John Hartford to the alternative modern-day song “Clocks” by Coldplay.

“We make the songs unique to us,” Walker said. “When we do ‘Clocks,’ a lot of the older crowd think we wrote it ourselves because it fits so naturally into the bluegrass beat.”
Songwriting interest

Like the college students at the campus cafe, the bluegrass community discovered the four distinct musicians can create a uniform sound.

“Our songwriting brings our voices together,” Walker said. “Every song we choose lends itself to a bluegrass feel.”

The new album features the original songs “John Henry,” “Time,” “Natchez Trace,” and “Pushwater.”

Inspired by a sound, a word or an experience, the storytelling songs formed. So was the case with “Pushwater,” an ode to coffee.

“I was in high school and I heard my aunt say she needed some pushwater, at least that is what I thought she said,” said Sherrill, shrugging his shoulders. “I looked up what it meant, and pushwater means gasoline. I think it fits — pushwater, gasoline, coffee.”

With a focus on preserving music from the past and creating a new, unique sound, The Westbound Rangers hope to grow artistically and continue to have fun.
Future plans

“The most pressing thing right now, I guess, is earning enough to get rid of our day-time jobs,” said Walker, a sushi chef.

Sherrill, the part-time shipping employee at a small record store; Davis, a sandwich construction supervisor; and Burkhart, who graduated in December and jokingly said he applied for a job at Walmart; agreed.

“We are unsigned and are happy,” Sherrill said. “If we found a label that fit with what we want to do, we would consider it. We just want to play our music.”
If you go

What: An Evening with The Westbound Rangers and special guest Jaime Smyth

When: Feb. 18, 7:30 p.m.

Where: Hartselle Fine Arts Center, 307 College St. N.E.

Tickets: $10 at The Book Cellar and Chamber of Commerce in Hartselle and $15 at the door.
A similar start: piano lessons

Years before Mike Walker, Read Davis, Graham Sherrill and Wes Burkhart became The Westbound Rangers, the musicians were three reluctant pianists and a budding drummer.

Walker’s music introduction came early. At age 5, he was forced to take piano lessons.

“It was miserable. I had to serve five years and all I wanted to do was play sports,” he said.

In seventh grade, the defunct pianist started playing the mandolin. After setting aside the mandolin for the guitar and the lead role in a high school garage band, Walker returned to the mandolin in college.

Like Walker, Davis’ journey began with the required and unavoidable piano lessons.

“I only had to serve two years,” Davis said. “But as soon as my sentence was over in fifth grade I started listening to The Beatles and thought the piano was kind of cool.”

Sherrill served the longest piano sentence, from fourth grade to college. After moving to Nashville and listening to the aspiring guitarists and pianists, Sherrill searched for a more unusual instrument.

“I had to find something else because everyone was so good,” said Sherrill, who plays the clawhammer banjo, an instrument popular in old-time Americana music. “That’s why I started up the banjo.”

The outsider of the group, Burkhart’s music education began in third grade, not with a piano lesson, but with a drum set from his aunt. The present led to drum lessons, which led to the bass.

“In my drum teacher’s room there was a bass standing in the corner. He said, ‘You should get one, too,’ and I did,” Burkhart said. “I was 10 or 11 at the time.”

“Good thing, too, because if he didn’t we’d have to find some other bass player,” Sherrill said. - Decatur Daily


"CD Review: The Westbound Rangers"

Artist: Band: The Westbound Rangers
Album: The Westbound Rangers
Genre: Americana, Folk, Acoustic
Technical Grade: 8.5/10
Production/Musicianship Grade: 9.5/10
Performance Skill: 9.5/10
Best Songs: Angelina Baker, Clocks, The Other Side
CD Review:

The Westbound Rangers is a four man ensemble consisting of Graham Sherrill on claw hammer banjo, Mike Walker on mandolin, Read Davis on guitar, and Wes Burkhart on bass. Their high energy music is a cross between bluegrass and Old Time with a strong Appalachian feel. Their debut, self-titled release was recorded live around a single microphone with no overdubs and very little mixing. It has more energy and excitement than many highly polished efforts.

The boys are listed as co-writers on five of the CD’s nine tunes. Three are public domain and the ninth is a bluegrass remake of the euro-pop song Clocks. The opening cut on the CD is the Ranger’s Theme Song, reminiscent of a thirties radio show. It’s a high energy kick off for a high energy CD. Fiddler, Casy Miekle joins the boys on the folk song Angelina Baker, a foot tapping reel.

The Westbound Rangers is a very nice first effort that captures the essence of this band and delivers an unadulterated, raw version of the music that built Nashville. The Westbound Rangers is truer to that music than most of what’s coming out of Nashville today.


- The Muse's Muse


Discography

Southern Bread and Butter for It released in February 2011 to a sold out Station Inn Crowd. Recorded at John Prine and David Ferguson's Butcher Shoppe Studio. Currently receiving airplay on WSM, WAMU, WRVU, WDVX, WPAQ, and WCNY.

In June 2009 the Rangers released a debut self-titled album that was recorded "live" around three mics in their living room. Tracks from this album have been featured on American Songspace as well as CD Baby. The lyrics to "Unpredictable" won an honorable mention in the American Songwriter Magazine lyric contest for 2009.

The album is currently recieving airplay on WSM , WDVX,
WPAQ, WRVU, and WAMU.

Photos

Bio

Though Nashville has always been recognized for its country music legacy, musicians of other influences who call the city ‘home’ have found considerable success in recent years. The resulting critical acclaim has raised awareness to the fact that Nashville offers more than homogenized country music and is a musical melting pot with a hotbed of musicians capable of transcending the boundaries of genre classification. Epitomizing the current Nashville scene is talented young group known as the Westbound Rangers.

Over the past two years, this charismatic band has entertained packed houses and festivals throughout America with their energetic performances. By utilizing the time honored ‘single microphone’ technique and augmenting their sets with lively comedic stage banter, a Westbound Rangers show is a throwback to days gone by. Skillful at holding an audience’s attention, these boys are as likely to win over a college frat party as they would a women’s club meeting. It’s this commitment to showmanship that has helped them build such a devoted following.

An innocent observer may initially label this young quartet a ‘bluegrass’ or ‘old-timey’ band due to their instrumentation of banjo, mandolin, guitar and upright bass, but the Westbound Rangers offer so much more than that. While steeped in both bluegrass and old time traditions, their unique blend of roots music draws just as heavily from rock and country musical influences and spans the breadth of American music styles. Melding strong three part harmony vocals with solid musicianship, they tastefully present original ballads, cover songs and novelty numbers - in addition to rollicking banjo tunes - and are a band capable of satisfying even the most finicky of music fans.

Their new album, “Southern Bread & Butter For It,” was self produced in Nashville and highlights the diversity that defines the Westbound Rangers. Eleven songs in length, it is their first studio album and includes a crowd-favorite ditty about coffee (“Pushwater,”) a tribute to a civil war hero (“Stonewall,”) heartfelt ballads (“Time” and “Wanna Call You Mine”) and interpretations of traditional fiddle tunes (“Big Scioty” and “Old Yeller Dog.”) Featuring the occasional steel guitar, harmonica, drums and fiddle, “Southern Bread & Butter For It” is a well rounded effort and strikes a perfect balance between a polished studio sound and an effortless front-porch jam.

With support from radio stations across the country and an ever-growing network of fans, the Rangers are poised for success in 2011. Already booked at festivals such as Skiatook (OK), Country Park Festival (OH), Tri-State Bluegrass Festival (IN), Marshall Bluegrass Festival (MI), and Bristol’s Rhythm And Roots (TN/VA,) they are in the midst of planning a worldwide tour and look to expand on their growing fan base.