Red River Ramblers Bring Country to Whole Foods

Last week, patrons at (WFM) escaped the cold for some hot coffee, soup and even hotter sounds.

Graveyard Blues from Long Island's Classic Rock Station 103.9 WRCN presented their Acoustic Cafe at WFM, which is a free event held every other month in the Lake Grove store.

This month's show featured members of the Red River Ramblers including Holbrook residents, Ken "The Rocket" Korb on mandolin, diatonic and chromatic harmonicas, penny whistle, lead and harmony vocals and one "crazy washboard"; and Lora Kendall on fiddle and lead and harmony vocals.  They were joined by acoustic and electric bass player, "Big George" Cassidy.  The Ramblers' guitarist and vocalist, Tom Linden was absent from the performance.

The band started with friends Korb and Linden informally getting together from time to time to sing old Hank Williams songs.  Over the course of a few years, the "Hank Club" transformed into the Red River Ramblers, a four-piece country group.

In addition to Hank Williams songs, the Ramblers perform an eclectic mix of old country classics originally rendered by artists such as Merle Haggard, Lefty Frizzell, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Kris Kristofferson and others.

The band is also known to throw in a few bluegrass fiddle favorites for good measure, and to keep audiences on their toes.

They have performed at some of the most renowned music festivals on Long Island, including Bradstock, the Cedar Beach Music Festival and the Sayville Earth Day Festival.  The high energy quartet has been seen at venues such as East Enders Coffee House in Riverhead, Bellport's Sugarloaf Cafe and the South Country and .

The Ramblers are a rarity on today's music scene. 

"We play country music, blues and old-timey music, music of the '20s, '30s and '40s," said Kendall.  "We like to joke that you have to be dead for us to play your music."

Korb, 55, has been playing the harmonica for over 40 years, and grew up listening to old country songs from the 1800s to the 1920s and '30s.

"My specialty is harmonica solos of the 1920s and '30s," he said.

 He mastered the skill by buying any album that had a harmonica on the cover, and then picking up the music by ear.

"Then I make the rest up as I go along," said Korb.

Korb is also one half of Mac and the Rocket, a musical partnership with Bruce MacDonald, one of Long Island's premier blues and ragtime finger-style guitarists, with whom he won Long Island's International Blues Challenge in 2007.

However, the music he plays with the Red River Ramblers is what he loves more than anything, because of the unique chemistry of the players who all share a passion for classic country music.

"The major thing is to have fun playing songs that pretty much everyone will remember," said Kendall.  "Kids, even if they never heard of [the musicians] will recognize them."

Songs featured in the set included:  Carter Family tune from 1927, "Bury Me Beneath the Willow", June Carter Cash's "We're Going to Jackson", "That's All Right", which was the first single ever released by Elvis Presley, and was written and originally performed by blues singer, Arthur Crudup and Hank Williams' songs, "Hey Good Lookin'" and "Jambalaya." 

On the latter Williams' song Korb had the audience hooting and hollering when he broke out his musical washboard, which he explained originated from the 1800s, when slaves would bang washboards with the jaw bones of animals to play songs.

Korb, on the other hand, used thimbles on his fingers to tap what he calls his "crazy washboard."  He has had the unusual instrument for about 40 years, and just keeps adding to it.

It has all sorts of horns and cymbals, a train whistle from the Grand Ole Opry, and even includes an old tricycle bell that belonged to his now 30-year-old son, Michael, who was in the audience that night.

"He cried when I took it from him," said Korb who injected the two-hour set with his droll, offbeat wit.

Emcee of the Acoustic Cafe, WRCN's Marisa Pizza said that the Red River Ramblers have played on her radio show, and she thought they would be perfect for this intimate setting.

 "I love their energy," said Pizza. "I love what they do.  It goes with the whole theme of giving local musicians a chance to play and make some money."