THE STORY SO FAR .......

Sietse, Joe and Mary Ann have been playing music together since the mid 1980’s. They recorded 2 songs for the Dutch compilation album "Holland Billy" with their band "The Greyhounds". In 1991 they formed "The Ranch Girls & Ragtime Wranglers, female harmony vocals backed up by guitar, upright bass and drums and toured intensively around Europe and the USA.

A year after the last Ranch Girls album, in 2002, one of the Ranch Girls quitted and Miss Mary Ann continued alone. In this same period Miss Mary Ann moved to the UK. Travelling from the UK to Holland sometimes was impossible when gigs came in at the last minute. The Ragtime Wranglers always say "yes" to a promoter so that's when we started to play live with the instrumental trio.

When you ask their influence and the music they want to play, they all will answer: early Country, Hillbilly, Western Swing, Rockabilly, Blues, Rhythm & Blues, Jazz and everything in between. The Ranch Girls were influenced by early duet-singing, Miss Mary Ann is rockabilly hooked and the Ragtime Wranglers like all but go wild for rocking instrumentals.

In the Ragtime Wrangler's opinion pop-songs without vocals are a forgotten art form. It has been a while since the charts were filled with instrumentals.  Some favourite artists ??? Too many to mention! We like rereleases on Bear Family, Charly, Ace, White Label to name a few and more obscure stuff.

In June 2004 the Ratime Wranglers accompanied Sage and JW, 2 bandmembers of the Lucky Stars from Los Angeles at their European tour. The band's 2nd instrumental single "Low Man on a Totempole" was ready just in time to promote it that tour in Barcelona, Milano, Munich, Zurich and Berlin.

Their first instrumental CD / LP is called "Groove A Tune" was released April 2005 (right). 14 instrumentals: 8 originals and 6 covers, mainly from guitar-heroes like Merle Travis, Joe Maphis and Jimmy Bryant.

"15 Smoking Tracks" soon out on LP / CD!

Now 2011: brand new recordings will be released in February! "15 Smoking Tracks" will be the name of the album. 14 of the songs are original instrumentals by Joe. Guest musicians are: Benjamin Herman (Saxophone), Joe Rivera (Trumpet), Jeremy Wakefield (Steel Guitar), Gabriel Gort (accordeon) and Jeroen Jongsma (mandolin).

More exciting things to come in 2011. We'll return to France, Spain, the UK. With ole buddy Miss Mary Ann, instrumental gigs with the trio and a lot more. These concerts keep us going and give us all the excitement. We can’t wait to have more shows like this. If you get a chance: don’t miss us when we play near you.

Joe Sixpack, Rotterdam, 5 February 2011.

                                   TO BE CONTINUED.......

Please find press picture downloads below.......

The Ragtime Wranglers are influenced by the recordings and shows from countless artists. However, they found big inspiration from the musicians they worked with. At the links below you can find more information on some of these artists.

Homebrew Records - P.O. Box 21685 - 3001 AR Rotterdam - Netherlands