The archives -- videos from the early days

So, there's this old story about a farmer who claimed he had the same axe for 30 years.  "I've gone through three heads and seven handles. " 

Bands that stay together through three decades are a lot like that.  People come and go.  We even had a name change or two  recently. You might remember us as "The Wranglers."   But the sound and the spirit goes back to the late 20th Century.  Here are some videos you might enjoy.

The video above is from 2012, when accomplished guitarist and avid amateur boat-builder Terry Reed was with the band.  We're playing one of our favorite Django tunes, "Hungaria,"

 

We did a video commercial for Nose Flutes, on sale at Downtown Sounds in Northampton.  Multi-instrumentalist Joe Blumenthal (bass AND nose-flute) was the proprietor at the time, and it is still one of the best music stores you'll find anywhere.  The nose flute was, I believe, the lowest cost instrument in the place.

Here' one from that same afternoon, with Doug Tanner on chromatic harmonica.  The tune is "Strutting With Some Barbecue," Written by Lil Hardin Armstrong, Louie's second wife.

Here we are playing the classic fiddle tune "Dill Pickle Rag," with our buddy Jimmy Burgoff on five-string left-handed bass.  When he would fill in for our regular bass player, Lynn Lovell, we used to enjoy inviting a bass player from the audience to sit in, and then watching them freak out when they realized the instrument was strung backwards, with an extra string.