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This is the story of Miss Mary Ann and the Ragtime Wranglers. We are an authentic Rockabilly Band and at the moment we are recording our 3rd Miss Mary Ann release. For those of you who haven’t heard of authentic Rockabilly music or are confused with the term Rockabilly now being used for some modern music: authentic Rockabilly is most easily described as the music Elvis played before he got famous. It’s a mixture between Hillbilly (old-time American music) and Rhythm and Blues. With the birth of Rockabilly, it was the first time the music industry was shaken to its core - the shock product by the Punk movement of the mid 1970s was nothing compared to what Rockabilly music did in the mid ‘50s. The church and politicians got involved to try to get it banned. But it turned out to be the first time in music history, that young people really took control of what they wanted to listen to. Some may think we dwell in the past, but if it works for Jazz and Rhythm and Blues and Classical music, why not Rockabilly? The best thing about playing an old style of music in the 21st Century is you can incorporate the best of both worlds. A good example for this is our recording technique. We only use the finest vintage studio microphones (RCA, Neumann, Altec ), a legendary 1950’s RCA-mixer and an Ampex tape recorder before it gets transfered to digital recording equipment. For some years now, the same technique has been used to record modern music in the bigger recording studios all over the world. On our new release there will be some old standards, but mostly original work which we wrote ourselves. We have toured all over the world for over 15 years, playing the biggest Rockabilly festivals on our scene. But we are still fortunate to play small intimate gigs in clubs and bars from Europe to America (and last year we crossed the globe to play in Australia). |
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Although the combination of Miss Mary Ann and the Ragtime Wranglers has been playing for years, the band originally started out as The Ranch Girls and the Ragtime Wranglers. The Ranch Girls (Caroline & Mary Ann) sang Hillbilly Harmony. When we started The Ranch Girls it was the first time for 40 years that a band did this sort of female hillbilly harmony. And it didn’t take long before we got invited to play American festivals. All the band members had been drawn to Hillbilly music by their love of Rockabilly music. That is how six city slickers from Rotterdam (Holland) ended up making American roots-music, all over the USA! We had been playing as the Ranch Girls & Ragtime Wranglers for over 15 years, recording 11 CD and vinyl releases, including a 78 record (Yep they still press them). But after a couple of changes with Mary Ann’s singing partner, the Ranch Girls stopped! Mary Ann went solo and the style of music changed to Rockabilly. The
Ragtime Wranglers
are still the band behind Mary Ann and over the years the Ragtime
Wranglers recorded two instrumental records, featuring mostly their own
material. With influences of their peers, such as Joe Maphis, Grady
Martin, Buddy Rich, Willie Dixon .... After
a lot of inquiries we have decided to reform the
Ranch Girls one more time, for exclusive appearances, with the New
Ranch Girl Raina! Raina came from California (and used to front a
Western Swing band). After Raina’s move to England she became close
friends with Mary Ann (who had moved to the UK about ten years ago).
Both girls had sung together on many occasions (like the Rhythm Rocker
in Long Beach VS in 2010) and so the idea of The New Ranch Girls was
formed. The first appearance of the New Ranch Girls will be taken place
at the Rockabilly Rave in England in 2013. So
apart from Mary Ann singing solo, Hillbilly Harmony will once more fill
the air....!
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