Even New Yorkers Can Do Country Right

The Ranchhands is an uncommon country band. When some country fans find out where the founder of the group is from, they react: New York City? What does he know about country music?

Well, plenty!

Chris Tedesco grew up in upstate New York and later New York City, where he was offered a musical smorgasbord from local radio. “We had Dolly Parton, then Crystal Gayle, then Elton John, then Billy Joel, then Eddie Rabbit,” Tedesco said. “I never really had any kind of genre rules in my head growing up. Everything just seemed to fit into the category of music—good or bad.”

However, Tedesco also broke another cardinal rule of country music: He didn’t pick up his Uncle Billy’s fiddle and start playing by ear. He was classically trained. “I grew up playing in New York orchestras,” he admitted. “But I also had a large interest in jazz and folk and rock, just because there were so many great bands to look to then… There were also people that were using the violin in a much different way than playing Brahms.”

The other Ranchhands were also technically trained. Emmett Stallings, the Ranchhands drummer, is a clinician who teaches drumset and hand percussion. The bassist, Avery Gardner, studied cello and guitar before taking up the bass and revels in jazz and rock rhythms. The electric guitar player, Charlie Chamberlain, studied jazz in Texas but also dabbled in bluegrass in Asheville, NC.

But it is Mickey Kennedy’s vocals that gives this country band its authentic flavor. Kennedy was raised on a cattle and tobacco farm in Clarksville, TN, just up the road from Nashville. He comes by his persuasive country voice honestly; he’s kin to the legendary Kitty Wells.

When all of these guys found each other in 2001, they knew that there was something special in the music that they made together. It hinged on Tedesco’s songs—pure country yet not what he had intended from the start. “The songwriting aspect then is all of the past influences in a big jambalaya,” he admitted. “I don’t really think of writing in any specific genre, except the kind of genre that ended up coming out. I guess I just slowly found my way to country music. But I never really had to find it; it was just more or less always there.”

The Ranchhands have played all over Europe, returning again and again to avid fans. When German fans, for instance, announce that they are going to Nashville to seek the true country life, to see ranchers with cowboy hats. He tells them that Nashville is a big city. “The only guy in a cowboy hat you’ll see is another German tourist!” he said. “Go to the Upper Midwest, to the Dakotas, to Montana and Wyoming. There, you’ll find people who make their living off the land.” The guy with a cowboy hat here needs one.

The Ranchhands will play two shows in the area. They’ll be at The Windbreak Saloon in Fargo on Wednesday, May 27, and at The Long Haul Saloon in Grand Forks on Thursday, May 28. Come out and see just how good NYC does country!

Who: The Ranchhands
Fargo: The Windbreak Saloon, May 27, 9:30 pm
Grand Forks: The Long Haul Saloon, May 28, 9:30 pm