By Ben Salmon
The Bulletin
The title of the Moon Mountain
Ramblers’ new album, “Let It All
Be Good,” sounds like it could be
a mantra for the Bend-based Americana band.
Not to read too much into it, but it
seems as though it could be a theme
song of sorts for the Ramblers, sum-
ming up their life philosophy in one eas-
ily digestible phrase. A five-word guiding light for one of
Central Oregon’s most popular bands, perhaps.
Not so much.
“I wrote that song back in high school
and … I don’t know why I called it that,”
said the Ramblers’ 28-year-old mando-
linist, Joe Schulte.
“It was in the song, and I thought it’d
make a good title, and that’s about it,” he
said. “I can’t remember what was going
through my head at the time.”
Well, fine. Let’s just pretend, then, that
“Let It All Be Good” is a harbinger of an
ascendant 2009 for the Moon Mountain
Ramblers, who’ll celebrate the album’s
release with a show Saturday night at
the Tower Theatre in Bend.
It’s been almost nine years now since
Schulte moved from Alaska to Bend
and started jamming with bassist Dan
McClung.
Over the next few years, they
recruited Jenny Harada (who’s
30 and part of the team that puts
GO! Magazine together each
week) to play fiddle and Matt
“Mäi” Hyman, 31, to pick the
guitar, and started calling them-
selves The Chili Dawgs, a tribute
to newgrass hero David “Dawg”
Grisman.
The name made sense. The
band shared Grisman’s pen-
chant for blending bluegrass,
jazz, roots-rock and just about
anything else into their music.
Eventually, though, they be-
came the Moon Mountain Ram-
blers and released two albums,
a self-titled debut and 2006’s
“Borderline.”
Both are good and each raised
the band’s profile on the local
and regional scene. In the past
couple years, the Ramblers have
hired a manager and toured
around the West, playing festi-
vals and clubs from California
to Washington.
But “Let It All Be Good” is a
next-level step for the group,
which added percussionist Dale
Largent a couple years ago.
The album, recorded by Lar-
gent, 41, and mixed by McClung,
56, in Largent’s home studio, is
a punchy, polished collection of
11 songs (including two covers)
that do what the Ramblers do:
meander without care across
musical styles, ignoring the pa-
rameters that so many so-called
string bands seem to follow.
Schulte’s title track is a joy-
ous blast of rock ’n’ roll, com-
plete with piano, drum kit and
the cheeky lyric “Listening to
our music, you got great taste.”
Harada’s “Chasing The Sun”
is a new-traditional fiddle tune
that will flutter its way into your
heart. Hyman’s songs are the
twangiest of the bunch, evoking
visions of cowboys and camp-
fires. And McClung’s instru-
mentals incorporate a little jazz,
a little swing, and a whole lot of
Middle Eastern flavor on the 11-
minute-long jam “El Serpiente.”
Altogether, the record is
a giant step forward for the
Ramblers. And that’s not a sur-
prise, given the amount of time
these people have been playing
together.
“You just hope to be a lot bet-
ter after nine years,” Hyman
said. “I think we totally are. I
see improvement nearly every
practice. I think we’re always
moving forward, for sure, and
that’s why I’ve stuck with it,
because I can see that positive
energy moving forward, and
there’s always something new
and different.”
Largent has a slightly differ-
ent perspective, having joined
the organization two years ago.
“I think the band has gotten
tremendously better from its
origins to now, and in the music
business, to get better means to
get better in umpteen areas,” he
said. “You have to get better at
your instrument. You might even
want to learn other instruments
to expand your sound. You want
to get better at songwriting. You
want to get better at singing, and
then you want to get better at
harmonies, and then you want
to get better at business and re-
cording and marketing, and it
just keeps going on and on.
“I think this band has in a
really healthy, steady way im-
proved all of those areas, kind of
in balance,” he said.
All that said, it was impor-
tant to capture the improvement
in the studio when the band
started recording “Let It All Be
Good” about a year ago. So they
ditched the method they used on
“Borderline,” when they tracked
their parts individually, and de-
cided to focus on what they do
best. Just play.
“We feel like such a live band,”
Schulte said. “Most of our play-
ing is live and rockin’, so when
we listen to ‘Borderline,’ it al-
most doesn’t feel like us. We just
wanted to get more of what we
feel like when we play live. We
feel like that’s our strength.”
McClung described the differ-
ence between the two processes.
“Rather than, ‘I wrote a song.
Everybody learn their part and
record it,’” he said, “it was ‘I
wrote a song. Let’s learn the
song as a band, perform it,
tweak it, find out where it really
lives, and then record it.’”
The new method worked. The
album is “a little rougher some-
times around the edges, but
maybe a little more energetic,”
McClung said. And Hyman likes
the organized chaos of the track
list, the mix of the members’ in-
dividual styles drawn into one
cohesive sound.
“I think it’s our best one, for
sure. I can just hear all the ef-
fort we put into it,” he said. “We
went into this album thinking
more of the overall sound of
the whole thing, the flow of the
songs and trying to make an al-
bum instead of just recording in-
dividual songs and putting them
on there. We really considered
what it would sound like from
beginning to end.”
Now it’s time to go out and
play the songs for people. After
this weekend’s kick-off party
(and some studio time in Febru-
ary to record the next Rambler
record), the band will gear up
for another summer of shows.
Last year, they opened for blue-
grass legend Del McCoury,
played the Willamette Valley
Folk Fest, competed at North-
west String Summit, and head-
lined their own namesake shin-
dig, the Moon Mountain Music
Festival. This year, they expect
to do even better.
“Summers are always our
peaks, and every summer has
gotten better. We’ve gotten cool-
er gigs, more gigs,” Hyman said.
“So I get excited because every
summer’s better than the one
before.”
And even after nine years, the
Ramblers — Largent calls them
a family rather than a band —
aren’t tired of playing, or play-
ing together.
“If we have one person listen-
ing we all just come alive, even
if it’s a soundcheck,” McClung
said. “If there’s nobody in the
room, it’s fun, we’re getting it
together. But if we notice some-
body in the back of the room
watching, suddenly we’re per-
forming. Any response at all
from anybody just brings out
the performers. It’s where we
live.”
Ben Salmon can be reached
at 541-383-0377 or bsalmon@
bendbulletin.com.
View from the Top: Moon Mountain Ramblers humbly look back at going from garbage cans to the TowerWednesday, 21 January 2009 05:42 Mike Bookey
"We walked into Parrilla tonight to get something to eat and it was a flashback for me of the goals we used to have," says Moon Mountain Ramblers guitarist and singer Matthew Hyman.
He's referring to the band's early target of securing a gig at Parrilla Grill, which they did - playing in the corner of the Westside eatery in front of a garbage can with no P.A. system. That was in 2000 and now, more than eight years later, the band is unveiling its new album, Let it All Be Good, at a much-talked-about Tower Theatre show.
Four-fifths of the group is gathered in percussionist Dale Largent's home studio space near downtown Bend before a Friday night rehearsal with a collection of five or so friends sitting outside the semi circle we've formed in the center of the room. Beers are sipped freely and frequently by all and the mood is laid back to the point that it's tough to tell whether or not the actual interview will actually begin. But soon we're discussing the band's popularity in Bend, the year-plus recording of its new record and why they don't mind being called a bluegrass band.
"I can't believe it's been nine years, that's kind of crazy," says fiddler Jenny Harada, who has just entered the room and grabbed a folding chair, thus filling out the quintet. The others seem to agree and say there have been some simple rewards along the way.
"There's the occasional smile from one to the other on stage. Every time we progress to a certain point I'll look over to [mandolin player] Joe [Shulte] and he'll look back with a smile because he and I were the very first two," says bassist Dan McClung.
But it seems the show at the Tower might be the most tangible reward for the Ramblers. The band's manager and sound technician, Drew Kelliher, leans in and adds some details about the Tower show, saying not only will it be recorded for a possible DVD project, but the performance will include two sets from the band. And they're even moving some seats out to allow for some rare dancing on the Tower floor. All in all, the show seems intended to be a celebration for not only the band, but also the throngs of fans it's earned over the past decade, a group that is almost always ready to get down at a Ramblers show.
"I'm always amazed that people are there to rage," Hyman says with the Tennessee twang - holding out the long "a" sound on "rage." "It's great that we know a lot of these people."
But in the last couple of years the Moon Mountain Rambler brand has become more familiar outside of Bend with the band gaining steam in Eugene and Ashland and other Northwest cities thanks in some part to McMenamins, which has twice booked them on tours of their pubs. Now, with a deftly produced 11-track album that spans the band's genre-hopping acoustic abilities, the group that readers of this paper have twice voted "Best Band" is looking to build on its accomplishments without sacrificing their supremely laid back approach. They're grateful for their massive local fanbase, but also concerned with supporting other Bend-area acts. The five musicians are also tough to predict. For example, this is what Shulte says when the band is going around the room listing musical influences:
"I hardly listen to bluegrass anymore. I usually listen to '90s grunge and bad gangsta rap and stuff. I like hard music a lot. I can't do soft music, even when it comes to bluegrass," says Shulte.
There aren't too many mandolin players rolling around listening to gangsta rap. But then again, there aren't many bands comprised of bass, guitar, mandolin, violin and hand drums that sound like Moon Mountain Ramblers. This is probably why the Rambers are often referred to as a "bluegrass band" when they rarely play bluegrass tunes.
"I never get upset when people call it a bluegrass band, but that's the closest you can get. I mean, we still don't know what to call it," says Hyman.
Before they break for their rehearsal, there's one last try to get anyone in this frustratingly humble band to comment on what it's like to be the city's most respected and, hey let's face it, popular band. Largent offers an answer:
"We're just doing what we do because it seems like the right thing to do as musical artists and it's so fantastic that so many people agree," he says and there seems to be a pleasant consensus around the room.