Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Interview with Tyler Rougeux of the Whiskey Folk Ramblers

By Brenna Rushing

The colorful bluegrass group Whiskey Folk Ramblers will be playing alongside some of their friends at the Double Wide in Dallas this Saturday. The five spirited guys that make up the band have been known to cause dancing to breakout from the crowd at their shows.

WFR is a relatively young band, having only been together a couple of years. They hail from Fort Worth, which explains why they’ve played so many shows in the DFW area. Front man Tyler Rougeux says, “Because we are such a new band, we play most of our shows in town. We take three to four small trips outside of the area each year. In 2009, we hope to venture out of the state towards the northeast area.”

Daniel Bennet

Their sound can be described as bluegrass meeting gypsies. They bring a variety of instruments to the table, including a banjo, an upright bass, and a fiddle. Together they make a mystical sound known only by their fans.

Their solo album, Midnight Drifter, was released in late April. Outside of touring, WFR will start recording their sophomore album in November. Tyler hinted that, “We are aiming for the release to be somewhere around April, but we’ll have to see once we get in the studio.”

Since they’re vastly becoming a staple of the DFW music scene, they could be considered experts on the different cities and vibes in our great state. Tyler picked San Marcos and Austin as his favorite cities to play in. “Austin has cool people and a lot of people interested in the music with great questions. We like San Marcos because we can play a show and then get drunk and jump in the river.”

The band was recently in a contest of sorts to win a spot at ACL (Austin City Limits), but unfortunately lost. It was based on voting, where round one created a top 100 voted by the public. Round two was judged by “celebrity judges” (who those celebrities are seem to be unknown) which carried 20 more to the final round. WFR made it to the second round, only to be booted by the so-called famous judges. But simply making it to the second round shows the band has a lot of support from their fans.

Tyler and his band mates will be playing with their friends. Telegraph Canyon and Little Birds, on September 20th at the Double Wide. Come try to define their charisma and style for yourselves at this popular local spot.

Related stories

• Pegasus News Week in View: Pride Edition (Sept. 18, 2008)

See more stories in:

• Arts > Popular Music > Bluegrass
• Arts > Popular Music > Folk

Comments

Neff Conner Verified

YouTubed, from Aug 02, 2008 Lola's in Ft Worth: These fellas kick ass all kindsa different ways. ~The Awesome-o-meter

1 year, 1 month ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )