One Riot One Ranger – Flat City Nights
Like other bands that do more than one thing well, Columbus, Ohio, band One Riot One Ranger is hard to categorize. Listening to their latest disc, however, you get the impression they really like it that way.
The band’s sly combination of bluegrass and cowboy songs performed with bountiful spirit, fine musicianship and soaring four-part harmonies allows them to stand out. Given an easy touch by famed bluegrass producer Bil VornDick (who has worked with Alison Krauss, Ralph Stanley and Doc Watson, among others), Flat City Nights showcases One Riot One Ranger’s eclectic nature in many ways, merging inventive rock covers, heartfelt self-penned love songs to bluegrass standards into a highly listenable whole.
They tackle The Hollies’ “Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress)” and “On The Right Track Now” (the latter of which they claim to have learned off of a Roky Erickson record), croon their own “I Didn’t Know” and “You Know Who Are”, and serve up reverent renditions of tunes by Jim & Jesse McReynolds and the Delmore Brothers with remarkable ease. Over the course of three records, One Riot One Ranger has carved a distinguishable musical niche for themselves.