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Feature
101 RANCHHigh Energy Country That Rocks!
by Ernie Thomas
Taking their name in tribute to a turn of the century base camp for the old “Wild West” shows that featured the likes of Buffalo Bill Cody, Wild Bill Hickcock and Calamity Jane – 101 Ranch – musters up plenty of that old time show biz quality of leaving their audience entertained and satisfied.
The Chicago-based country group was founded in 2003 by veteran stage performer/comedian, Scott DuBose, who studied for two years at Chicago’s famed Second City and spent four years starring in the acclaimed hit musical, “Tony and Tina’s Wedding”.
“I played five roles in that show, but primarily I was Donnie Dolche, the lead singer in the (wedding) band,” he said, noting that he did over forty shows working with former teen idol, Frankie Avalon. DuBose left the cast in October of last year to concentrate all of his energy on 101 Ranch.
“One thing that working in “Tony and Tina’s Wedding” taught me is that people come out to have fun. They are there to have a good time. A lot of country bands, well bands in general, don’t put a lot of energy into their show and their performance. I make a point to be ‘Mr. Energy’ at our shows. I get out there and dance on the tables and get out there with the audience and bring them into the show and make them a part of what’s happening.”
DuBose had never sung until going into theatre. That was a trigger for him to expand his entertainment dreams and try his hand as singing the country music that surrounded him as a child.
“My dad was from Mississippi, so there was always country music playing at our house,” he recalled, adding that working at Chicago country music club, Lake In Park Inn during the late 1980s only fueled his love of the music genre.
“At the time we started 101 Ranch, there really weren’t too many country bands working in the Chicago area. There are a few more now, but back then it the competition was pretty slim for gigs, unlike the thousands of rock bands around here who are all trying for the same gigs.”
“We had a couple of guys in the group who just weren’t cutting the mustard, so we started looking for a new rhythm section and that is when Troy Teegerstrom, who is the only guy still in the group with me from the original line-up told me he knew the perfect guys,” said DuBose.
Teegerstrom is the band’s “swing man”, swinging as the music dictates from keyboards, pedal steel, mandolin, banjo, guitar and backing vocals. He knew drummer Mark Price and bassist Curt Durham had just parted ways with the acclaimed Hoosier country band, Western Haze.
“We called them up and things just clicked,” said DuBose. “Things have really been moving fast since we got Curt and Mark in the group.”
101 Ranch’s first gig with the new groove section impressed a club’s owners so much, that halfway through the band’s set, a tray of shots was brought to the stage and the owners asked DuBose right on stage to please come back in two weeks and open for national country hit-makers, Blackhawk.
They did that Blackhawk gig and have since been working steadily throughout an expansive five state radius. “We pretty much can work as much as we want to work,” said DuBose, who keeps his band red hot and well-rehearsed by keeping their calendar filled.
Rounding out the band on lead guitar is a remarkably string-bender by the name of Bob Mickey, who trained at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston and spent time in Los Angeles as a studio session musician, working on projects with such artists as Leon Russell, Chaka Kahn, John Hiatt and Earth, Wind & Fire.
Mickey was DuBose’s first choice as lead guitarist when he put together the group, but the fret man was otherwise committed elsewhere.
“Bob came in about three months later,” recalled the singer. “Our first guitarist wasn’t working out and like kismet, Bob just happened to suddenly be available.”
Presently, a live 101 Ranch concert is all cover material that is largely upbeat and fast-paced music. The guys are writing their own material for what is expected to be a late fall/early winter recording session to produce the first 101 Ranch album.
Folks going to see this group can expect to hear largely modern country hits by the likes of Montgomery Gentry, Kenny Chesney, Brooks & Dunn, Travis Tritt, Alan Jackson and Toby Keith.
Some classic rock staples like Bob Seger’s “Turn The Page” and Rod Stewart’s “Maggie May” are offered up in a “countrified fashion” that DuBose says makes the songs their own.
“People always seem to have a good time at our shows,” he concluded. “I guess that is why we keep coming back. Cronies is a great room to play and has a great crowd of country music fans. We’re looking forward to getting back out there in front on them.”
For more on the band, log on at: www.101Ranchband.com
101 Ranch perform October 14 with The Charlie Daniels Band @ The Pearl Room in Mokena, Illinois
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