INTRODUCING....the Band...
Jamey...self proclaimed King of the Cowboy Blues.
FaeRaven...Skyrider & Gypsy Queen
Ever since I was a young girl I can remember being surrounded by the sounds of music. My Mammy on the piano, Aunt Dar on the organ, Pop on the guitar…my fingers were taught early on how to navigate the musical note. Much of my childhood was spent in the rural South climbing trees, catching tadpoles, playing on dirt roads and chasing my friends around the woods near our favorite little pond…paradise. Builders & developers soon made our playground a distant memory but the sights and sounds from those days have made their mark on my music and my soul. I remember most spending many a day in imaginative worlds, making sense of my own solitude, transforming the experience into musical improvisation. I wrote my first instrumental song by the age of 12. It was then I realized that I needed music for self-expression. After studying vocal jazz, piano & theory for 9 years and later enrolling in the College of Music at the University of Oregon, I abruptly put my instrument down for 10 painstaking years. I couldn’t look at a piano without shrinking in pain from the demands of perfecting my musical technique! It was during this musical hiatus that I first heard the songs of Joan Baez and hesitantly picked up an acoustic cat-gut-strung guitar and sat down to play on the front porch of my moldy rental home in Eugene. Many front porch songs emerged and notebook after notebook of lyrics seemed to flow from beyond the horizon into my pen and onto the blank page of my life as I stumbled around and into a series of bad relationships, bad choices and deeper still into the musical wasteland of my 20’s. At the end of the road, face down upon my studio bed, I wandered into a small desert sage-tossed town called Ellensburg. There, along the parchment of my own musical exile, an oasis appeared. A man called James with an acoustic 12-string lead guitar flung across his back. Like the morning air across a lake of glass there awoke somewhere inside of me the feral urge to create music again. We met, we touched, we seamlessly transformed our lives into one vision of music…a powerhouse of male and female harmonies… Rävinwolf. "When a song is born into the light we can feel the contractions as tentacles of stories wriggle and writhe for expression. Together we stand as the singer-songwriters of Rävinwolf to birth these songs, fortunate enough to have toured to the distant reaches of Alaska and survived…fortunate enough to have battled our own demons there and survived…the stolen tour bus fiasco… the analog studio sessions…15 bass players & 12 drummers…the hijacked songs…the giftings of star-struck fans…getting paid in hamburgers…the tableside serenades to the rich & eccentric…the chicken-wire tour…the blown bus tires…the ketchup bottle slide bars…playin’ the streets…brand new dreams…and the comings apart at the seams… the steep climb up and the slippery slope of all the falling downs along the way of our tender years together make Rävinwolf the force of nature I have grown to be unable to live without. "
Matt Rieger...Cat Nap Matt
Welcome to the cat that is Matt Reiger, the latest addition to the Ravinwolf Gang. A student of theory at Central Washington University, Matt is extremely proficient on bass, drums, keys, guitar and much much more...originally from Arlington, Wa, he is a top notch jazz cat involved with acts such as Open Country Joy AND Ravinwolf. He hosts a number of open mic opportunities for the community and extends himself musically whenever possible as both an instructor and player. Matt relates playing music to having a conversation, witty intercourse among fellow players. He's more than able to hold down the fort all by himself with 2 hands on his stand-up bass, left foot on his high-hat and right foot on his tamborine. Matt is self described as being apt to fall in love every 3 or 4 days, so watch out ladies, he's got the stars in his eyes. Bret Smith is a teacher educator, conductor, and cellist who specializes in instrumental music education. He holds degrees in music and systematic musicology from the University of Washington, where he worked with James C. Carlsen and Barbara Reeder Lundquist, and a Master of Music and Doctor of Philosophy in music education from the University of Michigan, where his mentors were Robert L. Culver, James O. Froseth, Richard J. Colwell, and Anthony Elliott. He enjoys performing as a member of the Yakima Symphony cello section , on electric cello with the trio Uku the Mighty (with John Moen and Greg Vik), on tenor banjo in the early jazz duo RetroPotential (with Curtis Peacock), as the lead guitar player in the classic rock band Short Term Memory (with Dale Hubbard, Todd Pederson, and Jeff Lund), and on bass with the Irish folk band The Stout Pounders, and of course, his latest addition, the original singer-songwriter alt folk-rock group called RAVINWOLF. He frequently collaborates in other ensembles with CWU colleagues on cello, baroque cello, bass, guitar, and banjo. Dr Smith has joined Ravinwolf to collaborate with their most recent recording project just released in 2008. Garey Williams...THE GRIN. With a Master's degree in Percussion Performance and Jazz Studies at Central Washington University, drummer Williams has been a steadfast fixture in the Northwest music scene, having performed with such musicians as Diana Krall, Kristin Korb, Bud Shank, Barney McClure, Howard Roberts, Joe Williams, Bobby Shew, Jay Thomas, Clay Jenkins, Milt Jackson, Cedar Walton, Ray Brown and Dizzy Gillespie. In 2001 he re-formed Ecstasy In Numbers with guitarist Mike Mattingly and bassist Rick White. The band became a hit on the underground scene and for three years have toured and performed in Seattle and the Northwest to standing-room-only crowds. The bands progressive-jazz/rock sound has been gaining the attention of clubs and promoters, as well as the ears of a small but growing European fan base. As of late, Garey has teamed up with Rävinwolf for their latest recording project and has been actively contributing to their live calendar dates with his usual reliable flair.
"Sleeping Beauty is a very scary movie..." -Matt Rieger
Rodney Turner ...Nerod T.
The Turner Rhythm Machine...Raised on the arm chair of the LA Barber Shoppe to the Stars, under the fraternal love of brother Fred, Rodney comes to us by way of the royal musical bloodline of the 1970's. Under the influence of his uncle, who co-wrote Santana's 'Evil Ways', this rhythm devil gives percussion a concussion worth falling for. His experience ranges from road weary back-up musician, to soundtrack artist. He's played with artists such as Arturo Sandoval, Michael Powers, Lenny Price, Brian McKnight, George Clinton, John Sanders and many more. We are pleased to have recently added him to the 2008 Ravinwolf mix. With his breathtaking latin grooves...perfect clicks in the night of the ethereal if not elevated plane of this musical forestland Rodney takes the cake for mood setting in Ravinwolf. If you have the time...stop and let him tell ya a quick story you won't regret it!
Dr. Smith...the IRON MAN
He brings the timbre of mandolin and cello to their eclectic mix...oh yeah...and the beer.
Chris Crnick...THE OLD GROWTH TREE
Chris, a long time honorary family member of Ravinwolf born In Ephrata and raised in the mountains of Roslyn, Wa., home of the hit TV show Northern Exposure and birthplace of Ravinwolf, is joining the band again for our latest recording project. During the early years of Ravinwolf he was there every step of the way... like the old growth tree this Croation Maverick stands in the shadows of the stage lights, riding every bump in the in the road on the old touring school bus "Rosinante"...responsible for Ravinwolf’s low end. His interests are music, music and more music. He is especially known for being involved in a numerous projects throughout Washington State, to include ’the Nortons’, the Willies and ’Mr. E’...however he is most importantly devoted to his loving and loyal K-9 pal "Rocky" the pomeranian. We’re lucky to have Chris on board with us in our most recent studio recording project keeping the basement pure!
"Tacky..." -Chris Crnick
Stuart Anderson...Bongo Louie
Stuart Matthew Anderson, started beating on pots & pans at age 9 on the kitchen floor. A year later Mom and Dad bought me a small Rodgers drum set. At that point it was 1970. My middle sister started dating a local drummer who was instrumental in supplying the piece of the puzzle that pretty much iced it for my being a drummer for the rest of my life. It wasn't until I was 19 that I found a steady working band called ‘Fable’. We toured Canada and cut our teeth on the road until the band broke up. I then joined up with some friends and formed ‘Leonard The Dog’, we played our own songs and through our friendship with the late great Brad Zirkle, a local promoter, we opened for Robin Trower at the capital theater in Yakima, Wa. Substance abuse became an issue with ‘Leonard the Dog’, and it was at this point while visiting my friend Kurt in Central Washington, that I met Jamey Bilyeu, a long-haired singer-songwriter strolling around the lake with an acoustic guitar and a bottle of tequila. We tucked ourselves away in the Taneum Canyon with his old Gibson guitar and an old ratty drumset and the old ‘Yarddogs’ were born. The ‘Yarddogs’ soon became a household name through the ‘Bob River’s Show’ on KISW out of Seattle, Wa . We played drunk. We played naked. We played drunk and naked. We had the privilege of playing throughout the Northwest and opening for such acts as Anne & Nancy Wilson of Heart, Alice in Chains, BTO, Steppenwolf, Jefferson Starship, The Guess Who, The Marshall Tucker Band, Delbert McClinton, Eric Burden, Paul Rogers, Eddie Money, Ozark Mt. Daredevils, the Outlaws and Blue Oyster Cult. This latest collaboration with Jamey as 'Rävinwolf' on their most recent studio recording project continues the ongoing musical connection that began so long ago.
Ravinwolf with Spanky at a The Allman Brother's concert.