SONS OF THE SAN JOAQUIN

The Sons of the San Joaquin, Jack, Joe, and Lon Hannah, along with their fiddle player, Richard Chon, will be our special guests at the BASH AT THE RANCH, 2001! They and their families will be coming up Saturday afternoon to mix, mingle, and visit with us, and after supper Saturday night will be putting on a special, private performance just for us!

Many on Ron Martini’s BBS are already fans, but for those of you who don’t know of these singing cowboys, let me tell you about them.

Jack and Joe Hannah are brothers, and Lon is Joe’s son. They have appeared in Switzerland, Japan, even a command performance for the Sultan of Brunei! Here at home their widespread acceptance is evidence of both the rich durability of the traditional western music they present, as well as the original cowboy songs written by Jack! The nation’s foremost cowboy poet, Waddie Mitchell, calls Jack "one of the very best cowboy writers alive!" The Sons dedication to the western heritage has its origin in their deep attachment to the classic sound of the The Sons of the Pioneers. Says Lon, "when the Sons of the Pioneers were a trio with Roy Rogers, Tim Spencer and Bob Nolan, there was an innocence and exuberance to their sound that was just incredible. It’s not as polished as their later work, but there’s a raw, emotional sound we really love. Our sound is more polished, like that of their later work, because we really work hard on our phrasing and harmonies. But we try to keep the raw emotion and feeling that the earlier trio had, too."

The Sons of the San Joaquin’s sound first took shape in the Great Central Valley of California, the San Joaquin, in the shadow of the mighty Sierra Nevada Mountains! That’s where the Hannah family migrated to from Missouri during the great depression. "There were some prominent cattle ranches here", remembers Jack, "and that’s where our romance with cowboys began. Our Dad became a fan of the Sons of the Pioneers back in the 30's, and he’d sing a lot of those songs at home. We learned our first ones from him, and became great fans of theirs too!"

The trio got its big break after Lon met cowboy singer Gary McMahon at a Western Music Association convention and the trio was invited to perform at the 1989 Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering. Their appearance there caused a sensation! In the course of the weekend, they vaulted from total obscurity to sharing the main stage with Michael Martin Murphey, who immediately invited them to join him on his Cowboy Songs album. Murphey also helped produce their 1992 Warner Western debut album, A Cowboy has to Sing. This was followed in 1993 by Songs of the Silver Screen, which revived B-movie soundtrack material recorded by the Sons of the Pioneers. In 1995, Warner Western released From Whence Came the Cowboy, a career milestone that featured Jack’s highly praised original, the album’s title track.

You may have seen them on The Grand Old Opry, Austin City Limits, Nashville Now, or even on one of Randy Travis’ music videos "Cowboy Boogie"..............

But, if not, you WILL see them at BASH AT THE RANCH 2001, so Y’all come!