Ben Reynolds - Guitars, Vocals (Chickasaw Mudd Puppies)
William Tonks - Guitars, Vocals (Barbara Cue)
Rob Keller - Bass, Vocals (Six String Drag)
Influences
LEE HAZLEWOOD buddy holly THE BAND the beatles STANLEY BROTHERS michael hurley HANK WILLIAMS townes van zandt DOUG SAHM staple singers EVERLY BROTHERS merle haggard FAIRPORT CONVENTION richard thompson BILL MONROE föreningen til livets beskyttelse NEIL YOUNG steve earle NRBQ ry cooder HOWLIN' WOLF lucinda williams JOHNNY HORTON skillet lickers BOB DYLAN bob marley AL GREEN carter family SYD BARRETT big star ALICE COOPER george jones CRAZY HORSE and many more...
Sounds Like
Chickasaw Mudd Puppies
Six String Drag
Barbara Cue
Jack Logan
Kenny Roby
Tony Tidwell
Bap Kennedy
Whenever the Workhorses of the Entertainment/ Recreational Industry play live, it’s as if they make each stage their own temporary living room. As unflashy and down-to-Earth as it gets, the local trio is nonetheless a formidable force of singing and songwriting expertise. William Tonks, Ben Reynolds and Rob Keller have been doing the Workhorses thing for more than five years; understandably, they each have other obligations - most of which are of the family variety - but they’re a local act we just don’t get to see enough of.
Guitarists-vocalists Tonks and Reynolds presaged the band as a duo. Tonks, of course, had lent his talents to a slew of local bands including the Hot Burritos, Redneck GReece Delux and The Cutter Travis Band. Reynolds, on the other hand, had scaled back his musical ventures since the disbandment of primal Athens outfit Chickasaw Mudd Puppies to concentrate more on his photography. Fortunately, the occasional Tonks/ Reynolds gig allowed the two to delve into songs and styles that didn’t really resemble what they’d done before.
Bassist Keller entered the fold in 2000 after the demise of another great unheralded band (Raleigh, NC’s Six String Drag, the firebrand country rock group that also counted Tonks among its ranks). Taking their new handle from a nickname given to a touring van that once belonged to a buddy of Reynolds, the Workhorses were one of the first bands to draw a regular crowd when the Flicker Theatre & Bar first opened its doors.
An informal mix of traditional folk, weepy country tunes, lonesome bluegrass, unplugged rock and roll and even some world music leanings, the Workhorses are a veritable roots-music grab bag complete with three-part harmonies. With three distinctive singers in the fold, comparisons to The Band’s Danko/ Manuel/ Helm triumvirate are inevitable, but if those guys had been able to keep their boat afloat, work a day job and pick together at night, then they actually might’ve sounded a lot like the Workhorses. More fittingly, they sound like a better-contemplated Little Village (the short-lived 90s project that featured John Hiatt, Ry Cooder and Nick Lowe): a few graying guys with guitars, a few beers with dinner and a well’s worth of good music.
The Workhorses’ AthFest appearance also gives the trio a chance to preview songs from the new self-titled disc that’ll be out in August on Chicago’s Fundamental Records label, an indie that released the first Six String Drag album, as well as more recent ones from Love Tractor and Vigilantes of Love’s Bill Mallonee. The guys also have a song - the previously unreleased "What Makes You Treat Me As Mean As You Do" - on the new AthFest compilation CD. The Workhorses’ stage time will be brief, but don’t let that sway you from attending.
Michael Andrews - Flagpole Magazine
.. Flicker Theatre in Athens GA January 2006
.. The Riviera in Clemson SC February 29th 2008
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Workhorses (WERI),
Hey, hope you are doing well......i've got a busy couple of months coming up. I'm touring the UK for the first time in June with Kevin Montgomery, and then right back to New York for a show at the Lincoln Center on the 29th with the Texas Playboys.
I hear my name is originally English.........."All-sup"-meaning everyone raise their glasses and drink up!!! It took me 75 years, but i'm finally making there.
Anyway, here is a video about the tour, and with some footage from last year in Crete at Songs in the Sun-Crete--you can see it on youtube here www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWCZkbJM3rg, or by going to my myspace.
Take care, and hope to see you soon.
Tommy
"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."
From a speech given in Paris at the Sorbonne in 1910
Hey Ben, party at our house (350 Meigs, apt. 1) December 9th, come anytime after 9pm if you want. Bring snacks/drinks to share and an ornament for our tree. see you then i hope.
