April Birthdays 
Yes, 50th Anniversary... 
Fellow TB-er Tone Boy (Ron Ryan) and I formed The Mariners in 1964 back when we were high school classmates. We were always an instrumental rock/surf band except for a very short period in the late 60's when we had a vocalist in an attempt to make more money for college tuition.
Then the Vietnam War intervened and the two guitarists and the bassist entered the military - Army, Air Force and Navy, respectively. By the time we reentered civilian life we had lost contact with Robert, our drummer.
Then came marriage, families and my relocation away from Murfreesboro,Tennessee where the band was (and still is) based. To make a long story short, the remaining band members reunited at our 30th anniversary HS class reunion in 1996 where we played a set and have played continuously since then. We recorded our first album "Wrong Planet! in 2000 and our second "Demon Surf!" in 2012.
Due to a scarcity of local instro-friendly venues for old geezers (and Martha, our female drummer), coupled with job and logistic issues, we ceased doing live gigs a few years back. But we still get together to work on new original material. Tone Boy is our main songwriter and with the possible exception of Don Wilson of The Ventures, Ron is the best surf/instro rhythm guitarist I've ever heard, along with being my best friend.
The working title of album number three is "Epilogue Five-Zero". Webster's defines epilogue as follows:
"a final section or speech after the main part of a book, play, or musical composition, usually used to bring closure to the work."
So while the band will continue on a casual basis, this will be our final recording. I am working on the preliminary stuff now and just finished the click tracks and am working on recording the scratch tracks for lead, rhythm and bass which will speed up the process of getting the "real" tracks on tape. Tape? yes, we are very Old School. The tape is ADAT digital but the mixing console is analog as is most of the outboard gear. Way less sterile-sounding than all digital. Attached is a studio pic I shot last night.
We are planning a late Spring or early Summer release. This one is less surfy and more LSJ-ish than the two previous releases. We hope you guys will like it!
Jack
aka WoodyJ
The Mariners (1964-68, 1996-2005)
The Hula Hounds (1996-current)
The X-Rays (1997-2004)
The Surge! (2004, 2011-2012)
Various non-surf bands that actually made money (1978-1990)
Last edited: Jan 12, 2014 21:35:02
