Smalltown Ramblers started its days as many other bands, as a secret project in a cold and dark basement, long out of reach for the ordinary Joe. This was around the summer 2002, and both members and public werent quite ready for the big stage yet.Smalltown Ramblers, or originally Smalltown Rumblers, was a three-piece band in the beginning. Øyvind Sørensen (Slap-Bass), Kjetil Wang (Sax) and Torgeir Forseth (Guitar and vocals). Our first demo was released late 2003 and actually made it onto the Brazilian Rockabilly compilation Rockin All over the place, much to our own amazement!
Our first real gig was in familiar surroundings at the rock-club Caven in Oslo, Norway November 2003. Big cheers all around! (Support for Taggytones, Denmark)There was a loud majority trying to convince us to incorporate a drummer in our act, and by the summer of 2004 we indeed had our very own drummer, Petter Stangjordet. Our drum section was raw: One snare-drum. (It still is). We really didnt have to get Petter going, since he picked our tunes out of the blue after fewer than 5 practises.We were now a fully fledged Rockabilly band and received much greater praise than we had expected. We decided to do something about this, and spent a rather large amount of time practising, writing and rehearsing new tunes. By the time of Summer 2005 we had racked up a decent amount of gigs. Starting to get warm, we released our first album Trucks, Trains & Evil Women May 2005. The album is a raw straight forward boogie-rockabilly album with a mean saxophone.
Reviews: Hamar Arbeiderblad(Newspaper) Devoid of dead spaces,
Dagbladet (national newspaper) A much needed rain of sparks,
Backstage (Music Mag) Something specialWe had our first real airtime on Norwegian radio in the summer of 2005, and we were getting the attention of the press. Rumours had it we were the best thing in Norwegian rockabilly since they didnt know when!
In December 2005 we had the honour of playing at Norways biggest and most respected rock-venue, Rockefeller, in front of nearly 1500 overly wild spectators.As luck, sheer persistence and will to rehearse 3 times a week would have it, we were invited to play at By:Larm in Norway February 2006 . A get-together for the whole music-industry in Norway, and the largest gathering of Norwegian up-and-coming bands. We felt oddly out of place playing music that was wildly different to anything else being played.May 2006 brought along the release of our second and arguably best album; Too much Coffee. An album more diverse and Country sounding than Trucks, trains & Evil women.
As journalists and pundits would have it: No Objections, Entertaining rockabilly (Aftenposten) , A Medicine against all mediocre radio-music (Bluesnews).During the winter of 2006 and spring of 2007 were hoping to spread our music abroad, by touring a venue in possibly what is YOUR country!About our Music: We dont have tag or genre to place our music in. It changes often and randomly, but generally it is true to three principles: Its highly danceable and clap-able, its got something that will make you want to sing along, and it sure as h*** will make you want to get off your seat!
We have been dubbed The poor mans Seatsniffers and the Tom Petty of Rockabilly, but most of all our sound is Pure Smalltown Ramblers.
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