Black Ale Sinners
The best damn Honky Tonk band to come out of Kansas and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
Brandon Salmans: Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
Jeff Williams: Lead Guitar, Banjo, Vocals
Sean McCue: Upright Bass
Brandon McFadden: Snare, Washboard
Steve Hammond: Vocals, Steel, Acoustic Guitar
Jesse Carr: Mandolin, Fiddle
The Black Ale Sinners were formed in Lawrence, KS, December 2001 as Saddlerash by Steve Hammond, bassist Jamie Brownlie, and Brandon "Brado" Salmans for a talent contest. They won and Jeff soon joined, as well as Jesse "Juice" Carr and the classic Saddlerash line-up was complete. They went through a long string of drummers, all of them wierdos, until they settled on the wierdest of all, Brandon McFadden, who didn't even want to play drums, just be in the band. They worked for years to complete the first album; well, Jamie and Jeff did anyway. All the while they played countless shows, most of them house parties and funerals, gaining a reputation as the sloppiest bluegrass band around. Sometime in here, it's lost to history now, Jamie decided he wanted to have a family or play pop-punk or something, and left Saddlerash. Well, a new upright player was always hanging around and harassing the boys for sex or bubble gum or something. His name was Sean McCue, but everyone called this redheaded freak Sneaky Burt. So they let Sneaky into the band and much to everyone's surprise, he was a pretty damn good bass player, so they deleted Jamie's bass tracks on the album and Sean slapped his down. Around this time it was discovered that there were 4,003 other bands called Saddlerash. So a new name had to be decided on, one that sucked so bad no one else would ever want it. They settled on Black Ale Sinners. Lots of shows were played, millions of people were offended accidently, and the first album, "The Devil in my Drink" finally came out: twelve years after they had first started to record it! They did more shows and a wierd little tour to Texas that was mainly everyone drinking a lot and sleeping at Michael "Patty" Evans' house. At some point, Steve decided it would be a good idea to go live in the desert. So they played their "final" show at the Jackpot saloon in July of 2006 and released the second album, "Honky Tonkin' with the Black Ale Sinners". Everyone was sad and cried and told Steve he wasn't welcome in their house no more. But some folks say they're just on extended hiatus and if you go to the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, KS you might just hear them play again. Or was that the Black Anal Centaurs?
Reviews
Postmodern Sounds in Country and Western
Listen to more Black Ale Sinners songs at Myspace.com/blackalesinners