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"How do you even start to pigeon-hole something that is so distinctly original? Well, if David Lynch ever fancied reviving the characters for a new series of Twin Peaks, these guys would be the perfect combo to hold down a residency at One-Eyed Jack’s. Truly, magically irresistible."

Mike Stiles, Green Man Review  Read More

Watch for two new releases, coming this fall: The Black Knight is King and Two Star Canyon. Click here to download MP3 Samples.

Quotes From The Band ...

"Lyrically, I think, is where David T. Carter shines. For a lot of people it's a lot of different things. For me it's the humor element, the tastefully dropped 'clangors'. As in the love song Sweet Virginia : / Come on down the river where it's safe / Let me touch your body with my blade/ or as in the new beauty and the beast song (one we co-wrote) My Angel, which laments the unobtainable then goes into: /The things that I could do to her if I just had the money /. There's a certain parallel between Dave's lyrics and a partially forgotten Englishman who cut his teeth playing cabaret music on Saturday evenings in the local pub and hymns in church on Sunday morning. I call myself a fortunate ranger, and privileged to be part of all this."
Steven Bazeley

"This man's music captivated me instantly. I'd lost interest in music other than my own because nobody was saying anything that mattered (and I include myself in that blanket accusation). This was enough to lure me out of musical retirement and inspire me to stretch out behind a musical direction that has substance. Humanity suffers because it fails to face it's demons. This music is all about forcing those demons into the open where they can receive the ridicule they deserve. I'm happy here."
Richard Miller

"I knew the Rangers were looking to fill a bass position when I first heard them on a rainy Thursday five years ago at an out of the way roadhouse. Three things were apparent: First, the level of skill in these pickers was considerably higher than the status quo. Second, the music was enriched by a most beautiful vocal harmony between the lead singer and the drummer. Third the music seemed to cross a stylistic boundary in every song.

I auditioned for Dave and was asked to join mostly, I think, because they needed someone for a bunch of upcoming dates. All I remember of the first show I did with the Rangers was that we were positioned on stage so that Oliver’s amplifier was about a foot from my ear. The tones that emerged were so in pitch as to sing with a most beautiful resonance. I knew almost none of the numbers that were called that night but between Ollie’s intonation and the occasional play call from Carter I stumbled through. We did thirty dates before I got the benefit of a rehearsal. But it was all good and I learned the songs quickly out of necessity. The crowds were into it and we were getting paid!

Since then I’ve done hundreds of dates with the Rangers. I don’t think of us as a band. We create a landscape that we then get to romp around in. Carter’s songwriting creates these weird little worlds rich with visual imagery like the circus or the heart or the road. We enter these worlds and join the dialogue, draw the scene, fill in the details. We are free to take the music in any direction because we do not claim a specific style. Our wide range of experience and considerable skill as musicians allow us to take advantage of this. We have what every artist wants: Artistic Freedom."
Peter Jungschaffer

"I met David T. Carter in 1991 through a bassist friend by the name of Rob Garner. Rob was playing bass with Dave at the time and he and I had worked together in some other San Francisco groups (Bone Cootes and the Living Wrecks, Chris Cobb). Rob thought I’d dig Dave’s music. He was right. Carter’s music is intelligent, humorous, and never boring. I could tell right off the bat that Carter was a serious songwriter and had something to say.
I love a variety of music, but in all honesty, I was never crazy about country –at least the contemporary country music I was hearing on the radio at the time. Carter’s music didn’t really fit neatly into that or any one category for that matter. I don’t know if that’s good or bad? But, I guess that’s what drew me to the music. The fact that I can take my own musical interests, like a love of jazz, latin, soul, and r & b and subtly throw some of those ideas into Dave’s music for color, keeps the music exciting and fun to play. It’s also a testament to Dave’s willingness to try different approaches to his songs.

We’ve been together longer than most of my friend’s marriages and the reason for that is our belief in the music. There’s something special about the music of the Trailer Park Rangers and we want to share it with the rest of the world."
Chip Trombley

“I first came across David T. Carter in 1996 as a wayward violin player looking for a home. I had a knack for only being involved in the most original music possible and was looking for my next adventure. After answering an ad for violin player in now defunct BAM (Bay Area Music) Magazine and being greeted by the mellifluous Australian charm-voice of David, I went to his house on Minna Street in a rundown part of San Francisco. David played me the Rangers latest CD, Lullabies of all the Mess, and I was entranced.

The music was so unique but so easily listenable. Right away I picked up on drummer Chip Trombley’s ultra-musical drum style, which reminded me of Pink Floyd’s drummer (forgot the name), as well as the high level of musicianship of the whole band. After playing a bit for David and being offered the job, I studied the songs and became more and more attracted to the music. My first rehearsal, at a small rehearsal space called Time and Space, also near Minna Street, was just amazing – I truly felt very proud and lucky to have found this band.

David’s songwriting skills continue to amaze me and I keep finding intriguing new tidbits in the wealth of material that is the Trailer Park Rangers – these tidbits sometimes make me laugh, sometimes make me contemplative, sometimes fill me with wonder - and when I see the audience I often recognize that they are, at least for a moment, on the same wavelength as us as we travel down this unfamiliar road into the unknown.”
Oliver Meissner

David T. Carter reflects on himself and the Band ...

It took me twenty years to become a writer/composer. I never studied for this, I just lived for it. The first ten years was research, the next ten was to understand the relationship between myself, the muse, the village and '' that other place''.

Call me old fashioned but songwriting is a profound language and an age old trade. People will remember the 60's from a Bob Dylan song rather than a political resolution. People will relate to true sorrow and lonesomeness from a Hank Williams song. People will relate to love and joy through Stevie Wonder, etc. Dogs bark, cats meow, wolves howl, humans sing. My job as a writer is not to mimic but to pay homage, not to force opinion, but to lay observation, sometimes from an insiders eye, sometimes from an outsiders eye. In doing so I try to recreate the story of humanity that pertains to any human from any century in any village.

The imagery and symbols I use reflect the eyes that I have seen life through. I have lived in three countries, Australia, England and America as a working class peasant. So far my landscape comes from these eyes. Musically I was influenced always by American music, country, jazz, blues, folk, bluegrass, swing, but always with my own take on it. I think the modern forms of country, jazz, blues and soul in America for the last fifteen years have been lacking in poetry, melody and individual voice. I try to keep these things alive, in essence I try to bring back the old romance of all things in a new way.

The folklore of Australia comes through more than the other two Anglo worlds in my writing because I was born and raised there. Australian folklore strives to always find it's humor through tragedy. This method comes from it's slavery roots. I've noticed the black folks of America to use this method in their humor as well. Much of my writing has this notion in it. I believe America to be mankind's experiment, full of tragedies, all trying to correct themselves under the folklore of what it is to be American.