Tahoe Daily Tribune: Ruby Dee and the Snakehandlers make Tahoe debut

Ruby Dee and the Snakehandlers will burn your goozle: The Seattle band that might rather be from Bakersfield has gone country with both barrels blazing and soon will move to Austin, Texas. But first it has unfinished business in Tahoe.

If country, rockabilly, Americana and fried chicken gizzards suit your musical tastes, Ruby Dee and the Snakehandlers serve it all.

In support of a solid second studio album, “Miles From Home,” the band plays Thursday, Oct. 9, in the Boathouse Theatre at Valhalla’s Tallac Historic Site on Emerald Bay Road. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Advance tickets are $12, the cover at the door $15.

The five-piece band also played in South Lake Tahoe in March. It is wending its way back to Seattle after touring Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas and the Southwest.
Ruby Dee Philippa is a vocal force to be reckoned with, a cross between Dolly Parton and Colleen Duffy of Devil Doll.

Band co-leader Jorge Harada is a skilled guitarist, and his song “Gunslinger (Return Of Nobody)” would make Link Wray wheeze and Quentin Tarantino want to use it in a movie.

Versatile Bob Knetzger plays pedal steel guitar, mandolin, banjo and Dobro. The rhythm section is bass guitarist Sean Hudson and drummer Kipp Crawford.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s readers voted Ruby Dee and the Snakehandlers best band in its 2005 People’s Picks.

Band members list their favorite musicians as Buck Owens, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Hank Williams, Los Lobos, Stray Cats and Merle Haggard.