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Flying J Wranglers

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The Flyng J Wranglers is a western instrumental and vocal musical group based at the Flying J. Ranch in Alto near the resort community of Ruidoso in Lincoln County in south central New Mexico.

The performers

The Wranglers are headed by James R. Hobbs (born c. 1954), a singer/songwriter and rhythm guitarist, whose grandfather founded the city of Hobbs, New Mexico. Hobbs' ballad, "Song of New Mexico", has twice been nominated by the New Mexico Legislature as the official state song.[1][2]Hobbs' wife, Cynthia S. "Cindy" Hobbs, a Tennessee native, is a western yodeling champion who has been twice nominated as "Best Female Vocalist of the Year" by the Academy of Western Artists.

Randy Jones has since the early 1970s played guitar, mandolin, and banjo. He spent fifteen years with the regional group known as the Moon Pie Dance Band of El Paso, Texas, which recorded two albums.[3]

Roy Black, a specialist with the bass guitar, has been affiliated with the Flying J Wranglers since 1997. He previously performed with the Timberline Band of New Mexico. Reared on a ranch with experience as a horse trainer, he is known for his cowboy ballads. He still maintains a ranch north of Capitan, New Mexico.

Wrangler Gregory Paul "Greg" Meeks, a former member of the Sagebrush Sounds from the Texas Panhandle, is committed to western and gospel music. Meeks sings in high tenor and classic western baritone. The youngest of the Wranglers, Corinna Ripple, a fiddle player, is originally from San Jose, California, and graduated from the bluegrass and Country music program at South Plains College, a community college in Levelland, Texas.

Cast members change over the years. A former performer with the Wranglers is the fiddler Marilyn D. Trotter, a native of Alamogordo, New Mexico, and a perennial New Mexico state fiddle champion.


At home and on tour

James Hobbs explain the purpose of the Flying J and the Wranglers: Something we wanted to accomplish with the Flying J was to help people experience New Mexico. The chuckwagon and the trail drives of the late 1800s are a large part of the history of New Mexico. The first chuckwagon was built in 1866 by Charles Goodnight to use on the Goodnight-Loving Trail drives which ran ... very close to where the Flying J Ranch sits today. So exposing people to the lore, food, and music of the chuckwagon era helps keep New Mexico's history alive. ... The cowboy was the original American free spirit. The cowboy was doing what he loved to do -- being out under the stars and enjoying the West. That's what people are coming out here to do -- camping out, looking at the stars and just connecting with the outdoors. We try to do that with the music and the western flavor of the Flying J."[4]

Over the years, the Wranglers have performed not only at the ranch but as far away as Germany, Italy, and Japan on tour for the U.S. State Department. James Hobbs has also performed at the White House.The group has made guest appearances at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, and in 2002 and 2003 performed at the "Saddle Up Celebration" in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.[5]

Since 1982, then operating on a shoestring and barely surviving financially, the Flying J has hosted some thirty thousand visitors each summer for gunfights, chuckwagon suppers, and live entertainment from the Wranglers. Each December the group makes a regional tour for its traveling Christmas program, which is changed annually and has been performed in such locations as Clovis and Socorro, New Mexico, New Mexico, Amarillo,[6]Odessa, Lubbock, and New Braunfels, Texas.

The Flying J Ranch is part of the Chuckwagon Association of the West. Other member chuckwagons are located in Cody, Wyoming; Rapid City, South Dakota; Branson, Missouri, and Colorado Springs and Durango, Colorado. All feature traditional chuckwagon cooking, followed by after-supper entertainment of comedy and western songs.

"Song of New Mexico" is listed by the Academy of Western Artists as one of the Top 10 western songs of the 1990s.[7]


2012 Christmas tour

Remaining dates on the Christmas tour are as follows:

Dec 15 @ 7 pm Spur TX Palace Theater 806-294-5401 Dec 16 @ 7:30 pm Lubbock TX Cactus Theater [Map] 806-762-3233 Dec 17 @ 7:30 pm San Angelo TX Angelo State University Auditorium [Map] 325-942-2178 Dec 18 @ 7 pm Odessa TX [Map] Globe Theater 2308 Shakespeare Rd. 432-580-3177 Dec 19 @ Artesia NM Ocotillo Theater, 310 West Main 575-746-4212 Dec 21 @ 8 pm Amarillo TX Amarillo Little Theater, 2019 Civic Circle 806-355-9991


One may also hear the Wranglers performing "Song for New Mexico" (2011) at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V2uPbM17Q0.

References

  1. Flying J Wranglers Bring Cowboy Christmas To Macey Center, December 1, 2011. New Mexico Tech University at Socorro. Retrieved on June 5, 2012.
  2. Flying J Wranglers bring Western harmonies to Globe Theatre. mywesttexas.com. Retrieved on June 5, 2012.
  3. Meet the Wranglers. flyingjranch.com. Retrieved on June 5, 2012.
  4. Flying J Ranch - Keeping the Old West Alive. lightentheload.net. Retrieved on June 5, 2012.
  5. Pamphlet, "Flying J. Wranglers: A White Mountain Christmas, December 3-4, 2004, p. 3
  6. Holiday concert roundup: The Flying J Wranglers. amarillo.com. Retrieved on June 5, 2012.
  7. Flying J Wranglers gallup into town. pntonline.com. Retrieved on June 5, 2012.