The Lucky Tomblin Band

LUCKY TOMBLIN, songwriter and lead vocalist, first sang in public at the Grand Ole Opry Show in San Antonio with Roger Miller, Little Jimmy Dickens and Ray Price. Dynamic Records' Abe Epstein signed him, and his first single, the folk-rock “On My Love,” was a regional hit. He played nightclubs and shared stages with such friends as Jackie King, Sid Sims, Doug Sahm, Augie Meyers and the West Side Horns. In the '80s, he founded The Fire Station recording studio in San Marcos, Texas and began to produce for the likes of the Texas Tornados, Joe Ely, Flaco Jimenez, Jerry Jeff Walker and Omar and the Howlers. It was Sahm who urged Tomblin to form a band and go back onstage, which he did, opening for Sahm's Last Real Texas Blues Band tour of California.

Lucky also was the Executive Producer, and appeared in, the independent film: Antone's: Home of the Blues. This delightful documentary traces the history of the club and its colorful owner by way of interviews and performances of the great blues musicians who played there.

REDD VOLKAERT is a master guitar picker and has a cult following among guitarists. Redd started early, at the age of ten. By the time he was 16, he was playing in local bars and clubs in Vancouver, British Columbia. After 8 years in Alberta, he moved to Los Angeles, playing in clubs, teaching and working on demo sessions. In 1990, he moved to Nashville and started working road dates and studio sessions with Ray Price, Lacy J. Dalton, Clinton Gregory and Dale Watson, eventually working his way to Merle Haggard's band, The Strangers. In 1997, Merle Haggard found himself in need of a lead guitarist. Haggard said, “I usually listen to the guys in the band. I asked them who was the best guitarist they knew, and they all said Redd.” He took Redd without an audition. Since becoming a “Stranger,” Redd has recorded and toured with Merle, appearing in concert and on national television. ReddVolkaert.net

Bassist SARAH BROWN has played and/or recorded with an impressive list of blues and roots greats such as Albert Collins, Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, James Cotton, Dr. John, Memphis Slim, Earl King, Bonnie Raitt at Farm Aid 2, Raitt and Nick Lowe at the T-Bird Rhythm Fest, Mason Ruffner, Paul Carrack, Big Walter Horton, Rhythm Rockers, Memphis Rockabilly Band, Geoff Muldaur, J.B. Hutto, the LeRoi Brothers and the acclaimed Hen House. She was a mainstay of the Antone's rhythm section, performing on numerous recordings for that label. Sarah toured with the Antone's Blues Revue as well as the Black Top Records All Stars, has been profiled in both Bass Player and Guitar Player magazine and voted Best Bass Player in the Austin Chronicle Awards four years in a row. She is also an accomplished songwriter, with her songs having been recorded by Marcia Ball, Lou Ann Barton, Angela Strehli, Joe Louis Walker, Irma Thomas, Ruth Brown and Lavelle White. Sarah Brown on Blind Pig Records

JON HAHN started playing drums in his elementary school band. He continued from there to high school and on to college jazz band, orchestra and various percussion ensembles. While still in college, he began playing professionally. In 1990, he received a degree in music and continued playing professionally in his home state of Iowa for five more years. Since relocating to Austin, he has continued to work full time in a career dedicated to the art of music performance, while backing up such artists as Radney Foster, The Flatlanders/Joe Ely, Rosie Flores, Gary Primich and Jim Stringer.

Since 1982, BOBBY ARNOLD has been a recording engineer. He started at Willie Nelson's Pedernales Studio, moved to the Fire Station Studio in San Marcos, Texas and currently is Chief Engineer at Southwest Texas State University. During his career, he has had the pleasure of recording many of his favorite artists and players such as Willie Nelson, Ray Charles, Neil Young, Merle Haggard, Les Paul...and has always been awed and inspired by the musicians surrounding such artists. He feels the same way about playing rhythm guitar in The Lucky Tomblin Band. Bobby Arnold on Artist Direct

Long recognized as on of Austin’s foremost guitar slingers, JOHN REED (AKA John X. Reed and Johnny X), joined The Lucky Tomblin Band a few months after the band cut their first CD.   John began his musical life at age 8 playing the guitar and traditional fiddle music with his father and grandfather on a farm in eastern New Mexico.  His playing continued in the 1950’s and 60’s, his Jr. and Sr. high school years, in Amarillo and Lubbock Texas; areas known to be a hot bed of music.  While in college in Lubbock he embarked on what would become long term musical associations with Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely, Butch Hancock, Jesse “Guitar” Taylor and Ponty Bone.  Since moving to Austin in 1970 John has been in demand as a diverse guitarist; once described in the Austin Chronicle as playing “like a card shark with his life on the betting line”.   He has performed, recorded and toured across the United States and in Europe with an eclectic variety of artist’s including:  Doug Sahm, Roky Erickson, Marcia Ball, Lucinda Williams, James Polk, Kimmie Rhodes, Alvin Crow and Kenneth Threadgill.

Appearing on the band's eponymous release, Steel guitar and Dobro player CINDY CASHDOLLAR has won five Grammy Awards and logged many miles on the road touring the US and abroad. Her work can be heard on Bob Dylan's Grammy-winning 1997 Album of the Year, Time Out of Mind , as well as recordings by Asleep at the Wheel, Leon Redbone, Peter Rowan, Graham Parker, and many others. Starting out on folk and Delta blues guitar at age 11, Cindy later switched to Dobro in her early twenties. She played in an acoustic quartet with Levon Helm and Rick Danko of The Band and then spent five years touring with blues stylist Leon Redbone, during which time she started playing the non-pedal steel guitar. In her eight-year stint with Asleep at the Wheel, Cindy recorded six albums, including the critically acclaimed Bob Wills "tribute" albums ( A Tribute to the Music of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys and Ride with Bob ). Although Cindy still performs with the Wheel from time to time, she officially departed in 2001 and tours with acts such as Beausoleil, Kelly Willis, Peter Rowan, Jorma Kaukonen and many others. Cindy is a frequent guest on Garrison Keillor's NPR show, A Prairie Home Companion , and has released four instructional videos for steel and Dobro guitar playing on Homespun Tapes. CindyCashdollar.com