Tennessee Alternative Country and Western Swing band.  Formed their own original sound, and played classic swing covers and rock fueled country 20 years before New Country. Their hard hitting swing beat was hard to beat.  

    Enjoy an evening with Bull Rooker
                The Faded Princes of Western Swing

Truly ahead of their time, revel in the folksy charm of one of the first bands to mix the power of rock with western swing 20 years before New Country. Underground National Archives yielded this stash of Bull Rooker's club tapes live with all the grit and grime. It is retro-Americana digitally remastered at Radium Sunset Studio to preserve Long Branch ambiance. With David O’Dell’s high energy voice on the mic, lively swing and unruly country got crossed up with rock techniques and loads of improvisation from the talented guitarist David Young. Here the soulful, heartfelt music is reborn, as well as cat calls, hooting, caterwauling, whoops of rebellious joy, and those long lost echoes from our faded and distant star.

 Players:
Lead Guitar\Vocals; David “Yole Gibson”: Young
Lead Singer\Rhythm Guitar\Steel Guitar: Dave O'Dell
Bass: Charles Manneschmidt, Greg Johnson
Fiddles: Charlie Setlow, Tanya Dennis
Harp: “Bukka Billy Blues"  York
Drums: Michael “Backbone” Turner
Recording: Ross Uchida, Charley “Coleslaw” Whaley,
Glen Turner, and “Wally.” Special Thanks to Jerry Britt
   

BULL ROOKER LIVE AT THE LONG BRANCH
~  The original progressive country band LIVE at the Longbranch Saloon on Cumberland, Knoxville, TN - winter -1977.   Lively western swing and unruly hard country, boiled down the rowdy bar's best;  Lazy Me,  Wartburg Lullaby,  Me & the FBI,  Beat Up Buick, + hard core standards.  Follow their pathway style 20 years before new country.  Some of Yole's best guitar breaks, vocals,  quips.  A saloon stompin' good time - great for parties. Meat Music  

 $10.00 (add $3.50 for shipping\handling)

 

 click to buy online
 
BULL ROOKER FREE FULL DOWNLOADS
David Young    

  Dave O'Dell

Warmup performance for Asleep at the Wheel @ UT Students Center Spring 1977. Incidently, during that show, our fiddle player Tanya Dennis met and fell in love with one of the Wheels' fiddle players that night and they got married and lived in Nashville for 30 years.  We enjoyed a chat and some refreshment in the parking lot with Lucky Oceans and Ray Benson before they left. 

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MP3s enjoy

[I've Been Everywhere] 

[Twin Guitar Special-alt.mp3]..

[Cumberland Gap-Bull Rooker.mp3]

[Roly Poly-Bull Rooker.mp3] 

[Lazy Me-Eltech.mp3]

[Broad Minded Man-Bull Rooker.mp3]

[Back Up the Road - Bull Rooker.mp3]

 


scrapbook video of bullrooker     by Max erwin

 

PHOTO: LONGBRANCH SALOON, KNOXVILLEPHOTO: LONGBRANCH SALOON, KNOXVILLEPHOTO: LONGBRANCH SALOON, KNOXVILLE
 Cumberland Avenues historic LONGBRANCH SALOON'S FACEBOOK PAGE
 

 

David "Yole Gipson" Young
1954 -1980
"Yole" was an unforgettably talented musician and fine artist. His warm exuberant spirit touched many lives...

Back Up the Road 205kb wav

 

 

 


Bissell Park Oak Ridge 5 Sep 77
The band gigged around Knoxville for approximately three years. Sadly David Young died suddenly the 1 of February 1980 from an occurrence of anaphylactic shock. I mention that because some think he died of a drug overdose which he was never associated with hard drugs.  That's important to mention.  David Young was a source of love and light and extemely talented.  He was a fine artist and could paint and airbrush fantastic art as well as forge high quality museum quality knives.

And also a sad note is our fiddle player Charlie Setlow who was a total prince of a guy, died a few years back up in Long Island, NY from a stomach thing.  He was the source of lots of laughs.  He recorded his own album back in the 90's and I'm still trying to locate it.

Tanya owns a custom recording studio in Nashville,  Charles went on to be a Electrical Engineer as is employed around Knoxville.  Dave is a Field Engineer for IT hardware installations,  And Backbone Turner works in his business grooming dogs and gigging with bands in the Nashville area.  More Later. 

 

BULL ROOKER LIVE AT THE LONG BRANCH
~  The original progressive country band LIVE at the Longbranch Saloon on Cumberland, Knoxville, TN - winter -1977.   Lively western swing and unruly hard country, boiled down the rowdy bar's best;  Lazy Me,  Wartburg Lullaby,  Me & the FBI,  Beat Up Buick, + hard core standards.  Follow their pathway style 20 years before new country.  Some of Yole's best guitar breaks, vocals,  quips.  A saloon stompin' good time - great for parties. Meat Music  

 $10.00 (add $3.50 for shipping\handling)

 

 click to buy online

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