Bobby Patterson Jeff Crawford Billie Feather Nathan Golub Skylar Gudasz John Howie Jr. Jesse Huebner Alex Inglehart Heather McEntire Gabriele Pelli Sara Romweber Freddie Salem Mark E. Smith Tim Smith John Teer James A. Wallace Michael Rank, born as Michael Rankow, is an American musician and singer-songwriter from Chatham County, North Carolina.
[8] Rank's band, Snatches of Pink, formed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 1985 with Andy McMillan on vocals and bass guitar and Sara Romweber (Let's Active) on drums.
[4] Although the band started as a punk-rock ode to The Rolling Stones and The Replacements, they eventually transitioned to a mix of acoustic music that was influenced by Led Zeppelin's song "Tangerine.
[4][10][11] They were considered one of the best bands in North Carolina of the era, but never reached bigger success despite opening for The Cramps, Iggy Pop, Ramones, Soul Asylum, Soundgarden, and Steppenwolf.
"[13] During downtime from Snatches of Pink in 2003, Rank formed the band Marat with John Ensslin (Teasing the Korean, What Peggy Wants).
[14] Scott Carle (Collapsis, Dillon Fence) replaced Levi on drums by the time the band recorded its albums.
[17] Although his original goal for Coral was a stripped down Cat Stephens kind of album, this changed in the studio to include Sara Romweber (Snatches of Pink) on drums and Freddie Salem (The Chamber Brothers, Outlaws) on bass.
"[12] The album's backing band included both Sara Romweber (Snatches of Pink, Let's Active, Dex Romweber Duo) and John Howie Jr. (Snatches of Pink, John Howie & The Rosewood Bluff, Finger, Two Dollar Pistols) on drums, Alex Inglehart (Love, Claire) on electric guitar, Marc E. Smith (Snatches of Pink, 34 Satellite, Patty Hurst Shifter) on lap steel guitar and keyboards, John Teer (Chatham County Line) on fiddle and mandolin, and Daryl White (Trailer Bride) on upright bass.
[21] With a lineup that overlapped with Rank's previousl projects, one reviewer wrote that Kin "was inconclusive, its brooding, boozy acoustoelectrica sounding so much like the great SOP [Snatches of Pink] album Bent With Pray that one wondered if he changed the name just avoid any previous negative associations.
[25] Other musicians on the album included Emily Frantz (Mandolin Orange) on vocals, Nathan Golub (John Howie Jr. and the Rosewood Bluff) on pedal steel guitar and banjo, Billie Feather and Jesse Huebner (Pattie Hurst Shifter) on bass.
"[25] Also released in 2013, Mermaids again featured Feather, Golub, Huebner, Smith, and Teer, along with Ron Bartholomew (The Accelerators, The Hanks, The Woods) on mandolin, Greg Rice (Terry Anderson and The OAK Team) on piano, and Scott David Phillips on accordion.
[23][20] In addition to McEntire, Stag included Bartholomew, Golub, Howie, Huebner, Inglehart, Peli, and James A. Wallace (Phil Cook Band) on organ.
"[28] To record 2016's Red Hand, Rank reunited with McEntire on vocals, as well as Bartholomew, Golub, Pelli, Teer, and Wallace.
[23] New additions to Stag included Jeff Crawford (Dead Tongues) on bass and Tim Smith (The Jumpstarts) on saxophone.
[5] The result was Another Love in 2017 which is a combination of retro-soul and lo-fi rock that was inspired by D’Angelo, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, Sly Stone, and Prince.
[13][5][30][29] Rank says, "What was cool about this album for me, and unlike any other I’ve ever written, was that every single song started out from a beat of some old 60’s or 70’s drum machine I had at my house.
[31] After listening to Another Love, a reviewer for Soulhead wrote, "Like a combination of Curtis Mayfield and the Black Keys, the chill sound of that record got in my bones.
For CXCW 2014, he recorded a video of "Coming Hard" from the back of a pickup truck that was driving around Carrboro, North Carolina.
[12] He purchased the property in 1990 with money he made from a publishing deal with Warner Bros.[12] He and his former partner have a son named Bowie Ryder.
In a perfect world, I woulda dug doing a handful of cool dates but the time and expense involved in putting together a new band is just not where my focus is at right now.