For Immediate Release
Jul. 11, 2006

RUBY DEE AND THE SNAKEHANDLERS
RELEASE NORTH OF BAKERSFIELD ON JULY 11

Austin, Texas — Rudy Dee and The Snakehandlers, the five-piece high-energy alt-country group voted Best Band in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s People’s Picks 2005, celebrates the release today of its first full-length album, NORTH OF BAKERSFIELD, on Dionysus Records.

Ruby Dee and The Snakehandlers is in the midst of tour that starts in Washington State, where the band was born and earned a fan following so devoted it demanded more than the group’s five-song CD debut, and continues southward through California, winding up in Texas.

Honest, heartfelt original songs written by a well-versed and well-traveled woman along with a sound that encompasses all of country music – Bakersfield, honky-tonk, rockabilly, swing, insurgent country, Tex-Mex and rock ’n’ roll – are what made the band and what music lovers on the tour route are in store for.

“This slaps ya up the side of the head. The Snakehandlers play with plenty of honky-tonk twang, rockabilly fire and full-bore, sweaty energy. Lead vocalist Dee has loads of sass,” writes MusicRow’s Robert Oermann. “An auspicious hillbilly beginning.”

Songwriter-vocalist Ruby Dee leads the band. She is accompanied by Liz Smith on big flat-top acoustic guitar and harmonies, Pete Smith (no relation) on electric bass, Lewis Warren on drums, and Jorge Harada on six-string Telecaster.

Upcoming tour dates include:

Saturday, July 15, CD Release Party, Highway 99, Seattle
Thursday, July 20, Marina Park Pavilion, Kirkland, Wash.
Friday, July 21, King County Fairgrounds, Enumclaw, Wash.
Sunday, July 30, Normandy Park Arts Festival, Normandy Park, Wash.
Saturday, August 5, Anacortes Arts Festival, Anacortes, Wash.
Thursday, August 10, Eastside Tavern, Olympia, Wash.
Friday, August 11, Duff’s Garage, Portland, Ore.
Thursday, August 17, Blue Café, Long Beach
Friday, August 18, The Mint, Los Angeles
Monday, August 21, Uncle Paulie’s Pub, El Paso, Texas

Interview times are available as well as press kits and review CDs. To listen to MP3s and to download hi-res images, album art and more, visit: http://mcguckinpr.com/mcguckin/rubydee/rubydee.htm. Also see www.rubydeemusic.com.

Media Contact: McGuckin Entertainment PR
Heidi Labensart, 512.478.0578 p; heidi@mcguckinpr.com
Jill McGuckin, 512.217.9404 p; jill@mcguckinpr.com

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