Snakeoil Rattlers
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Biography

The Snakeoil Rattlers have continued to work tirelessly to cement their place in the UK Southern Rock and Americana scene both as a headline act and opening for US bands such as Skinny Molly and Hogjaw. The strong narrative of their songs often finds them compared to songwriting notaries including the Drive-by Truckers, Townes Van Zandt, and Steve Earle, but with a sound distinctly their own. The Outlaw Punk Country Radio Show described them as having "Smooth rural southern lyrics and native hymning" .

The five-piece line-up includes twin electric guitars and lap steel and has also led them to being proclaimed by ARFM radio as "Quite possibly the greatest country, bluegrass and rock fusion the South never had". And with the release of their debut album 'Backwater' the band shows no sign of slowing up.

Song writer Barry Warren says "The songs are written about a nation's constantly changing landscape and I sincerely believe that literal realism is what we're trying to achieve. It's been remarked that some of the songs have death rates higher than a disaster movie or that they're like mini soap operas, but I don't think it's just the lyrics but the music also. The Rattlers are lucky enough to be endowed with musicians that can both portray not only the dark urgency that some songs require but also delicate phrasing in the lighter moments. There's some love stories in there too. They just don't all have a happy endings."

The experienced line-up - Barry 'The Snake Oil Man' Warren (Vocals, Guitar, Harmonica) Kevin 'Swamp Dawg' O'Neill (Vocals, Lap Steel), Colin 'Rain' Rainey (Bass Guitar), John O'Sullivan (Guitar), and Dave Morgan (Drums) - consisting of members from The Rockiningbirds, The Redlands Palomino Company, Foghorn Leghorn, The Snakes, Limozine and a previous Primal Scream member, have managed to build a reputation for unrefined, enduring accomplishment that comes deeper than their rootstock.

Often compared to Steve Earle and The Drive-By Truckers, The Snakeoil Rattlers have spent more than a few years refining their live show performing at numerous venues and festivals across Southern England including London's world famous 100 Club, where their fan-base consists of not only the followers of the alternative and insurgent country movements, but also bikers and hard rockers.

Their debut album 'Backwater' is instantly pertinent as a 21st century Americana/Southern Rock opera that reached #1 in the 365 Radio Country/Americana Album Chart featuring the #2 single 'Devil's in My Rearview'.

Barry Warren's interview on the Spirit and Roots Radio reached #1 in the MIXCLOUD Southern Rock Chart.

Unlike the snake oil salesmen of the past The Snakeoil Rattlers will never sell the ladies and gentleman of the audience short, but still share the cure-all-ills remedy of raw entertainment.

Where the swamp meets the road you will find The Snakeoil Rattlers.

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Bio Picture

Colin Rainey - Bass  Kevin O'Neill - Vocals, Lap Steel  Barry Warren - Vocals, Guitar, Harmonica
John O'Sullivan - Guitar   Dave Morgan - Drums

"Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! I was blown away by it ('Fire in the Hole'). Worthy of a John Peel moment. I'm playing it again. A grass roots band really going somewhere"
— Stephen Lowin, Storm FM 

"Marvellous Stuff from the Marvellous album 'Bakwater'"
— Mark Worden, Wordy's World, Hard Rock Hell Radio

"If you like Southern country rock, authentic sounding whiskey driven rock you want to get to know them, definitely."
— Natasha Strange, Strange Country Show, Radio 365 

"Purveyors of swampy, bluesy-rock Americana. Songs full of 'stories' of life on the road, in bars, brawls and drug and alcohol fuelled 'experiences'."
— International Times

"These guys are so darn authentic they rooted down on the stage like they could have been there for a hundred and fifty years."
— The Ear Horn

"The Snakeoil Rattlers took us back to the Deep South with their home-grown swampbilly stories of trial and retribution."
— ARTslant

"The Snakeoil Rattlers have a unique playful styling of porch picking bluegrass, smooth rural southern lyrics and native hymning. It is easy to imagine hot chicory, grits and eggs a muggy morning passing through some lonesome diner in Louisiana. Bluesy highlights tints every happy moment on the music. I got a nice good time from their music. Easy in the ears and not to complicated, like some bluegrass can get."
— Bubba, Outlaw Punk Cowboy Show (www. outlawpunk. com)

"Definiately our brand of Snake Oil"
— Rob Ellen, The Medicine Show Nevis Radio and loch Broom FM

"The Snakeoil Rattlers, whose witty boast that ‘where the swamp meets the road you will always find the Snake Oil Rattlers’ could only mean a sorta cajun/bluegrass sound. The Rattlers have been knocking around since 2004, playing around The Swamps of London Town, and have built up a dedicated following judging by the cheering as the band launched into Road Tales, full of delightful chicken-scratch guitars, courtesy of Messrs. Barry Warren and Ryan Carr.

Elsewhere, Slow Train To Georgia and Nothin’ To Confess showed just what a tight unit the Rattlers are, and was that Made In The Shade, the ol’ Skynyrd classic? Hell, yeah. I will be checking this lot out again.”
— Classic Rock Magazine

"Quite possibly the greatest country, bluegrass and rock fusion the South never had"
— Paul Chamberlain, New Songs From The South, ARFM Radio

"I thoroughly enjoyed that, and so wonderfully named."
— John Craig, The Hot From the Forge Radio Show, Scotland Rocks Radio

"Delight in the bourbon-swaggering Sexy, Southern Death Country-Rock of The Snakeoil Rattlers. Named after one of Steve Earle’s finest songs these good ol’ boys mix a perfect, three-finger whiskey blend of gifted musicianship with rock ’n’ Roll (bad) attitude."
— Countrier Than Thou

"Rich, raw and real songs of lost love and the road."
— Richard Cobbing, Clerkenville West

"The meanest men in Country music this side of the Atlantic."
— The Ram Jam Club, Kingston

"Rattlesnakes warn you before they bite, The Snakeoil Rattlers don't"
— Barry Marshall-Everitt, House of Mercy Radio

"Your tunes have put this lot in a weird mood...now they want to go to a whiskey bar!"
— London Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust

"These boys are mighty fine pickers and lovely people, be sure to check out one of their shows, you won't be disappointed!"
— Hippy Karen, The Sin City Cosmic Country Club

"Poetic bourbon flavoured songs in the tradition of Messrs Earle, Van Zandt and Prine. Dynamic country—southern rawk that'll get the toes tapping"
— The Windmill, Brixton

"It's fantastic to hear the bluegrass and roots influences the Snakeoil rattlers encompass in their songs. Makes me feel like I'm back in the South and not the UK"
— The Rebel Rocker Geno D, The Southern Fried Rock Show

"Dedicated to all music from the lands below the Bible Belt”
— TimeOut

"Whiskey driven delights of the SNAKEOIL RATTLERS”
— The Gallery Cafe