Video: Hank McCoy & the Dead Ringers - "Will You Remember?" live

Twangin' Ezine: Hank McCoy Interviews Jimmie Dale Gilmore and More

As I have learned, not every band got a lot (or any) press during their time. Or if they did, it was via the print press that was never digitized. That may be the case with Hank McCoy & The Dead Ringers because the pickin's are slim. However, I did stumble upon a text file of the Twangin' E-Zine that was released in May 1994 that features an interview conducted by Hank McCoy with Jimmie Dale Gilmore, as well as a review of the Still Feeling Blue/Lately My Luck Has Been Changing album. Here is some of that review:

The problem with long CDs--and this one is 72 minutes long is that it's hard to listen to them all the way through.  Life intrudes.  The mail comes, your mother phones, dinner burns, your brothers come home from the war, the polar ice caps melt... The last couple of songs on this CD began to take on an air of mystery, like boxes pushed into the back of the closet. So finally I shoved the CD into the player and punched it to #24, "When I'm Gone." A jumpy, uptempo, nose-thumbing number, it turned out to be one of my favorites. But there are lots of other great songs here too:  "Long White Train," a funeral song in the tradition of "The Longest Train," is straight out of church; the covers of the Louvin Brothers' "I Wish You Knew" and Gram Parsons' "Still Feeling Blue" are gorgeous, and the Dead Ringers' version of "Vaya con Dios" is among the sappiest I've heard (and that's a compliment).

New Additions: Hank McCoy & The Dead Ringers self-titled album (1992)

Stumbling upon Hank McCoy & The Dead Ringers during my research for the book gave me pause. Was this really alternative country, in the way that the Haynes Boys or Burn Barrel were alternative country? To my ears, though it might be interpreted slightly differently, there appeared to be nothing "alternative" about it. But then how does that factor into a book primarily about rock music and its various sub-genres? I'm not quite sure yet, I do know that members of a variety of bands, including Greenhorn, Great Plains, Ronald Koal And The Trillionaires, and more.

Know Yer Band: Hank McCoy And The Dead Ringers

Band: Hank McCoy And The Dead Ringers

Musicians
Vocals - Hank Mccoy
Guitar/Vocals - Matt Newman
Bass - Pete Cary, Randy Stockwell, Jeff Passifiume, Trent Arnold
Drums - James Castoe, Charles Lenprere "Prairie" Prince Jr., Jeff Peters
Backing Vocals - Kristi Leigh Jendry, Ricky Barnes, Artie Kelgar, Andy Milton, Chris Allwein, Dan Spurgeon
Additional Guitar/Strings - Brad Westall, M. D. Der Bing, Dave Schramm, Pete Remenyi, Edward Townsend Jr., Sandy Jones
Piano - Jim Maneri, Bob Hite

Releases
1992 - self-titled album (OKra Records)
1992 - Still Feeling Blue / Lately My Luck Has Been Changing album (OKra Records)
1994 - Mohawk Street album (OKra Records)