River Ratz Band - River Ratz (2019)

River Ratz is a four-piece Acoustic Americana Band from Charlotte, North Carolina. They have strong bluegrass roots, but they perform a wide variety of musical styles including bluegrass, country, rock, Cajun, Irish, blues and folk. They play upbeat original songs and popular covers. The word that best describes the band is “Fun.” Their musical style has been described as “Bill Monroe meets Old Crow Medicine Show with a dab of Creedence Clearwater Revival.”

Steve and Margie Ratzlaff formed the band in 2014 with their son Matthew on upright bass. Hence the name River Ratz. Scott Lankford joined the band soon thereafter. Suman Lankford, Scott’s wife, joined in 2016 when Matthew left to become a United States Marine. The current lineup has played hundreds of shows together and has a rapidly growing fan base as evidenced by their large social media following. The two couples have more than 60 years of marriage between them. They are accomplished multi-instrumentalists and frequently swap instruments on stage. They feature guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle and upright bass. But you never know what you might hear at a River Ratz show as harmonicas, flutes, washboards, kazoos and even cow bells often appear. Sometimes the band runs out of hands and asks audience members to chip in with various and sundry percussion instruments such as the tambourine and the ever popular vibra-slap. The band likes to call this maneuver “Fun Grass.” But what they really love to do is sing 2, 3 and 4 part harmonies, usually with Steve’s seasoned voice on lead.

The River Ratz mission is to entertain audiences of all ages with tuneful acoustic music, strongly rooted in bluegrass and Appalachian traditions. And their deep love of music and dedication to the craft shines through in every show.