Cimarron 615 came to be after Young’s death, when Blue Elan Records chief Kirk Pasich organized a tribute concert and album and brought Sundrud, Webb and Lonow together in Los Angeles as part of a house band for several projects – and heard the potential for more. Guilbeau rounded out the line-up in 2023.
“After listening to us record, he saw something in it,” Lonow recalls. We weren’t just able sidemen; we actually were a band and we actually had a sound.” Sundrud adds that, “We recorded some of the bed tracks for the album, and at the end of that day Kirk asked us if we wanted to do a record because we gelled so well in the studio that day.” Cimarron 615 — taking its name from the 1976 Poco hit “Rose of Cimarron” and Nashville’s 615 area code — was born, and 2023’s Brand New Distance was the first taste of what the band could be.
“To me, personally, California country-rock is an actual genre. Rusty used to say it was rock musicians playing country instruments,” says Lonow. “And the (vocal) harmonies are always a big part of it. That’s the common thread with all of us — it gives you country music, rock music and vocal harmonies all in one package. That’s our DNA.”
It’s certainly an apt description of the 12 original tracks on CIMARRON 615, an album that finds the quartet fully forged as a band. “After doing that (first album) it’s a different palette now,” Lonow explains. “I think it rocks a little harder. I think the band is streamlined. We have more of an identity now.” Sundrud concurs that, “We’ve been working a lot, and I think it’s really solidified as a band with the four of us. It really is a good fit.”
“Time Keeps Slipping Away From Me,” a song Webb had around for awhile, gets CIMARRON 615 going with a blues-tinged roadhouse groove and a buoyant, handclap chorus which, despite the title’s sentiment, proves Cimarron 615 is most certainly in the right time now. “Twisted, Tied, and Tangled” is a similarly upbeat love song with a healthy dose of twang, while “Make It Right or Make It Wrong” and the loping “I Know Better” both sport Guilbeau’s gritty, guitar-fed energy that, in the lyrics to the former, “kick it into overdrive.” “Fallin’,” meanwhile, lives up to its own lyrics – “margarita moment/on a magnolia night.” Those are balanced by more restrained moments such as the vividly narrated “Night at the Rodeo,” the breezy, stock-taking “It’s a Good Life,” and the hymn-like “Go to Battle,” which takes the album out with an airy, Western plains ambience.
The Louisiana-flavored “Butte La Rose” is another song with a history; dating back to Guilbeau’s experiences on the bayou when he was young, it was one of the first recorded for CIMARRON 615, and finds the band joined by Aubry Richmond of Mustangs of the West on fiddle, with Webb on accordion to “just give it more of that authentic Cajun feel,” according to Sundrud. Moving along the southern border, “Free in America” brings a spicing of Tex-Mex, and the extended jam on the group-penned “I Know Better” shows what the players can do when they get a head of steam going. “We are a jamming band, sure,” Lonow notes.
“Everybody’s working on these (songs), just as a band,” Sundrud says in explaining Cimarron 615’s process. “The individual guy who wrote it ends up being the person to step in if there’s a decision to be made, but it’s amazing how that didn’t come up very often. It was a real band effort, and we were having a ball. I haven’t enjoyed recording this much for quite awhile. It was very relaxed. It was easy — and a lot of fun.”
As CIMARRON 615 rides out, the band’s four members are clear about two things. One is that this musical partnership is a going concern with more to come. “When Kirk offered us the record deal it was like, ‘Do what you want,’” Sundrud says. “That really excited all of us, and that’s exactly what we’re doing. There’s no target to shoot for, except cool music and fun.” And, secondly, the four can’t wait to get out and play these songs live.
