Ramblin' Red - Wonderful Opening Act for VOCO

Ramblin’ Red, a foursome of very talented ladies from Portland, Maine, opened Friday, August 7th, for Moira Smiley and VOCO at One Longfellow Square. They performed a set of very classy and original tunes with enthusiasm and rich harmony. Their songs fell into the bluegrass-folk-indi genre, but they also included a little surprise cover of the U2 song, “With or Without You”.

Anna Maria Tocci, on vocals and guitar, looked utterly relaxed throughout their performance – she has a gorgeous God-given voice and was a real pleasure to listen to.

Sorcha Cribben, who looked something like the actress, Mary Stuart Masterson, played her banjo with spunk and charisma and sang passionately.

Therese Workman played bass well, but with a quiet demeanor. When she took the center stage with her own composition about childhood entitled, “Sunny Saturday”, her voice was quite beautiful. She was kind of like George Harrison, the quiet Beatle. I wanted to hear more from her.

Patia Maule was pixie-like, smiling as she played the violin and sang. She emanated a lot of warmth and skill as she played. She was also prompted by her band mates to show off to the audience a very snazzy violin holder that she built herself out of wood.

Ramblin’ Red was thoroughly enjoyable and their set seemed to be over way too soon. When Moira Smiley came out with VOCO, she thanked them for making the room all fuzzy for them. They were really great and I’d love to hear them again as headliners.