Freak Rangers

The Freak Rangers began with the duo, Timbo Sims and John McBroom who wanted to explore the folkie side of things. They started in 1995 playing various coffee houses and filling opening slots for other local and regional bands. The pair enjoyed seeking new challenges in the acoustic realm which inspired a few songs that occasionally make it to the stage today.

Several years later, John and Dave McDonald were in the beginning stages of creating a new recording studio, and they needed a guinea pig of sorts to test the equipment and systems. Timbo and John brought in Thomas Wilson on drums, Dirk Kuyk on bass and vocals, and Mike Mitchell on violin and vocals to record a full-length project composed of several originals by Timbo and John along with some fun covers thrown in for good measure. In over two decades this tester project rarely saw the light of day, but all agreed, the potential was there.

Flash forward those same two decades to three of the founding members of the 90’s Roanoke band, Red Weather; Timbo, John, and Bradley Carr looking for a way to hang out and play their music again. Red Weather toured a variety of venues from 1993 to 1999, releasing three albums before stepping off the road. Unfortunately, Thomas Wilson passed away almost ten years earlier, and Roy Duncan wasn’t playing out anymore, so they needed a new rhythm section.

Luckily, John had built a musical rapport playing with Jay Gladden and Matt Leonard in other projects years prior. In 2024, John asked if they would be interested in playing with the group to rehash some old Red Weather tunes and maybe write some new material as well. Everyone agreed and since then the collective has dusted off some of their favorites and added new flavor found through their experiences along the way. This new energy has the band excited to see what happens in the next chapter of the Freak Rangers, who has even started recording a new project which should be ready for the ears of the public by the early Summer of 2026.