The Okee Dokee Brothers Saddle Up: A Western Adventure Album Review and Giveaway

We received this product free to facilitate this review. Affiliate links may be in this post. Thank you for supporting this blog.

The Okee Dokee Brothers, Justin Lansing and Joe Mailander, are wonderful outdoors men and Americana folk musicians. The duo are at it again with a new album and adventure. This new album is called Saddle Up: A Western Adventure and it is their third Adventure Album. This album, just like their first (Can You Canoe?: A Mississippi River Adventure) and their second (Through The Woods: An Appalachian Adventure) albums, has a DVD along with the CD that shares footage of their journey in the part of the USA they are trekking in and a field journal, liner notes from journals they kept.

In this album The Okee Dokee Brothers spent a month horseback riding, camping, exploring, filming, and making music (This whole CD and DVD!) on location along the Continental Divide. They met some neat people along the way that shared their stories and music with them while they took a small breather from exploring the outdoors and creating their own songs. This album is a wonderful compilation of 15 original tracks from The Okee Dokee Brothers with songs that feature some guest artists. This album features an array of instruments such as: banjo, guitar (electric, acoustic, & baritone), drums, wheelbarrow, washboard, whistling, coconuts, cardboard box, bottles, tin can, udu, rusted steel drum, trombone, electric bass, jawharp, hoots, hollers, autoharp, percussion, dobro, steel guitar, accordion, Navajo vocals and chants, harmonica, fiddle, upright bass, piano, Wurlitzer, organ, Nord keyboard, pedal steel, and vibes.

The Okee Dokee Brothers make riding horses look good :)

See the Trailer for the Saddle Up DVD here...



Track Listing on the CD:

1. Saddle Up: The title track to this CD, this song has a lot of country heart.
2. Don't Fence Me In: Upbeat song about riding in the wide open country.
3. Cow Cow Yippee: This is a funny song about being a cowboy with the cows.
4. The Great Divide: A nice song about the the Continental Divide.
5. Jackalope (with Jim Campilongo): A very silly song about a creature that might, or might not be imaginary. This song has a ballad feel to it.
6. One Horsepower: Song about trading your caddy and truck for driving cattle on a horse.
7. The Legend of Tall Talkin' Sam (with Rosie Newton): Song about a girl named Sam that likes to tell tall tails.
8. Hard Road To Travel: A very truthful song about life and that sometimes you just have to buck-up. I love the instraments in this one.
9. Shootin' Star (with Cindy Cashdollar): A song about Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill, & Calamity Jane and how even the sharp shooters put down their guns and bullets for a good song and strumming the guitar.
10. Sister Moon and Brother Sun (with The Benally Family): A beautiful song with American Indian chants and the story about how the woods were made, rivers were forged, mountains were formed, days were split by the nights. I love this song so much and it is one of my favorites on the CD.
11. Good Old Times: I love the fiddle in this one...a song about reminiscing about good times in the past.
12. Lead A Horse To Water (with John Sebastian): This song has some great harmonica. It is about the spirit of the horse.
13. Somos Amigos (con Carlos Medina): This is a great upbeat song that is great to dance to. It has some Spanish and is about being friends no matter how different you are. Has some great accordion and Mexican sounding beats.
14. The Grass Is Always Greener: I love this song to dance to as well. It is upbeat and has some great fiddle and other instruments. This is a song about wishin' about stuff, but realizing that you still have it good right where you are.
15. Last Lullaby: A soft lullaby lulling a little buckaroo to sleep with a great thought to go with it. This is a great sleepy song for getting your little cowpoke to bed.

With their beards, flannel shirts, overalls and instruments The Okee Dokee Brothers are sure fun to watch perform on stage as well. You can see when their next show is here.

Like all the Adventure Albums before, this one does not disappoint! It is great to take with you to listen to on a family road trip, around a campfire or even while hiking. It is a wonderful reminder to get outside to experience and explore nature with your family and friends. Saddle Up is wonderful music for kids that resonates with adults as well. The songs on this album are serious, silly and everything in between. Some will make you want to dance and others are lullabies that will help lull you to sleep. The messages in all the songs are good and wholesome and The Okee Dokee Brothers feel like Kindred Spirits to me. If they keep making these Adventure Albums I would be thrilled! I can't wait for the next adventure album in this series to see where they will be going next, if there is one. Saddle Up is a must have for any family music collection!

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I run giveaways with Rafflecopter on my blog. Please click on this post link if you do not see the script for it below. Also, if there is anything that is wrong with it let me know by emailing me: finamoon AT gmail DOT com I will try my best at fixing it. Thanks for being awesome readers!

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DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: Thanks to Beth Blenz-Cluc​as of Sugar Mountain PR for sending me a free The Okee Dokee Brothers - Saddle Up: A Western Adventure Album CD/DVD to facilitate this review. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this review. Affiliate links may be in this post. Thank you for supporting this blog.

The Okee Dokee Brothers Through The Woods An Appalachian Adventure Album Review

We received this product free to facilitate this review. Affiliate links may be in this post. Thank you for supporting this blog.

The Okee Dokee Brothers, Justin Lansing and Joe Mailander, are wonderful outdoors men and Americana folk musicians. The duo are at it again with a new album and adventure. This new album is called Through The Woods, An Appalachian Adventure and it is their second Adventure Album. This album, just like the last one, has a DVD along with the CD and field journal that shares footage of their journey in the part of the USA they are trekking in.

In this album The Okee Dokee Brothers spent a month hiking, camping, backpacking, filming, and making music (This whole CD and DVD!) on location through the Appalachian Trail. They met some neat people along the way that shared their stories and music with them while they took a small breather from exploring the outdoors and creating their own songs. This album is a wonderful compilation of 15 original tracks from The Okee Dokee Brothers with songs that feature guest artists as well as emulating the traditional old-time Appalachian music with their sounds and styles. This album features an array of instruments such as fiddlesticks, pots, pans, auto-harp, bones, clogs, mouth bow, gut-string banjo, washboard, jaw harp, mountain dulcimer, fiddle, hambone, bass harmonica and whistling.

My favorite part of the DVD: The Okee Dokee Brothers with wild ponies :)

See the Trailer for the Through The Woods DVD here...



The Okee Dokee Brother's last album, Can You Canoe?, won a GRAMMY for best children's music album in the 55th GRAMMY Awards! It was well deserved because it is a fantastic album. I also believe Through The Woods is really good and deserves the highest of accolades.

Track Listing on the CD:

1. Through The Woods: The title track to this CD, a great song about going on an adventure with friends through the woods.
2. Big Rock Candy Mountain (with Hubby Jenkins-Carolina Chocolate Drops on bones and mandolin): A fun upbeat banjo/mandolin pickin' song about a made-up place called Candy Mountain.
3. Jamboree: A great dancing song about a jamboree. I love the lyrics to this one...so perfect!
4. Evergreen: I love this song about trees. It has sweet lyrical poetry and sings the beauty of the forest.
5. Walking With Spring (with Cathy Fink, on mountain dulcimer): This song is a perfect song to go hiking with and reminds us to slow down and enjoy the scenery and beauty around us.
6. Out of Tune: This is a fun song about how it is sometimes better to live life a little bit out of tune.
7. Black Bear Mama (with David Holt-Doc Watson/O Brother, Where Art Thou? on gut-string banjo and mouth bow): Great song about a Black Bear Mama and has a fun fast part in the middle.
8. Hillbilly Willy: One of my favorites on this CD about a hillbilly and his silly wife. Fun and upbeat too.
9. Riddle & Rhyme: This is a great rhyming song to slap your knee or clap to.
10. Tiny Little Life: Upbeat fiddle song about a life of simplicity.
11. Ruby Jane: A sweet love song about a farm girl sweetheart.
12. Fiddlestick Joe (with Marcy Marxer on cello banjo): A fun fiddling upbeat dancing song.
13. Lighten Your Load: This song reminds us that it is better to pack light.
14. Echo: A yodeling love song.
15. Baby Mine (with Rosie Newton on fiddle and vocals): This is a sweet lullaby, wonderful to put kids to bed to and a gorgeous end to the CD.

With their beards, flannel shirts, overalls and instruments The Okee Dokee Brothers are sure fun to watch perform on stage as well. You can see when their next show is here. They played at the Mountain Park Recreation Center on May 4th at 7pm in Lake Oswego, Oregon. I was pretty bummed when I couldn't make that performance with my family of 6 this year. Hopefully they'll make it around here again soon.

This album is great to take with you to listen to on a family road trip, around a campfire or even while hiking. It is a wonderful reminder to get outside to experience and explore nature with your family and friends. Through The Woods is wonderful kids music that resonates with adults as well. I love The Okee Dokee Brother's adventure albums because they bring back so many good memories of the great outdoors when I was a child and remembering helps me recreate wonderful memories with my own kids. The messages in all the songs are good and wholesome and The Okee Dokee Brothers feel like Kindred Spirits to me. I can't wait for the next adventure album in this series!

FOLLOW THEM
You can friend them on Facebook or like their page. You can also follow them on Twitter.

BUY IT
Go HERE and you can buy The Okee Dokee Brothers merchandise.



DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: Thanks to Beth Blenz-Cluc​as of Sugar Mountain PR for sending me a free The Okee Dokee Brothers - Through The Woods An Appalachian Adventure Album CD/DVD to listen to and review. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this review.

The Okee Dokee Brothers Can You Canoe? A Mississippi River Adventure Album Review and Giveaway

Can You Canoe? A Mississippi River Adventure Album by The Okee Dokee Brothers is a great album for the summertime or really anytime you want to get into the spirit of camping, canoeing, and the great outdoors. The songs in this CD and DVD are wonderfully lyrical with fun play on words. In this their first CD/DVD in The Okee Dokee Brothers' Adventure Album Series Justin Lansing on Banjo and Joe Mailander on the guitar paddle down the Mississippi in a canoe singing and camping along the way. I love their bluegrass, country, folk feel to their songs. This album is my favorite of theirs so far and I can't wait to listen to their next CD/DVD in the Adventure Album Series. Includes a CD, DVD and field journal.

Here is the Trailer to the DVD:




The DVD takes you up close and personal to see Justin Lansing and Joe Mailander and some of the other crew having boat barge loads of fun doing what the two do best...adventuring outdoors. The Okee Dokee Brothers are superb lyricists. In just 30 days while camping, canoeing, filming and writing they created this album containing 15 outstanding songs. The music videos and footage taken for the DVD are of their grand trip. My favorite parts are where they try to make a sail for their canoes and where they talk with Kenny Salwey, the self proclaimed "Last River Rat" who shares his wisdom with them.

Track Listing on the CD:
01. Can You Canoe?: A great song about canoeing and how the simplicity of it is grand.
02. Haul Away Joe: Based on a traditional song this version is about being a raftman.
03. Mr. & Mrs. Sippy: Such great play on words and personification in this one about the Mississippi River :)
04. Bullfrog Opera: Great song about comparing New York to camping outdoors in the South.
05. Rosita: A little bit of a Latin beat to this one about a mosquito.
06. Campin' Tent: Camp living in style.
07. Memphis Town: About a train going to take him to Memphis Town and all around.
08. Along for the Ride: About having a friend or companion to be there by your side.
09. Muddy River: Fun song about the countdown of going fishing on a muddy river.
10. Boatman's Dance: Upbeat song about the boatman's dance.
11. King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O: Based on a traditional song that I remember singing at camp. I love this nice song that brings back memories.
12. Thousand Star Hotel: A great song about sleeping under the stars. You can see the making of this song on the DVD.
13. Brother: Upbeat song about being brothers.
14. Small and Simple: A slow song, singing me to sleep.
15. Roll On River: “The Mississippi river splits America in half, so to speak. And yet, it joins it together.” – Kenny Salwey – The Last River Rat

The Okee Dokee Brothers are fun to watch perform as well! With their beards, flannel shirts, overalls and instruments they're sure to be fun listening to around a campfire or even in a canoe :)

BUY IT
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WIN IT
Prize: Win a copy of  Can You Canoe? A Mississippi River Adventure Album by The Okee Dokee Brothers CD and DVD set

I am trying out Rafflecopter on my blog. Please click on this post link if you do not see the script for it below. Also, if there is anything that is wrong with it let me know by emailing me: finamoon AT gmail DOT com I will try my best at fixing it. Thanks for being awesome readers!

DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: Thanks to Beth Blenz-Cluc​as of Sugar Mountain PR for sending me a free The Okee Dokee Brothers - Can You Canoe? A Mississippi River Adventure Album CD/DVD to listen to and review. This giveaway is also provided free from Beth Blenz-Cluc​as of Sugar Mountain PR. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this review.

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Road Trip

We are starting off on an adventure tomorrow. My family needs a break from all the stress and stuff has been happening lately. So, we are taking a road trip and bringing our camper pop-up tent trailer hitched to the back of our family van. Oh, and yes, the dog, Prince, is coming with :) Our plan is to go across country from Oregon to Ohio and then on to Massachusetts for a bit...then back again. All of this travel will be taking place for 22 days...so, expect me to be offline for most of that. I will be popping my head in a bit to check email and possibly blog a little...but don't expect much until I am back. We have scheduled this tour of sorts to see friends and family that otherwise couldn't come to my daughter's memorial service and to see all the sights along the way. It will also be a grand homeschooling/learning experience for my kids.