Sixties Surfin' on the High Desert
by Bryce Martin

A Ridgecrest Calif., band from the early 1960s helped pioneer a genre -- "surf music" -- on the desert, no less.
The Ramblers was the name of a rock band in Ridgecrest, the first prominent rock band in the area, if not the first one altogether.
A later incarnation of the band was The Hustlers.
The Hustlers' drummer had a day job, as all the members did. Gary Olinger chucked 100-pound bags, loading soda ash into boxcars and onto flatbeds for Stauffer Chemical Co. at Westend in Searles Valley.
It was 1965. The Hustlers played weekends at the lively and popular Pat and Charlie's in Ridgecrest. The band had previously performed at The Desert Playhouse on Balsam St. A handmade sign posted around town featured drawings of dice and playing cards to help brand the Hustlers image.
Besides Olinger, a 1958 Trona High School grad, David Wilkie (guitar) from Ridgecrest , Jim Shouse (bass guitar), and Mickey Meyers (lead guitar, vocals) formed the group. Meyers was the lead singer and guitarist. Tall, slender and with blonde, curly hair, he was the epitome of the California surfer. Olinger and Wilkie were the two civilians.
Meyers was the one common denominator for the Ramblers/Hustlers.
Olinger said Meyers was near deaf in one ear, and he drummed loud because of that, positioning his drums to the side of Meyers' good ear so he could catch the beat.
Prior to Pat and Charlies's, when the Meyers-fronted band was known as The Ramblers, they rocked at the Acey-Deucey Club at China Lake and in Ridgecrest, traveling as far as Lancaster. In addition to Meyers, the cast included John Schoellman, rhythm guitar, Curley Curry, drums, John Vanderbeck, tenor sax. All
but Vanderbeck, a civil service employee, wore Navy whites.
In 1963, The Ramblers had a single record released on Sidewinder Records, "Ticonderoga" b/w"Mozart Stomp" (Sidewinder 101), both instrumentals.
Vanderbeck, who lives now in Seattle, Wash., said he thinks Meyers named his composition after the aircraft carrier, the USS Ticonderoga.
Both songs have been reissued in recent years in a compilation package. The two instrumentals and some other songs were recorded in the Downey Records facility in Downey, Calif.
Downey Records was a small independent. It utilized a plain blue label with silver letters. On this label, the Chanteys released the anthem of all surf rock instumentals in 1963: "Pipeline." That song was recorded in a garage for a total cost of under a hundred dollars.
The Ramblers are known now as a "surf" group, a connotation Vanderbeck said he nor his bandmates even thought of at the time.
Although the two bands were just a couple of years apart, Olinger said he was not acquainted with the members of The Ramblers, other than Meyers.
"We started out at The Playhouse as The Hustlers," Olinger said. "Two guitars, bass and drums. Just like The Beatles."
Pat and Charlie's was started by Pat Burke and Charlie Brown. The building had been a meat market operated by Brown. Burke was a milkman who later went to work at
the meat market and married Brown's daughter. Brown bought the building next to the meat market and combined it into one large building.
"Pat came by one day and said he'd like to have us at Pat and Charlie's," said Olinger. "It had been a go-go joint."
The Hustlers stayed on when Pat and Charlie's was sold and it became J.D.'s.
Olinger said The Hustlers tried spreading out some. Efforts to branch out were not shared by all the band members, which led to the group's demise, according to
Olinger.
"We wanted to travel. But when Shouse left we had to get another guitar player. Wilkie went to playing bass, but the new guitar player had a great job at the base and didn't want to travel. That was it for us."
Olinger lives in the state of Washington. After leaving Ridgecrest he worked with Bay Area bands in San Francisco for several years. Wilkie is in the construction business in San Diego, it is unknown by Olinger where Shouse is, and Meyers has an executive postion with IBM Corp. in Southern California.
Lew Talley and the Whackers, a country music group, was another notable house band at the club. Once the club changed ownership to J.D.'s, it wasn't long after that The Hustlers departed. Country music would become the main musical bill of fare.


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