Pingrie Park Rangers
Since high school, I’ve been hanging out with musicians and have had many friends with bands. I’ve always been band-adjacent, third-wheeling along and occasionally contributing lyrics or background vocals that could be buried in the mix. I’ve had more fictional bands than actual bands, that is until I met Nate Pingrie.
Nate has a love for music like I do, and we first bonded over jams during camping trips in Pingrie Park. He’d bring a guitar and harmonica, and he’s introduced me to a wide range of music from Jerry Garcia songs I didn’t know to killer Linda Rondstadt tunes, as well as plenty of blues. He’s a wealth of musicial knowledge, especially when it comes to mining the back catalogs of Neil Young and Bob Dylan.
Nate ended up being roommates with my best bud Tom for a while, and Tom just happens to be a musical mastermind himself. It seems the guy can play anything from drums to bass to mandolin to guitar, and he’s got incredible range. I’ve heard Tom play everything from alternative rock to doom metal to latin jazz, and he sounds right at home doing any and all of it. He’s the perfect addition to Nate in Pingrie Park Rangers because he can handle Nate’s genre-jumping while making it all sound like the same band.
The other thing that makes the Pingrie Park Rangers’ sound is this little guitar pedal:
Nate plays his Telecaster through this thing, and the guitar sound helps give the band its sound, somewhere between Crazy Horse covering The Flying Burrito Brothers and MJ Lenderman live.
While Nate and Tom have been playing together as PPR for years, they’ve let me tag along a few times to sing background vocals and, on the rarest of occasions, pick a bass during a Bad Religion cover. Recently, the three of us convened together for the first time in a long time, and I tried my best to document the music of the evening.
Because this is Chris’s Picks, I also compiled a playlist of the PPR play through that evening, and that follows. As always, cut + paste + enjoy.
Pingrie Park Rangers 3.22.2025
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - “Swingin’”
Bob Dylan - “Oh, Sister”
Bob Dylan - “The Man In Me”
Uncle Tupelo - “No Depression”
The Band - “Atlantic City”
The Flying Burrito Brothers - “Dark End of the Street”
The Band - “Long Black Veil”
Bill Monroe - “In The Pines”
Bob Dylan - “One Too Many Mornings”
Procol Harum - “A Whiter Shade of Pale”
Magnolia Electric Company - “Leave The City”
Jim Ford - “Big Mouth USA”
The Pogues - “Boys from the County Hell”
The Band - “Ain’t No More Cane”
Neil Young - “Revolution Blues”
Neil Young - “Cinnamon Girl”
George Harrison - “Beware Of Darkness”
Linda Rondstadt - “Silver Threads and Golden Needles”
Eagles - “Doolin Dalton / Desperado Reprise”
Uncle Tupelo - “Moonshiner”
Wilco - “Monday”
Wednesday - “Women Without Whiskey”
Neil Young & Crazy Horse - “Cortez the Killer”
Sturgill Simpson - “Paradise”
Tom Petty - “Runnin’ Down a Dream”
Band of Horses - “Ode to LRC”
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6pPELOafwjv9o4uyljhpCB?si=8LIYFTmRQt6nIuNz9-pixw&pi=WvJeFMMDRs6WJ
