The Sons of the Never Wrong is a

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-based

singer/songwriter A singer-songwriter is a musician who writes, composes, and performs their own musical material, including lyrics and melodies. In the United States, the category is built on the folk-acoustic tradition, although this role has transmuted t ...

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

trio founded in 1992. Current band members are Bruce Roper, Deborah Maris Lader (since 1998), and Sue Demel.

History

After a chance meeting at a

Guitar Center Guitar Center is an American Music store, musical instrument retailer chain. It is the largest company of its kind in the United States, with 294 locations. Its headquarters is in Westlake Village, California. Guitar Center oversees various sub ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

, Roper invited Nancy Walker to come hear him sing at a local Monday night sing-around at a nightclub, Beat Kitchen. Roper had recently moved to Chicago from

Normal, Illinois Normal is a town in McLean County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town's population was 52,736. Normal is the smaller of two principal municipalities of the Bloomington–Normal metropolitan area, and Illinois' seventh most ...

, where he had run a retail guitar store. At that time, Walker was singing with a friend, Sue Demel, whom she had met through an ad for band members in the '' Chicago Reader''. After the sing-around, Walker introduced Demel to Roper, and the three decided to try singing together. After a few rehearsals, the three decided to continue as a trio. The band's name is

wordplay Word play or wordplay (also: play-on-words) is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of word play include puns, phon ...

reminiscent of '' The Guns of Navarone'' a movie (based on a novel of the same name) and in the tradition of "Sons of" named bands (a.k.a. Roy Rogers' Sons of the Pioneers). After playing local coffee shops for several months, a chance encounter with Harry Waller led them to play the ''

WFMT WFMT is an FM radio station in Chicago, Illinois, featuring a format of fine arts, classical music programming, and shows exploring such genres as folk. The station is managed by Window to the World Communications, Inc., owner of WTTW, Chicago ...

Midnight Special'' New Years radio show hosted by Rich Warren. Warren was skeptical about putting the band on the air, as he had never heard of them, but Waller convinced Warren. At the performance that night was Andrew Calhoun of

Waterbug Records Waterbug Records is a small independent record label based in Glen Ellyn, Illinois specializing in singer-songwriters and traditional folk musicians who do original research. The label was founded as an artist cooperative label in 1992 by singer ...

, who immediately offered Sons a recording contract with his label. Rich Warren would go on to having the Sons play countless times live on ''Midnight Special'' and has called the trio "Chicago's favorite folk group". He would later honor Sons by proclaiming that Sons were the only performers whose CD ''(King Fisher King)'' he had played every track from on his radio show. Nancy Walker left the group in 1998 to pursue a solo career, so Demel and Roper chose Deborah Lader to replace Walker on the strength of her multi-instrumental abilities, her harmony singing and her writing craft. The band has performed live and recorded continuously since its beginnings.

Members

*Bruce Roper — vocals,

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

, primary songwriter *Sue Demel — vocals, guitar, djembe,

dulcimer The word dulcimer refers to two families of musical string instruments. Hammered dulcimers The word ''dulcimer'' originally referred to a trapezoidal zither similar to a psaltery whose many strings are struck by handheld "hammers". Variants of ...

*Deborah Lader — vocals, banjo, guitar, mandolin,

mandocello The mandocello ( it, mandoloncello, Liuto cantabile, liuto moderno) is a plucked string instrument of the mandolin family. It is larger than the mandolin, and is the baritone instrument of the mandolin family. Its eight strings are in four paire ...

Former members

*Nancy Walker — vocals,

Discography

* ''Three Good Reasons'' (1995,

) * ''Consequence of Speech'' (1997, Waterbug Records) * ''One If By Hand'' (2000, Gadfly Records) * ''4 Ever On'' (2002, Gadfly Records) * ''Nuthatch Suite'' (2005, Gadfly Records) * "

I'll Fly Away "I'll Fly Away" is a hymn written in 1929 by Albert E. Brumley and published in 1932 by the Hartford Music company in a collection titled ''Wonderful Message''.Richard Matteson, Jr.''The Bluegrass Picker's Tune Book'' Mel Bay Publications, 2006 ...

", on ''

Old Town School of Folk Music The Old Town School of Folk Music is a Chicago teaching and performing institution that launched the careers of many notable folk music artists. Founded by Folk musicians Frank Hamilton and Win Stracke, and Dawn Greening, the School opened in th ...

Songbook, Vol. 4'' compilation (2007,

Bloodshot Records Bloodshot Records is an independent record label based in Chicago, Illinois, which specializes in alternative country. History Bloodshot Records was founded in 1994 by Nan Warshaw, Rob Miller, and Eric Babcock, who knew each other from jobs i ...

) * ''On a Good Day...I Am'' (2009, Waterbug Records) * ''Church of the Never Wrong'' (2012, Waterbug Records) * ''King Fisher King'' (2012, Waterbug Records) * ''We Three Sons'', A Christmas CD (2015, Sons Records) * ''Song of Sons'' (2017, Sons Records) * ''Undertaker's Notebook'' (2021, Sons Records)

Additional recordings by members

* ''Layers of Rust and Time'' (2004) — solo release by Walker * ''Lullabyloops'' (2010, Sons Records) — atmospheric loop based recordings by Roper * ''Accidental English'' (2011, Waterbug Records) — solo release by Roper * ''Still Life With Drumming'' (2015, Sons Records) — dance play by Roper and Demel

Notes

External links

Official websiteSons of the Never Wrong
on

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American folk musical groups Folk musicians from Chicago Musical groups from Chicago Musical groups established in 1992 Waterbug Records artists {{US-folk-band-stub