Last of The Ramones to perform Thursday at Rachael’s Cafe

The drummer of the Ramones sets his drum sticks aside to put on his cowboy hat.

Tommy Ramone, the last surviving founding member of legendary punk band the Ramones, will be performing 7 p.m. today at Rachael’s Cafe.

Rather than the head-bopping pop punk music revolutionized by the Ramones, Ramone will be performing bluegrass music with his partner, Claudia Tienan, in their band Uncle Monk.

After having Uncle Monk play at her family farm house in Nebraska, Bloomington resident Melissa McReynolds invited the bluegrass duo to perform in Bloomington.

McReynolds said she loves keeping live music alive and the out-of-town Uncle Monk will bring Bloomington great talent.   

Initially, Ramone met Tienan and started a three-piece jam band complete with a bass, an electric guitar and drums. Eventually, the pair changed their instrument repertoire.

With both musicians on vocals, Ramone plays mandolin, banjo, dobro and guitar, while Tienan plays guitar and bass.

“Ya know, I got a banjo, unplugged and turned acoustic,” Ramone said.

Ramone grew up in Forest Hills, Queens, N.Y., where he and his brother would take old records of country music artists such as The Carter Family band and their favorite, Hank Williams, to the library to make tape copies.  

Although Ramone has been involved in an old country music genre, there was a time when the artist was more radical.  

On his first day at Forest Hills High School, Ramone met John Cummings, who later became Johnny Ramone, the guitarist of the Ramones. Together they started a band called Tangerine Puppets, where Ramone played lead guitar.

While working as a teen intern at the legendary Record Plant Studios, which has helped make names such as Frank Zappa, Jimi Hendrix and The Velvet Underground famous, he reunited with his pal Johnny. They then started a band that would help invent the pop punk music genre.

Ramone said although Uncle Monk is influenced by Hank Williams and Grammy-winning folk artist Gillian Welch, he can’t help being affected by everything in music, considering he grew up during the brink of rock ’n’ roll.  

“I am a music freak, and there’s great stuff on the radio,” Ramone said.

In a 2006 review, the New York Times wrote, “Tommy Ramone plays a mean mandolin in this new acoustic duo, singing tautly written songs much like Ramones songs, but with tenderness about the comforts and subtle politics of home life.”

Ramone said their songs are based mostly on their lives while also beholding emotional and humorous elements.

Uncle Monk will be featuring a song about how to deal with your boss at work called, “Mr. Indie Cop,” as well as a song about getting ready for the future, called “Around the Bend.”

Tienan is musically darker while Ramone has a lighter approach, Ramone said.
He said that he and Tienan complement each other in a “yin and yang sort of way.”