The Ozone Ramblers

Late 1981 brought drastic changes for The Ozone Ramblers. We had been on the road now since 1979, almost non stop, and so much being away from our families and homes started to take it's toll. First Ned quit while we were still in Mexico, and then Mike Boyer and Lonzo decided to leave too right after we returned from our second tour of Mexico. This left me, Dennis and Fred with our record doing well in Mexico and contracts for tours of Canada, Mexico and around the Midwest on the table. So we put the word out all we could around our area and advertised in several major newspapers around the country and the three of us began to reassemble The Ozone Ramblers one more time. We auditioned lots of musicians from our area and received many tapes and records in the mail from musicians around the country and from Canada. Within 6 weeks we had reformed the group and were back on the road, with Chino running sound and Tom Sanford working crew.

Johnny Drake found Robby "The Indiana Kid" Barry for us by running an ad at the Musicians Union in Nashville. Robby called me on the phone and actually auditioned by playing the Banjo for me long distance over the phone and was immediately hired. Bill Quinn was playing with an Illinois band we knew and was brought in on Steel Guitar, Dobro, and Lap Steel. In the process of reforming and having a chance to play with Robbie and Bill, Lonzo decided to come back to the Ozone and we were again ready to go back on the road.

We toured Canada and the midwest in 1982 until time to return to Mexico for our third tour, this time arranged and coordinated by our new manager, Manuel Hernandez and RCA Records. To return to Mexico we again needed to bring along a Female vocalist to feature and Sally Weisenburg had to return to her own band with her long time soul mate and guitar player, Don Berbaum, and gigs they had booked so she could no longer tour with us. It was then that Sally introduced us to Suzy Bogguss from Kiwani, Illinois. Lucky for us Suzy was able to rearrange her schedule and we were ready to return to Mexico. This is The Ozone Ramblers in March of 1982 shown in the photo above in front of RCA Mexico in Mexico City with Suzy and standing from left to right:

Bill Quinn - Robby Barry - Fred Scherer - Suzy Bogguss - Bronson - Dennis Baxter - Lonzo Stephenson

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