Photo: Tongass National Forest (U.S. Forest Service) (public domain)

Ray Troll and the Ratfish Wranglers

Ketchikan, Alaska band led by visual artist Ray Troll, playing fish- and nature-themed folk-rock they call "sub-aquatic neo-folk."

Type

Band / group

Active

mid-1980s–present

Genre

Folk rock, Sub-aquatic neo-folk

Based

Ketchikan, Alaska

Biography

Ray Troll and the Ratfish Wranglers are a band based in Ketchikan, Alaska, led by Ray Troll, who is also a widely known Alaska visual artist. The group traces its start to the mid-1980s, when Troll was a substitute art teacher at Ketchikan High School and connected with local musicians, including members of a band called The Squawking Fish. The Ratfish Wranglers have played festivals, saloons, and dance dates across Alaska and the Pacific Northwest ever since.

The band's music is fish- and geology-themed folk-rock, self-described as "sub-aquatic neo-folk," with songs touching on salmon, ratfish, trilobites, and plate tectonics that mirror the natural-science subjects of Troll's artwork. Longtime members include Russell Wodehouse, with Bob Banghart among the collaborators on studio recordings. Troll and his wife own the Soho Coho gallery in Ketchikan, where his fish-centric visual art is sold.

Ray Troll and the Ratfish Wranglers have appeared at Salmonfest (formerly Salmonstock) in Ninilchik, Alaska, across multiple years, including 2017, 2018, and 2019, and have also performed at the Fisher Poets Gathering in Astoria, Oregon.