Mildred - Whippersnapper (1991)

01. Rise Above
02. Knock On A Nail
03. Color Me
04. The Big Moment
05. Ever Falling Forward
06. Hearts and Flowers
07. Bring In The Spies
08. Dirt and Stone
09. Atlas
10. The Umbrella Song
11. Adam and Eve


Mildred was a Dallas band who played in Deep Ellum during the early 1990's. This five member band was fronted by violin player, and lead singer, Reggie Rueffer. Reggie's brother Chad played guitars, and also sang. The rest of the band included David Prez (bass guitar), Jim Cocke (piano, organ, keyboards, and vocals), and Davis Bickston (drums and percussion).

This was one of my favorite bands. In fact, when I started dating my wife, back in 1991, I came to realize that she too loved Mildred. In fact, we liked them so much, we hired them to play at our wedding after party, at Club Dada (in Deep Ellum). One of these days I need to get all the video I took of Mildred at our wedding, and turn it into some kind of music video.

First of all, you don't see a lot of rock bands fronted by a zany, accomplished singing violinist. They had some very catchy songs, all original. Guitarist Chad Rueffer wrote and sang my favorite song on the album, Color Me, which starts out with the cool staccato violin part, running through an echo effect. A few of their songs remind me a little of XTC. The violin work remind me of Jerry Goodman of the Chicago band The Flock.

Unfortunately, Mildred didn't last too long. Luckily, they got a chance to go into studio and recorded a great CD, with a lot of our favorite songs. Since it is no longer available, I thought I would share it with music lovers like you. I hope you enjoy Whippersnapper as much as I do.

Encoded at 320K from CD. Includes all CD artwork, including the lyrics to all the songs.

Favorite songs: Color Me and The Umbrella Song

Download: Mildred - Whippersnapper