The inclusion of “We Are Family” on the setlist is fitting, if a bit on the nose.
The 1979 Sister Sledge smash comes early in “Jukebox Jams,” one of the two standing shows put on by Mama’s Wranglers, the wholesome Henderson-based family band that’s celebrating its 25th year.
Led by Toni Jackson, aka Mama, the group that relocated to the valley from Utah in 2007 has performed in all 50 states, as well as Canada and Europe. By 2014, Mama’s Wranglers were performing 350 shows a year on the road.
“As we started getting married and wanting to stay home with our spouses, we just decided to have people come to us instead,” says Grayden, 33, who fills out the band with sisters Tess, 35, and Skyler, 25.
The result feels like stepping back to a simpler time and into a sincere, heartfelt dinner show that’s tonally much further from the bright lights of the Strip than its Boulder Highway address.
The spirit of the chuckwagon
While touring, the Jacksons spent a lot of time in chuckwagon-style dinner theaters.
“We just fell in love with that ambiance,” Toni says. “The Western music, the chuckwagon food and all of that cowboy friendliness.”
When it came time to open their own establishment in 2015, Toni settled on Henderson, despite its distance from the tourist crowds.
“I didn’t wanna be on the Strip,” she says. “I didn’t wanna have my family in that type of environment.”
They bounced around those first few years, first on Basic Road, then on Water Street.
“We didn’t feel like we fit in there, because it was kinda hoity-toity,” Toni says of the latter. “And they were like, ‘We just wanna have wine sippin’ people here.’”
They purchased their current venue, a former Citibank branch at 546 S. Boulder Highway, and renovated it into the Western-themed Firelight Barn in 2019 — just in time to be sidelined by the pandemic.
All hands on deck
The Firelight Barn is the very definition of a family-run business.
Toni handles the daily operations and group sales. Skyler says she’s Toni’s “right-hand girl.” Grayden, the self-described “brains behind the operation,” works on website maintenance, sound and other equipment. Tess is the graphic artist, a talent she learned on the job.
Chelsea, the oldest sibling at 37, retired from performing after having a leg amputated when she was 17. She rejoined her family in the valley six years ago to tend bar at the Firelight Barn.
“It’s nice because it takes away the pressure of being on stage,” Chelsea says, “and I can just (hang out) with people.”
It’s all hands on deck on show nights, with family members seating guests, taking and fulfilling drink orders, serving dinners from Jessie Rae’s BBQ and handling anything else that arises.
Aside from a couple of volunteers, Skyler notes, “We do the whole kit and kaboodle.”
The same can be said of their two shows: Jukebox Jams, which covers some of the biggest pop hits from the 1950s through the ’80s, and the country-themed “Who’s the Star?” that pits the siblings against each other in a sort of competition.
Asked what instruments he plays, Grayden responds, “Play or play well?”
“I can play at least one song on each of the instruments up there on stage,” he says. “But I play well the guitar, the violin and the piano.”
Tess plays banjo, mandolin, fiddle, drums and piano. Toni taught piano for years in her home studio but plays bass in the show because none of the others took it up. When she was in the band, Chelsea played fiddle, banjo, mandolin and piano. From time to time, her family will call her up to play drums.
Skyler, who yodels and clogs in addition to playing harmonica, piano, drums and mandolin, was on stage before she was born. She officially joined the act when she was 2.
“I would just have somebody sitting off the stage,” Toni recalls. “They’d put her up on stage, she’d play a little teeny tiny fiddle, and she’d just bring down the house.”
Skyler didn’t actually start taking lessons until she was 3. “I didn’t know how to play,” she says of those first performances, “but I was frickin’ adorable.”
‘We fight, but we get over it’
Oasis. The Black Crowes. The Everly Brothers. The music world is littered with feuding family acts.
So how have Mama’s Wranglers made things work for a quarter century?
“We fight,” Tess explains, “but we get over it, and we talk through things.”
Two other siblings moved on to other careers in other states. The remaining foursome practices together a couple of hours each day, shares a 4:30-to-9 p.m. shift on show nights and meets for roughly four hours on Mondays.
“How it kinda works is, we all have a vote,” Grayden says of those meetings. “But Mama’s vote weighs more.”
Sundays are reserved for games and a family dinner.
“Right now, they’re my co-workers. Co-workers are not easy to get along with,” Grayden adds before a show. “But on Sunday, we’re back to family.”
There are no plans to break up the family business, even though Grayden, Tess and Skyler have backup plans and college degrees.
“All of us that work here, we wanna do this the rest of our lives,” Skyler says. “Or however long it goes.”
Contact Christopher Lawrence at [email protected] or 702-380-4567.