In 1993, with their twenty-fifth anniversary looming, the
group at last set about recording an album. Over a couple
of weekends at Wellington's Plan 9 studios, they committed
to tape a mixture of songs from the original repertoire,
electrified Chicago-style blues and Lake originals. The
by now stable line-up of Bill, Geoff, Rick, Andrew and Nick
was augmented for several tracks by drummers Richard Caigou
and Anthony Donaldson. Windy City Strugglers
was released in 1994 and was deemed Best Folk Album
at the 1995 New Zealand Music Awards.
For the next few years, Richard Caigou was a regular performer
with the group on drums, as well as being a stand-out tuner
of PA's at a variety of venues. A second award-winning album
On Top of the World was recorded in
1997, combining country blues, jug band and Chicago-style
numbers from the Strugglers traditional repertoire with
songs by Bill Lake and Arthur Baysting. A trunpet driven
calypso from Trinidad and the use of viola on the much requested
Can't Get Back showed a growing interest in experimenting
with other instruments and styles.
In 1999 Steve Cournane took over drumming duties. Sessions
late 2000 for a new album made up completely of original
material (which had by March 2001 acquired the name Snow
on the Desert Road, after one of Rick Bryant's
contributions) ran on over the next year. To celebrate the
new departure from source material into the unknown, a cover
painting was commissioned from expatriate artist and musician
Chris Grosz in Melbourne. The new album was finally launched
in November 2001.
