The Best God Damn Band in Wyoming

The flyer read, "Musicians needed!"

So young Yone grabbed his silver mouthpiece

Tracked down the kid who brought a trumpet to Pomona

Let Yone have it on a free two-year lease

Joy Teraoka née Takeshita

Went to the tryout, she was only sixteen

With some girlfriends to cheer her on, their club was called the Radelles

Mom said, "If you keep up with school, Joy, you can sing"

George Igawa, OG Nisei

He toured up the coast and even played Japan

Before the war, they ripped up the Florida Ballroom

Man, don't sleep on those Sho-Tokyans

Under starlight, they danced behind barbed wire

Under the mountain, it meant something to sing

Stuck between two countries in a fire

The best goddamn band in Wyoming

Little Tets Bessho rep'd the Kardiacs gang

The clarinet kid, the Nisei Artie Shaw

Stopped by rehearsal in a tar paper barrack

Once he joined up, sister, it was on

They practiced daily, gigged on the weekend

Stirring up those dusty mess halls

Teenage bodies unchained from their parents

Man, them old folks, they really lost it all

The only swing band left in Wyoming

That got 'em out some nights until dawn

War bond drives in Powell, Mormons dancing in Lovell

A bunch of Japs playing jazz at the Thermopolis prom

Under machine guns, they danced behind barbed wire

At below zero, it meant something to sing

Angelenos mixing up with farm kids in the choir

The best goddamn band in Wyoming

George Igawa, he split for Chicago

With Kimiko in the fall of '44

He left the band to Tets, Joy went with her family to D.C.

As for Yone, he had to join the war

And that's the story from old Heart Mountain

And the best band you never did see

Locked up in prison camps for no fuckin' reason

But they still found a reason to sing

The best goddamn band in Wyoming

The best goddamn band in Wyoming

The best goddamn band in Wyoming

The best goddamn band in Wyoming