Ruby Devine & Her Outlaw Orchestra Back to Main Page

A road-worn collective of gospel players, session veterans, Ozark pickers, Texas troublemakers, and Tulsa lifers gathered around the songs of Ruby Devine.

Different roads brought them to Tulsa. One voice turned them into a band.

In the Room

Inside the Studio

Candid Polaroid-style photographs of Ruby Devine and the Outlaw Orchestra in the studio.
Playing • Listening • LaughingBecoming a Band
Singer • Writer • Guitar

Ruby Devine

Lead Vocals • Acoustic & Electric Guitar

Born in Venus, Texas, Ruby Devine learned early that home was less a place than a road leading somewhere else. That road carried her through Killeen, Austin, and Dallas, from coffeehouses and songwriter circles to dance halls, honky-tonks, back rooms, and stages where she slowly found the voice that would become her own. Eventually, the road led north to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Ruby found both a musical home and the players who would become Her Outlaw Orchestra. Drawing from outlaw country, gospel, blues, Southern rock, folk, bluegrass, and the strange stories collected along the way, she built a sound rooted in the Southwest but never confined by it. Today, that road stretches far beyond Texas and Oklahoma. Ruby and the Outlaw Orchestra have carried their music across America and overseas, turning a collection of regional stories into a world of its own. When she isn't on the road, Ruby divides her time between the studios and bars of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Fayetteville, Arkansas—writing, recording, sitting in with friends, chasing old songs, and occasionally disappearing long enough for somebody to wonder where she went. Venus. Killeen. Austin. Dallas. Tulsa. And now, the world.

Vintage Polaroid photograph of Polly and Ruby together at a piano in Tulsa, Oklahoma, dated May 17, 2026.
The Players

The Outlaw Orchestra

Pauline “Polly” McIlwain

Piano • Hammond B-3

Hometown: St. Louis, Missouri

  • The bedrock of the Orchestra.
  • Raised playing piano in a Pentecostal Church of God tradition, bringing gospel instincts to every song.
  • The quiet musical anchor everyone leans on.

Ellie Brooks

Fiddle • Mandolin

Hometown: Fayetteville, Arkansas

  • Youngest member of the band.
  • Brings youthful fire while honoring Ozark traditions.
  • Can make a fiddle cry or a mandolin dance.

Earl “Moose” Whitaker

Bass

Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee

  • Quiet, dependable, impossible to rattle.
  • The foundation beneath Polly’s piano.

Rae McCoy

Drums

Hometown: Tulsa, Oklahoma

  • The heartbeat of the Orchestra.
  • A tasteful drummer whose feel always serves the song first.

Ty Walker

Lead Guitar • Pedal Steel • Slide Guitar • Mandolin • Accordion • Harmonica

Hometown: Atoka, Oklahoma

  • Ruby’s cousin.
  • The band’s musical Swiss Army knife.
  • One of Tulsa’s most respected session players.

Miguel “Migs” Alvarez

Electric & Acoustic Guitar

Hometown: Austin, Texas

  • The resident troublemaker.
  • Blues, rock, country, and Tex-Mex influences.
  • Usually the one smiling while making the biggest noise.

Calvin Reed

Banjo • Hammond B-3 • Keyboards

Hometown: Monticello, Arkansas

  • Ruby calls him the Pride of Monticello.
  • Can move effortlessly between mountain bluegrass and old-time gospel.

Dennis “Buck” Wylde

Bass Guitar • Percussion

  • Good friend to the band.
  • Appears on a number of the Orchestra’s recordings.
  • A longtime Tulsa player with an easy pocket and an easier disposition.
Three Voices Behind Ruby

Harmony Vocals

Lena Brooks

Harmony Vocals

Hometown: Fort Smith, Arkansas

  • Warm alto voice that gives the band its family sound.

Tessa Monroe

Harmony Vocals

Hometown: Amarillo, Texas

  • Gospel roots with rich country harmonies.

April Quinn

Harmony Vocals

Hometown: Joplin, Missouri

  • Bright soprano that lifts choruses into full choir territory.
Brass • Smoke • Fire

The Outlaw Horn Society

Marcus Bell

Trumpet

Walt Givens

Trombone

Isaiah King

Tenor Saxophone

Claire Baptiste

Alto Saxophone

Ben Ortega

Baritone Saxophone

Harold Finch

Trumpet • Horn Arrangements

West Tulsa Cotton Co.

The Outlaws

Ruby Devine and Her Outlaw Orchestra posed together at the weathered West Tulsa Cotton Co.
Ruby Devine & Her Outlaw Orchestra — West Tulsa