Market music: A modern country sound

Many of Moscow's bands are classic rock, country western, blues, jazz or folk-sounding, but Cris Peterson, guitarist and fiddler of The Mullan Road Band, said his band strives for a different sound.

"We're about the most rock-oriented, rock-driven country band in this area," he said.

The band will play 9:30-11:30 a.m. Saturday at the Moscow Farmers Market. The performance is free to the public.

Other members of the band are lead singer Joe Wallace, bassist Lance Mitchell, rhythm guitarist Bob Greenberg and drummer Will Kerr.

The band started in an unusual way.

Although a few of the members knew each other beforehand, the rest met through social networking sites such as Craigslist.

"We just kinda got together through some social networking sites and eventually met each other and had similar tastes in music and had similar expectations as far as what we wanted to do," Peterson said. "We're all from the Moscow-Pullman area. We're all just guys who have regular jobs and stuff like that and practice a couple times a week and perform on the weekends.

"Just weekend warriors."

The Mullan Road Band is a country-rock cover band with an emphasis on playing music from the past 10 to 15 years, Peterson said. He said that is what makes the band different than the typical country band.

"We do have some original songs, but we don't have an album out yet, so we're mostly a cover band," he said.

The themes of their original songs, Peterson said, center around the topics of driving trucks as well as relationships with wives and girlfriends.

Some songs they cover include "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" by Charlie Daniels, "How I Got to Be This Way" by Justin Moore. They also perform music by Alan Jackson, Brad Paisley and Reckless Kelly, an Idaho band.

"I know a lot of bands have a lot to say about their musical influences, but we - it's reflected in our songs - those are the people that influenced us today."

The band performs with a modern country sound, which many would think sounds like rock 'n' roll, Peterson said. Their guitar songs are very rock-oriented and "not your grandpa's country western music," he said.

"We're involved in that newer sound," Peterson said. "It changes. It's not Hank Williams, Merle Haggard sound anymore. No one has lost their roots. Some people wouldn't be able to tell the difference between this and Southern rock. It sounds a lot alike, but there's still some differences."

Peterson said Southern rock has been known for its hard rock guitar tone, and a lot of country music, including the Mullan Road Band, shares those characteristics.

"Anybody who listens to any pop country music (radio) stations these days would know what I'm talking about that it's changed a lot," he said.

"I think we're distinct as far as the difference between any bands locally, but I don't think we're different from the radio bands," Peterson said. "We're not shooting for anything different."

Distinct also may be the group's name, which Peterson said he thought of to highlight the geographic significance in respect to country music.

Captain John Mullan created the military Mullan Road to help pioneers get from Eastern Washington to Montana.

Peterson said the Farmers Market was a logical choice for the band's performance because of the exposure they receive in the ability to play live for hundreds of onlookers.

"We try to put on a pretty good show, I suppose," Peterson said. "We're not too animated or anything like that, but we look pretty good up there. We're not like Kiss, we don't wear face paint or anything like that, but we got a pretty good show. We like what we do, and it usually shows pretty well."

Peterson said the band recently completed a gig with Chuck Wicks, a country musician and participant on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars," at Boomers Garden in Lewiston.

The Mullan Road Band also will perform from 8-10 p.m. June 18 at Moscow's Artwalk opening.

The Moscow Farmers Market is 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday on Friendship Square between Main and Jackson streets in downtown Moscow through October.

Taras Zhulev is an intern for the Daily News. He can be reached at (208) 882-5561, ext. 209, or by e-mail at editor@dnews.com.

If you go

n WHAT: Mullan Road Band at Moscow Farmers Market

n WHEN: 9:30-11:30 a.m. Saturday

n WHERE: Friendship Square, downtown Moscow

n COST: Free