Hang onto your hat, cowboy, a showdown on South Virginia Street will unfold Sunday night at The Saint in Reno.
Gunslingers from Ryan Chrys & The Rough Cuts will mix it up with the Truckee boys from Everyday Outlaw. For a mere $5, or $7 at the door, folks 21 and older can take note and perhaps cushion a shot or two of whiskey in the Old West saloon.
Everyday Outlaw likely will fire the first round at about 8 p.m., unleashing some boot-stomping country music reminiscent of Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard and George Jones. Frontman Jake Zender on guitar and vocals is joined by Mark Henasey on bass, Rory Koff on drums, Jim Park on pedal steel, and Morgan Hargrave, who will be toting a Telecaster.
A relatively new band, Everyday Outlaw is mountain tested and mean as they come.
Ryan Chrys and his gang have been knockin’ em dead in Colorado territory for a number of years, stacking up wanted posters like ticks on a coon dog, including “Entertainer of the Year, 2016” from the Colorado Country Music Hall of Fame. They’ve been on the road with the likes of Blackberry Smoke, The Marshall Tucker Band, Shakey Graves, Junior Brown, Cody Canada & The Departed, Cash’D Out and others.
Outlaw country is the name of their game, mixed with some old-school country and countrified rock, influenced by the songs and personalities of legends such as Waylon, Willie and Johnny Cash. Their song “Modern Outlaw Country” hit Westword Magazine’s list of 15 Best Music Videos in Colorado, featuring Chrys calling the shots as “King of Colfax.”
Ryan Chrys & The Rough Cuts are touring in support of their new album, “Shovel Full of Coal,” as they pile up new energy for country music fans who love the hereos and outlaws of old.
“Chrys and company lay down a collection of fueled-up twangy numbers alongside some heartfelt ballads,” said Westword Magazine.
The Denver Post chimed in: “Ryan Chrys’ career as a Colorado musician has mostly been in the background of bands, until the guitar solo. He’s a guitarist’s guitarist, a country rock ax man…”
On Sunday night, the Rocky Mountains will collide with the Sierra Nevada. If the gunslingers shoot a man in Reno, some Folsom Prison Blues surely will follow.
-Randy Hashagen
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