Growing up, most kids spend their time playing games with their friends and having no care in the world. For Ryan Chrys, of Ryan Chrys & The Rough Cuts, days were spent with his mom in Los Angeles as she wrote songs and sang at venues like Troubadour.
“I grew up playing with her,” Chrys said.
Chrys plays guitar and sings alongside bandmates Bradley Weaver, also on vocals and lap steel guitar, Michael Jochum on the drums, and Susan Phelan on the bass.
“I was playing guitar for a lot of other artists who after every project would end the band,” Chrys said. “I got really tired of that so I decided to start my own band.”
The band will be performing at Laramie’s own Cowboy Saloon on Thursday, April 6 at 9:00 p.m. as an opener for the Casey Donahew Band. They describe their genre as outlaw country or alt-country and said they are excited to meet and work with Casey Donahew.
“We’re really looking forward to seeing you guys in Laramie,” Jochum said.
The band is familiar with Wyoming since they are based out of Denver, where most of them met. They have performed in several towns across the state including Lander and Rawlins.
“I was friends with Bradley for many years and friends with Susan for a long time also,” Chrys said.
The band has been playing together for about four years and have released two albums in that time. They have a brand-new album titled “Shovel Full of Coal” that is set to be released on March 28 this year.
Their performance in Laramie is just the start of their tour to showcase this new album, although Chrys said they have been on tour for about two years now because they love performing.
“It’s a lot of dancing, yelling, drinking and honky-tonk good-timing,” Chrys said.
On their Facebook profile the band’s interests are listed as “outlaw country music, beer and the road.”
When it comes to the influence for their music the band said they get it from all over the place.
“It comes from everywhere, in our lives, in our taste,” Chrys said. “A lot of influence comes from our experiences and sounds we hear whether it’s an engine or a guitar.”
The band writes and composes all their own music as well. Chrys said usually he brings in the skeleton of a song and then the group gets together to flush it out. Their soon-to-be-released album “Shovel Full of Coal” is all original work that focuses a lot on classic country artists.
“We were getting tired of the Nashville formula and we listen to a lot of old outlaw country artists so we wanted to pay respect to those artists,” Chrys said.
The band added that one of the lines in one of their songs is, “throw another shovel full of coal on the fire,” because their goal with the album is to try and stoke up the fire again.
Alongside their unique sound the band also does a lot of work to help with charities. They give a lot of their performance earnings to charities and organizations such as Ronald McDonald House Charities, St Jude Children’s Hospital, American Cancer Society and over 15 others.
“Some bands can’t afford to help but we try and help out with what we can,” Chrys said.
The concert is set for Thursday at the Cowboy Saloon downtown and attendees must be of 21 years or older.
“We’re just looking forward to getting on the road again with this new album and seeing Laramie,” Weaver said.
