By Michael Gaither

Sometimes a band hits the local scene fully formed, with a sizable catalog of original tunes and seasoned players at the ready. Such is the case with Kentucky Mule, an alternative country band that mixes upbeat and danceable originals with a singer-songwriter vibe.

The band centers around songwriter Coleton Tidwell, a longtime local who just two years ago suddenly found himself with a band to back up his tunes. They’ll be at The Crepe Place on the outdoor Garden Stage this Saturday. The Sentinel caught up with Tidwell last week to get the band’s origin story.

“I did symphony and jazz in high school,” Tidwell said, “and used that to bring songwriting to a love of all kinds of music.” As a possible vocation, though, “Music never had a huge place in my life. I grew up pretty low income and was the first person in my family to go to college. I put other things toward the forefront of my life because I thought it was unrealistic to pursue music.”

Two things happened that steered Tidwell toward taking his songs out into the world: He moved from Gridley, a “two-mile wide town up north in Butte County” to study American history at UC Santa Cruz. That put him here, in a town where you can’t help but meet and be inspired by other musicians and songwriters. The other thing that happened was, as he puts it, “the COVID of it all. I suddenly had time to myself to start recording and making videos.” He’d tried open mics and even formed a small duo in the past, but this was the first time he was able to really dive in.

“Right after COVID, I met guitarist Scott Willis,” Tidwell said. “We were both nerdy and into making music with a love of the kinetic energy and DIY accessibility of both punk AND country.”

It quickly grew from there, and he instantly had a band. “Scott has a distinct Grateful Dead-inspired style covering the full Americana spectrum,” Tidwell added. He brought in Troy Nadeau on drums — followed by Rich Raygoza, their current drummer — and Will Iermini on bass. He also shares some of the songwriting now and is contributing tunes to their first full-length release.

After playing out a bit, they decided that they wanted to add a fiddle player to give the band more of a country sound. “We were attending the Rebels and Renegades festival (in Monterey) that year and met fiddler/singer/songwriter Lizzy Smith. She immediately joined the band. Lizzy’s a commodity,” Tidwell said. “She is so well liked and well respected. It’s one thing to play with a lot of people, it’s another to leave an impact like she does on everyone.” (As an aside, I’ve personally had the good fortune to play with Smith many times. Ditto to what Tidwell says.)His working-class upbringings taught Tidwell how to get along with people, and it’s always fueled his writing. “I grew up left-leaning in a conservative town and have always found ways to get to the universality of messaging,” he noted. “It was kind of a necessity if I was going to have relationships with people I disagreed with.” It’s also allowed him to be slightly political — without being overtly political — in his music.

“We’re in an era where people aren’t doing as well, and I think we’re in a time where both the punk and country working class ethos are resonating with people. Everyone’s feeling what it feels like to not know for certain what the future feels like. I think people want to hear where they’re at right now,” Tidwell added.

The band made their mark on the music community pretty fast. “I think how we’ve gotten to where we are as a band in less than two years is that I had 15 or so originals that were genre appropriate,” he said. With so much material available, they had the means to play longer shows than similar bands who were just starting out. “We worked a lot and played anywhere and everywhere, doing three to four shows a month,” Tidwell recalled. For this next year, they plan to play less locally and start taking on shows out of the area.

Blending Tidwell’s writing with the full band is working well for Kentucky Mule. “Half our sets are music that people can two step or swing dance to,” he said. “You’re not just giving a message that hits you, you’re also giving a means to have a catharsis. And this is making my songs come alive in ways I could never have imagined.”

Michael Gaither is a performing songwriter, radio DJ and the music writer for The Santa Cruz Sentinel.