Evan Webb and the Rural Route Ramblers aim to put the country back in country music

Evan Webb and the rest of the Rural Route Ramblers, taking a quick break to enjoy the weather, sit in the sun outside the shop where they hold band practices, while inside, lead guitarist Derrick Rucker has stayed behind, tweaking a riff that's been stuck in his ear and mumbling possible lyrics.

It's a front-porch Delta-blues line with a sweltering hook that soon draws rhythm guitarist Adam Hellman back into the garage.

"Man, that is slick as snot there," he says, soaking in the groaning beat.

"Yeah, something like, 'Grew up in the backwoods down in Mississippi ... '" Rucker says. "I don't know. I feel like it should tell a whole story."

Hellman starts to offer lyric suggestions, but by that time, lead singer Evan Webb is back and strapping on an acoustic guitar to join in. Justin "Boz" Boswell and Tim Morrison get back on bass and drums for an impressive but uncharacteristic songwriting jam.

Evan Webb and the Rural Route Ramblers rightly pride themselves on the strength of their original material, but their process is usually less spontaneous.

Evan Webb and the Rural Route Ramblers practice Sunday in McClure, Illinois. (Laura Simon)

Hellman and Webb are usually the ones sketching out songs, which they then bring to the band to punch up. Rucker's job is more typically to add some honky-tonk flair, as he does on the Hellman/Webb-penned original "Dry Up or Drown," one of several original songs they've been able to incorporate into their live shows. The song offers an uncomfortably candid accounting of flood-wary and drought-weary life in small towns on the Mississippi River like Webb's own McClure, Illinois.

"Dry Up or Drown" would be a solid enough song on its own merit, but Rucker's swelling, mournful Telecaster twang adds something unmistakable -- a little bit of the heartache at the core of true country music. But as a fan of Dwight Yoakam's guitar player, Pete Anderson, Rucker's equally capable of a "Guitars and Cadillac's"-type boogie.

While the band's music definitely falls under the "country" tag -- even their throatier, rock-ier songs have a distinct Skynyrd bent -- Hellman says there's country music, and then there's actual country music, and Evan Webb and the Rural Route Ramblers practice the latter.

"Right now, you're seeing a lot of people turning away from the stuff that's on the radio," he said, pointing out the growing popularity of artists such as Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson, the latter of whom Rolling Stone has dubbed the "Savior of Country Music."

Evan Webb and the Rural Route Ramblers practice Sunday in McClure, Illinois. (Laura Simon)

While he's not comparing himself to Isbell or Simpson, Hellman does see their own unvarnished brand of country as a part of this movement that's been steadily returning to country's roots and cycling away from the so-called "bro-country" proliferating on country radio.

"Ours comes from a similar place, the music that we play," he says.

Summarizing the band's mission, he uses a joke to make a serious point, saying, "We're trying to save country music in Cape."

And that, in a nutshell, is what brings the band close, Boz explains.

"Some of us have been in a lot of other bands before this one," he says. "But the reception that we're getting when we play original material has been so much better than it has in other bands."

It makes sense: when playing the things you want to play happens to be giving the audience what they want, what could be better?

"This is one of the best bands I've ever played with," Boz says.

Evan Webb and the Rural Route Ramblers play May 29 at Bel-Air Grill in Cape Girardeau.

tgraef@semissourian.com

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