The Biggest Band in the County adds rural core to Cape Girardeau's music scene

"Let's slip away under cover of afternoon in the biggest car in the county."

That line from a '90s airing of Mystery Science Theater 3000 is where the "rural core" band, The Biggest Car in the County, got its name.

"We agreed that it was a good name for a rural core band -- a genre that we made up," said Josh Tomlin, the band's guitarist and vocalist.

The Biggest Car in the County slipped rural core onto the list of genres in the local music scene early this year.

"To be fair, one of our friends came up with that moniker," Tomlin said. "We call it rural core because at the center of it all, is music that is associated with country life. We are kind of a tongue-in-cheek band. It's not like we grew up in country shacks, but we didn't grow up in big cities either. We grew up in Southeast Missouri."

The Biggest Car in the County performs at the River City Music Festival. (Laura Simon)

Having formed less than a year ago, the group has already grown by adding guitarist Joe Ett-ling, enlisting a new drummer, Andy Palmer, and playing more than a dozen shows. Lucas Auer on bass and Erika Beasley on guitar and vocals complete the group. One of the biggest performances, Tomlin said, was on the Broadway Stage at the 2009 River City Music Festival in September.

"We were really appreciative of that. That was great. We had a great time, and I think it was a great way to get ourselves out there to a broader audience," he said.

Now, Tomlin said, the band is gearing up for more performances in St. Louis, Columbia, Mo., and two upcoming shows in Cape Girardeau. The first performance is at 9 p.m. Saturday at Buckner's Brewing Co. The band is also playing at 9 p.m. Oct. 29 at Rude Dog Pub. Admission for each show is $3.

The Biggest Car in the County formed in December. Tomlin said it brings together a combination of influences, from Ettling's love for heavy metal to Beasley's favorite singer, Patsy Cline.

"We have all these different likes and influences, but at the center of it all is a country, rock, folk kind of sound," he said.

The folkish country feel is especially strong in the band's cover tunes, which Tomlin described as primarily "old country stuff."

"Country's gotten a really bad rap because of the pop, processed stuff coming out of Nashville. Really, that's pop music with an accent. That's music that's meant to sell," he said. "A lot of the covers we like to play is the really simple, but good old country songs."

Tomlin said the group plays about 50 percent original material and the other half cover songs that "are fun and good to fill some time." While Beasley can sometimes be seen on stage belting out the vocals of a Patsy Cline song, Tomlin said the band continues to work on writing original songs and spreading its "rural core" genre across the region.

"I think it's great that Cape has so many different bands as it does. Diversity is good. But for a predominantly rural region, I don't see a lot of country rock-type groups," he said. "We're going to try to maybe foster somewhat of a country music scene, but not the Nashville scene. That's a grand goal, but I don't know if it's really attainable."

In the meantime, the members of The Biggest Car in the County will work both their day and night jobs.

"Right now it's all about playing shows and having a good time. The day job is about money, but we have the band to just get out and play music," Tomlin said. "The plan is to keep writing music, keep playing and keep having a good time and see how far we can take it."