2 Cheyenne artists make the cut for the 2022 Summer Road Trip Playlist

May 28—After a quick glance at the Wyoming Summer Road Trip Playlist, one thing is clear — Cheyenne's local musicians have something different to offer from the rest of the state.

And that's without factoring in the local hip-hop scene.

Since the state of Wyoming experiences a boom in tourism during the summer months every year, the Wyoming Arts Council thought it fitting to provide some music for travelers to experience on the long, lonely drives between points of civilization.

The Summer Road Trip Playlist compiles a collection of tracks across various genres of musicians from around the state. Since it's inception in 2017, the list has grown more diverse, with this year's having the most varied range of genres. Yet there is still no inclusion of any rap/hip-hop artists.

It was up to artists to submit their own music to the Wyoming Arts Council, during an open call held earlier in the year.

"There's a lot of different types of music that are represented on here. There's hard rock, DJ music and Americana and things like that," said Taylor Craig, creative arts specialist for the Wyoming Arts Council. "I think there's always room for improvement and for continuing to diversify that.

"I think it's come a long way since its first one, to be honest, in terms of the types of music that it does represent."

A different juror from a bordering state is invited every year to select the music for the playlist, in an effort to reduce bias. This year, the juror is Kendall Smith, director of programming at The Arts Campus at Willits in Basalt, Colorado.

The playlist is curated with the hope of helping newcomers and locals alike get a sense of what's going on musically in their communities and other places around Wyoming.

Craig made it a point this year to increase advertising for the playlist. Not only will there be more online activity promoting the artists, but fliers with an interactive QR code will be posted and distributed in locations with a high concentration of tourists.

"Part of the hope is that they'll discover someone and then find themselves in the artist's town where the band's playing, or something like that," Craig said. "It draws that connection."

From Cheyenne

In this year's playlist, two Cheyenne artists are represented, and they lie on opposite ends of the musical spectrum.

The first is the well-known producer and DJ Jason Sanchez, also known as WalkTheDoctor. He was the only Cheyenne musician to be featured in the Treefort Music Festival in Boise, Idaho, this past March.

This is his second consecutive year appearing on the playlist. His two most popular songs on Spotify have been placed in the spotlight, the first of which, "Am I Wrong," was released last year. The more exciting of the two, however, is "The Wobble," which is a live performance hit off his new album, "Audible Science."

"I ended up putting in a lot of work just based off the timeline that I set up for myself," Sanchez said about working on his latest album. "It was a lot of late nights trying to get everything done. I just set some goals for myself and pulled it off."

Sanchez is the only traditional DJ to be featured on the list, though CarrJ from Lander also produces lo-fi style hip-hop beats.

In a sense, it may seem like Sanchez is on an island of his own. He sees this as a strength, not a weakness.

"I rely on that as more of an edge. People aren't really expecting hip-hop beats, trap beats or anything anything out of the norm," he said. "To be able to give people something that they're not expecting, that makes me more excited about the whole thing."

Third Rail

The other Cheyenne artist to be featured on the playlist also is an anomaly among the lineup. There might be some Americana and folk acts in the mix, but Third Rail is the only outlaw country influenced band among them.

Lead singer and acoustic guitarist Casey Jones tries to resist being negative. Yet it's safe to say that he and the rest of the band aren't fans of modern radio country music. They grew up hearing the voice of Merle Haggard — particularly Jones, who lived in Oklahoma for a period of time.

Jones writes his fair share of breakup songs. For the most part, Third Rail puts out country music that fits a party atmosphere.

Their songs "Centerline" and "I Don't Throw Up," both featured on the playlist, show the band's self-aware versatility. They can put a tear in your beer as readily as they can make you thirsty for one.

"I think life has taught me a lot of things, but one of them is don't take yourself too seriously," Jones said. "Stick to what you know, if you're a writer, and I know Wyoming and small towns. I know breakup songs, I know love songs."

The Wyoming Summer Road Trip Playlist is now available to stream through Spotify and a direct link on the Wyoming Arts Council website.

Will Carpenter is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's Arts and Entertainment/Features Reporter. He can be reached by email at wcarpenter@wyomingnews.com or by phone at 307-633-3135. Follow him on Twitter @will_carp_.