The Wild Feathers perform on the Palomino Stage on Friday, April 25, 2014 at the Stagecoach Country Music Festival in Indio. (Charlotte Bray/Freelance Photographer)
The Wild Feathers opened the a Stagecoach Country a Music Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio on Friday with a rollicking set on the Palomino Stage.
“This is a beautiful venue,” guitarist and singer Ricky Young said in an interview after the band’s set.
Band members explained that when they’re playing a country festival, such as Stagecoach, they’ll get comments that they’re rock and roll, but at a place such as the more rock-oriented Outside Lands in San Francisco, the crowd gives them more of a country label.
“I think we’re very versatile,” guitarist and singer Taylor Burns said.
The first album he remembers taking from his dad was The Beatles’ “Rubber Soul.” His father also played in bands and practice would often be in their living room.
“I just thought it was normal,” Burns said.
Young’s mother worked in a honky tonk called Moe’s, now famous, but then a dive that smelled of stale beer, cigarettes and had a house band.
He was in his dad’s truck and Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” came on the radio. He didn’t know what it meant, but he knew the words meant something.
The Wild Feathers’ early Stagecoach set, which had shades of Led Zeppelin and Whiskeytown, featured material off its 2013 self-titled album.
Burns said the members holed up in a cabin in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee in the Smoky Mountains for two weeks, writing 40 songs for the album.
They have a busy summer coming up, with tour stops at Bonnaroo and a tour with Sheryl Crow. I’m hoping the band follows the Trampled by Turtles route and plays Coachella next.