Local band Russian Cowboy will perform at 4:30 p.m. on July 21 in People’s Park. The show will be free and open to the public as part of the People’s Park concert series.
Russian Cowboy first formed in Bloomington in the middle of 2019. Ryan Bennett, the band’s drummer, said they were playing a few shows while working on an album of demo music, but when they were about to begin playing more seriously together, they were interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Russian Cowboy’s People’s Park set will feature music from the band’s two recorded albums. Bennett said their self-titled first album was recorded at a home studio in Bloomington and later remastered for streaming services.
This first album came at the beginning of the band’s career, Bennett said. Their singer, Luke Pattison, was working on a solo project and they rearranged that material for the group.
“It had more of a punk sound because it was just us doing some of our first songs when we first met one another,” Bennett said. “A lot of the songs on that first album just came from Luke meeting us and trying to turn his songs into the band’s songs.”
He said their second album, “A Slow Migration West,” was entirely written together as a band and recorded at Russian Recording.
Bennett described the band’s sound as punk crossed with Americana. The commercialization of the British punk scene took something away from that music, Bennett said, so Russian Cowboy aims to reintroduce that element of authenticity while creating a distinctly American sound.
“The second album is a little bit more country, the first one is a little bit more punk, so we’re kind of trying to balance those sounds together,” Bennett said.
He said the band’s influences include Parquet Courts, Daniel Johnston and Ex Models.
Russian Cowboy’s first played in the People’s Park series in 2020 and have played numerous other shows for the city since then. Bennett said he held a couple of non-music related positions in the Bloomington Parks & Recreation department where he became aware of the series and applied once he had a band to perform with.
Bennett emphasized the strength and importance of the arts to the Bloomington community, particularly the work between artists and local government. He said the access granted to artists for these public spaces is not only hugely important for them, but for the community at large.
“It’s a great way to support local music,” he said. “One of the cool things about Bloomington in my opinion is its vibrant arts culture that the city supports. That’s really important to maintain with shows like this.”
