Local Music Sounds Better in the Mountains

Local music around Story does not stay in one room. It turns up beside dinner at The Wagon Box, on the back patio at Everett’s Tunnel Inn, inside the Story Woman’s Club, and at community gatherings across Sheridan and Buffalo. These rooms are small enough that a singer can hear a fork touch a plate. The crowd often knows who is playing before the poster goes up.

The Wagon Box has become one of those gathering places. Musicians play in the restaurant and give summer concerts in the campground, where listeners bring lawn chairs and the sound carries through the pines. Several friends of The Wagon Box also play at Everett’s Tunnel Inn. Its Sunday patio shows have drawn strong summer crowds. Two nearby stages mean another night of work for a musician and another reason for neighbors to linger over dinner.

The songwriters and players people know by name

Evan Larsell writes with the ear of a musician who moves easily between instruments. He sings, plays guitar, and picks up the mandolin with The Piney Islanders, whose sets mix original songs with Americana, bluegrass, contemporary folk, and blues. His solo work has traveled under its own name, too. In 2025 he won a Wyoming Singer-Songwriter Competition semifinal in Ten Sleep, and two of his songs placed near the top of that round. His recorded singles include “Frozen Line” and “Little Star.” On a Wagon Box night, the formal résumé falls away. What remains is a sharp songwriter close enough to watch his hands change chords.

Scotty Robinson, listed as Scott Robinson on regional calendars, brings acoustic guitar, dobro, and original folk songs to the same group. The dobro gives The Piney Islanders a warm, slightly lonesome edge that fits a pine-walled room. Robinson does not crowd a song. He lets the lyric sit where people can hear it, then leaves room for another voice or instrument to answer.

Ken Wacker is the kind of musician a local calendar depends on. He has played long community sets, including Clearmont Day, and appeared in Sheridan’s Farmers and Artisan Market music lineup. A four-hour booking calls for far more than a short list of polished favorites. It takes stamina, a deep songbook, and the sense to notice when a crowd wants to listen or simply keep talking with the music beside them. His Wagon Box appearances carry that easy steadiness.

John Cox belongs to the broader Sheridan County circuit. He has played community gatherings such as Trail End’s holiday open house at Kendrick Mansion, where music shares the building with conversation and people passing between rooms. That kind of set teaches restraint. Cox brings the same close attention to gatherings connected with The Wagon Box.

Victoria Haun sings and plays guitar, sometimes moving through a crowd instead of holding one fixed spot. During Story’s 2025 Weihnachten Christmas Market, she carried music between stops around town. She has also played the Rooted in Wyoming Grow Local, Eat Local Food Festival. Her style suits Story: direct, mobile, and close enough that a listener may hear the unamplified edge of her voice.

Bar Jay Bar is singer-songwriter and fiddler Joey Berglund’s stage name. He works in traditional country and Americana, but the records have their own rough humor and forward motion. “Breakdown Mama,” “Too Late to Call It a Night,” and “The Leather Man” give a good introduction. His touring reaches well beyond Wyoming, yet he remains a friend of The Wagon Box. Listen and follow through Bar Jay Bar on Spotify or find his public Instagram account at @barjaybar.

The Wagon Box Boys carry the connection in their name. They are part of the property’s own musical family, familiar faces rather than a touring act passing through once. Their sets feel like a house gathering. People talk between songs, somebody calls out a request, and the line between the players and the tables nearly disappears.

Classical piano, bluegrass, and jazz

Mark Caudle changes the temperature of the room when he sits at a piano. His classical playing is beautiful without being fussy. Conversations settle, the melody carries, and a familiar local room briefly takes on the concentration of a recital hall. Caudle also helps keep Story’s public life connected. He manages StoryWyoming.org and previously served as president of the Story Days and Events Committee. That work gives him a useful view of how music, small businesses, and volunteer-run gatherings depend on one another.

Tessa and Brady Holzemer bring old-time and bluegrass experience into Story’s local mix. Tessa performed and wrote with the Buffalo-based Prairie Wildfire, singing and playing clawhammer banjo and rhythm guitar. Brady joined Prairie Wildfire on a 2023 tour that reached Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Maine. Back home, the two perform as a pair; Story’s 2025 Weihnachten market placed them at the Story Woman’s Club for an hour-long set. Their music grew in the jam tradition, where players learn by listening hard and joining in. Follow their public appearances through Prairie Wildfire’s artist page and the Story community calendar.

Rich Bratten is one of the better-known names on Sheridan-area bills. The 2025 Sod Farm Festival placed him among more than a dozen local acts, and he has appeared on regional benefit-concert programs. He also works directly with developing musicians. Bratten and Wayne Hape lead an At Ease Expressions guitar workshop hosted at The Wagon Box, covering rhythm, songwriting, gear, and live performance. Participants receive follow-up lessons and an opportunity to play at a later event. That is how a local music community keeps renewing itself: an experienced player turns around and makes room for the next one.

Jane “Lady Jane” Perkins is another recognizable voice in the Sheridan music community. Public programs often pair her with guitarist Terry Garrison for jazz. They have played the south lawn at Trail End’s Kendrick Mansion and a free Sheridan concert that raised donations for Sheridan College music scholarships. Perkins brings the poise of a seasoned singer, but the setting stays neighborly. Follow Jane Perkins’ public concert listings through Sheridan Media and local community calendars.

A local circuit, not a single stage

The point is larger than one restaurant. Story’s musicians need rooms that will let them play, and Story’s gathering places need the musicians who give an ordinary evening a memory. The Wagon Box and Tunnel Inn both serve that purpose. So do church concerts, outdoor festivals, the Story Woman’s Club, and the old rooms at Trail End.

Schedules change quickly. For current dates or booking questions, use the public pages linked above, check StoryWyoming.org, and follow the venues’ public social accounts. Or simply leave a question with us here and we will get you contact info. Around here, the person tuning a guitar in the corner may be the name everyone is talking about next summer.