Local bands perform beneath the stars at Moonlight & Music
On Oct. 18, Utah State University hosted its annual Moonlight & Music event, in which students enjoyed s’mores around a fire and listened to local performances beneath the moon.
Duo Devyn Harding and Braken Whitehead opened this year’s events, followed by the Highway 89 band. The Last Wild Buffalo rounded out the evening.
Harding is a junior majoring in accounting, and Whitehead is a first-year student who is exploratory. Harding first found a passion for performance during high school. Whitehead has loved music since he was 7; playing piano and guitar.
“I played with a band in Bryce Canyon called the Bryce Canyon Wranglers and caught the bug for performing,” Harding said.
While Harding has been professionally performing since 2019 — taking vocal inspiration from artists like Kacey Musgraves and writers like Nicole Galyon — Whitehead just got his start a month ago. The two soon formed a duo after meeting, taking influence from genres like folk, country and indie.
“Braken and I met through a mutual friend group and he played for me at a pop-up show I did on our friends front porch,” Harding said.
The two have individually performed in many different places across Utah, and will soon be playing at Little Jam on Nov. 11.
“My favorite place to play was on the rim of Bryce Canyon, opening for the piano guys. Braken has played in so many cool places he can’t decide on a favorite,” Harding said.
Six USU students and USU alumni make up Highway 89. Graduate Heather Bodine and James Ackley, a senior studying marketing, are the lead singers. Senior and data analytics major Ty Tolman plays the guitar, while sophomore and fellow data analytics major Nolan Copada is on the drums. Senior and pre-med student Zach Elmer completes the band with the bass.
Highway 89 is a relatively new band to arrive on the scene of local Logan music. Bodine and Ackley were a singing duo long before Highway 89, but just recently decided to expand the band.
“I was signed up for PoBev, but I didn’t really want to do it alone,” Ackley said. “So I asked her if she wanted to do it with me. Then she’s like ‘Yeah, that would be really cool — we should have Ty play the guitar for us.’”
PoBev, or Poetry & A Beverage, is another hallmark event at USU oriented towards musical talent and the spoken word.
“Then Ty was like ‘Dude, we should get Nolan to play the drums,’” Ackley said.
The group of friends have known each other for a while, all sharing a love for music. The band laughed at how quickly they were all able to come together for this performance, sharing that Tolman and Copada were only brought on the day before PoBev.
“That day we pretty much put it together and performed at PoBev,” Ackley said. “Then Ty reached out to Zack and said, ‘Hey, do you want to play the bass for this new band we just created?’ and since then we’ve done, like, four or five performances.”
The band is currently working together to create their own music. Some of the members have experience writing original songs and are excited to bring that to Highway 89.
“We got a new original coming out today. Individually we have a few, like I have three, but the band has one,” Tolman said.
Highway 89 went on to perform four covers and their new original song at the event.
The closing act of the night was The Last Wild Buffalo. Issac Woodruff, Jonathan Celaya and Luke Diamond are the heart and soul of the band they started only a year ago. Diamond is a fourth-year student majoring in accounting, Woodruff is a fourth-year student majoring in kinesiology and Celaya is a second-year student majoring in data analytics. However, these three have known each other for much longer than a year.
“When I was a freshman in highschool, he started driving me to swim practice. He was old enough to drive and I wasn’t — that’s how me and Isaac met. We became best friends and have been best friends ever since.” Celaya said.
“Me and Luke met at the swing dancing club one fateful day,” Woodruff said. “Luke was the president of the group. It was my first time and only time swing dancing ever.”
Woodruff and Celaya took their first attempt at forming a band in high school.
“Me and Issac tried to start a punk band where he played the electric guitar and I played the bass,” Celaya said. “We had no drummers.”
A few years later, Woodruff and Diamond tried a second time as Through The Weekends, where Celaya was introduced. Eventually the two would officially pick up Celaya ,and the trio became The Last Wild Buffalo.
“We’re coming up on a year in December,” Woodruff said. “Christmas break was when we started writing our first song last year — Christmas 2022.”
The band has been busy since their formation last Christmas writing songs, building a name and booking performances.
“We have 15 songs that are finished and polished, and then a lot more past stuff that we have in the works, some that will stay in the works forever, and some that will be beautiful songs in the future,” Woodruff said. “Our No. 1 priority right now is getting stuff recorded. Our goal is to have things recorded and put on streaming platforms for sure by next summer.”
The band shared that their music is a creative fusion between folk and punk, and has taken inspiration from artists such as The Avett Brothers, Caamp and Bob Dylan.
“The Avett Brothers are like our core influence,” Celaya said.
The band has had the opportunity to play a variety of different venues, many associated with USU. Their most recent performance took place in the wind caves inside Logan canyon.
“We hiked all of our gear up to the wind caves, had a little concert and it sounded great in there,” Woodruff said. “We had a great turnout. Everybody was a part of it and made this really neat atmosphere. It was a beautiful night.”
Harding, Highway 89 and The Last Wild Buffalo filled the night with resounding melodies and excited cheer, leaving USU with yet another memorable Moonlight & Music.