Upstate Beat

experience: Brule County Bad Boys, an outlaw and cosmic country group featuring Sean Secor (“Tex”) on bass, Robert Buckley on drums, Zack Cohen on guitar, and Ben Wessels on harmonica.

Before the pandemic struck, the band recorded an album, “Chamberlain,” based on the songs Coletto wrote in jail. “When I got in trouble in South Dakota, I spent a lot of my time writing, something I always liked to do,” says Coletto. “There was a lot of time to think with nothing going on. I ended up writing maybe 50 songs or poems that manifested themselves as country songs. As I wrote them, I sent them all to my friend Sam Wessels, who plays piano on the record.”

Coletto grew up playing drums in punk and metal bands like Girls of Porn and Sallow, but in the Brule County Bad Boys, he takes the lead on vocals and guitar to play music in the vein of country outlaw artists like Waylon Jennings, Buck Owens, Johnny Cash, and George Jones. “I’ve always been into country music,” Coletto says. “I appreciate the poetry of the words, which can be so sad over major keys, and the campiness of it can be really fun.”

Among the new songs—recorded at Soundcheck Republic in East Greenbush, New York, and mastered at Galaxy Park in Boston, Massachusetts—is “Wall Drug,” a harmonicafueled rave-up written about the roadside tourist trap of Wall, outside Badlands National Park. “Trustee” is a piano-driven honky-tonk number about Coletto’s experience cooking for his fellow inmates. The album is studded with guest stars from the local music world, including twang-guitar master Graham Tichy, steel guitarist Kevin Maul, electronic artist NXNES, and guitarist Kieran Robbins.

Plans to release the album on vinyl are on hold at the moment, given pandemic-related economic stresses. But look for Brule County Bad Boys at a venue like Hangar on the Hudson in Troy in better days, hopefully coming soon. Among the songs you’ll likely hear, “Chamberlain” is a twangy, pedalsteel-driven lament that sums up Coletto’s soul-searching, soul-crushing experience in Brule County. “Take me away, from South Dakota, where justice dies behind the prison walls,” Coletto sings in a deep croon that turns into a rousing chorus. “Bury me here, in South Dakota. I’ve already died, just let me be.”

Visit brulecountybadboys.bandcamp.com.