By Erika Moreno / Delta Staff Writer

Cheyenne Dalton, a freshman on the shooting sports team, has another talent: she is a member of the bluegrass band The Dalton Gang.

The band’s name originated from the original Dalton Gang of outlaws from Oklahoma and Kansas. The Dalton Gang just seemed natural. Cheyenne is also related to the outlaws from Kansas and Oklahoma. 

Dalton, who also plays mandolin, is the lead singer, although every so often Jimmy Meyer will sing a song. In addition, Meyer from Sheldon, Mo. plays guitar, Mason Ruble from Minneapolis, Kan. plays banjo,Wyatt Harman from Florissant, Mo. plays bass.

Putting their songs into online streaming services can be challenging. When recording an album, you have to make sure that you have paid the writers of the songs, and any royalties that are due.

If you are recording covers of songs, then you must ask permission from the original artists, and pay them if they ask for compensation. Then, you have to go through a website, there are many of them, and upload the artwork, a file of the recorded song, and all of the information about the song such as the title, the writers, and things such as that.

The Dalton Gang now has their own Spotify account. Most of their songs are covers however some of them are written by friends in the bluegrass community. 

Meyer said one of the group’s favorite songs to perform is not one you might expect from a bluegrass band.

“Probably my favorite song of ours right now is a song called ‘Turn the Page,'” Dalton said. “It’s an older song that legend Bob Seger originally performed, but other more modern bands have performed it too, such as Metallica. It’s a very dynamic song, and one that you can really jam out on!”

Dalton started playing classical violin when she was four years old. When Dalton was about 9, she decided that she had become kind of bored with the strictness of the music, and people didn’t look like they were having any fun.

Therefore she decided to switch to fiddle music and then started competing in fiddle contests all over the U.S. That same year, Dalton started the band because she enjoyed bluegrass music and she wanted to perform it.  Meyer joined the band two years ago. 

“I would say that my favorite things about playing in this band is that we just have so much fun together,” Meyer said. “Everyone brings great talent and each one of them is a genuine friend of mine, I’m looking forward to many more years of playing music with this great group that Cheyenne has put together, we always have such a blast at every show.”