Indie roots/folk rock group The Apache Relay will be performing a show at 9 p.m., Saturday, March 1^st in Maintenance Shop with indie folk band The Lonely Wild.

Nashville-based The Apache Relay blend varying influences of classic folk and rock artists to craft a musical persona that fans of Mumford and Sons and Tom Petty should find accessible.

“[Our style] has been evolving since the start of the band,” said Ben Ford vocalist and guitarist for the band. “We’re pretty quick to evolve. Our influences seem to change somewhat over time. As of late it’s been sort of a throwback presentation; the songs are of a modern nature, but the production style is much more old school, like The Righteous Brothers.” 

The Apache Relay began in a dorm room in Belmont University when music business major Michael Ford Jr. found some friends to back him up for live shows.

“My brother is the singer,” Ford said. “And he met the rest of the guys in Belmont in college in their dormitory. That’s basically how it started off. He was a solo artist, and they backed him. They realized they liked the pairing of it, so they ended up making it a full time band. I joined three years ago.”

The band found inspiration for their name from a 1995 Disney film that starred Ben Stiller as a fitness enthusiast running a fat camp for overweight boys.

“The name came from a friend of the band,” Ford said. “He said ‘we should use Apache Relay, it hasn’t been taken on MySpace yet,’ that’s how long ago it was. It’s a reference to the film Heavyweights. It’s a kids’ movie that came out in the 90s. It’s at a fat camp, and at the end of it the big finale is the Apache Relay when the two summer camps go head-to-head in a tournament.”

The Apache Relay has opened for mainstream folk rock band Mumford & Sons.

“[Opening for Mumford and Sons] was pretty nuts,” Ford said. “We’re incredibly thankful that we got offered that, those guys were really great to us, and are great to us. It’s pretty mind-blowing to walk out to that amount of people. You can’t take it in all at once. It’s definitely overwhelming, but in the best possible way. It’s hard to describe, it’s as crazy as you would think it would feel.”

The group will be releasing a self-titled release as their next record on April 22^nd. Recording sessions took place in what is formerly know as Sound City Studios, where iconic musicians Tom Petty and Kurt Cobain fine-tuned iconic albums.

“We recorded [our album] out in Los Angeles,” Ford said. “We went up there like 3 times, and it took 4 or 5 months altogether. We did it at Sound City, which now is called Fairfax, where Nirvana did Nevermind, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers did Damn the Torpedoes, and Fleetwood Mac did some stuff there.”

The performance in Maintenance Shop will mark The Apache Relay’s first stop in Ames. Fellow folk-rock group The Lonely Wild will be playing at Saturday night’s show as well.

“We’re excited to be on tour with [The Lonely Wild],” Ford said. “and we’re looking forward to going out with them on the road. We always enjoy coming through Iowa, and it’s always fun to check out a new place.”

Guitarist Ben Ford promises an open and involving show for fans of the band and music lovers in general.

“We try do our thing and hopefully it allows some sort of escape for people,” Ford said. “We just try to put on a good show, for people to have a good time. We’re not too serious or reserved about anything. We’re just trying to have a good time playing rock and roll for people. “

You can escape with The Apache Relay at 9 p.m. March 1st in Maintenance Shop. Doors open at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are available in person at the M-Shop box office or online at midwestix.com at a cost of $10 to students, and $12 to the public, with a $2 increase the day of the show.