Together since high school, the three members of River County have been playing as a band for the last nine years.

Lead singer Derek Wiley says, “I started out like most singers do, young and in church. I got into the show choir and entertaining in front of a couple thousand people in high school. I realized that is what I liked doing and just stuck with it,” he says. Now a married father of three, Derek works construction along with his music, “When I’m not working, I’m staying at home with my younguns.”

Jake Hehman is the piano player of the group; he and his wife are raising two daughters. Jake started out playing the drums. In high school, he leaned more towards acting than music. He joined show choir, where he met Derek, and says, “it just kinda went from there.”

Chris Presley is the group’s lead guitar player. Like Jake he, too, started out on the drums. “I originally started playing drums when I was four. Then my parents realized they didn’t have a volume knob on them and they got me a guitar when I was eight.” In high school, Chris took his certifications in Firefighting/EMT and became a fireman.

Derek put the band together in his senior year of high school, he and Jake had known each other for three years at that point, but while playing at a talent show, they spotted Chris, “He was playing with a head banging band or somethin’ so we picked him up at the talent show. Been stuck with him ever since, we can’t get rid of him now,” said Derek laughing.

“I’m like a lost puppy,” interjects Chris.

“I wanted to be a rapper, I don’t know how I ended up here,” says Derek jokingly. “I was raised on country music and southern rock. I always knew deep down I wanted to play in a country band. I do enjoy rock and roll music, but being from the town we’re from Whiteland, Indiana, there’s really nothing to do here so, why not start a band? Country is usually the flavor of the month here.”

“It was a really small town where Friday nights were football games, Saturday nights were bonfires. It’s just one of them small town American stories, I guess you could say,” adds Chris.

Chris credits the bands’ camaraderie to familiarity, “We’re a big family. It’s like a big brotherhood.”

Jake says, “All of our personalities are a lot alike, but at the same time, we’re so different. We are not shy people by any means. Derek doesn’t think about what he says before he says it. Chris is just Chris. Check out his myspace and you’ll see. I had to find out he was having a kid from his myspace! These guys are my best friends; I can’t imagine life without them.”

River County just released the second single ‘We’re All Here’ off their debut album.

“We’ve got a new line dance with that song, the River County Stomp made by the Dance Advantage down in Nashville, Tennessee. The dance is kinda sweeping across the world, actually, in France and in America all the dance halls and honkytonks are really diggin’ it. We’re riding the wave of this single; it’s 48th on the charts right now,” says Chris. “Our first single did go top 40 on the Music Row Breakout Chart. We’re gearing up for our tour this summer; we’re going to be with the Championship Bull Riders, we’re going to be doing a couple of events for them in Florida and also in Texas. We’re really excited, we’re ready to hit the road and meet everybody we can and ride it as long as we can.”

“We don’t change our personality on and off stage. We’re a bunch of goofballs, but we play music, we have a good time and we get the fans involved in it because, without the fans, we would be nobody, we would be just a bunch of guys on stage playing music.. They are there to see us, they are there to get away from everyday troubles and have a good time. It’s our job to give them that good time. We know we’ve got to put on the best show we can each and every night,” says Jake.

Derek adds, “Every row is the front row at a River County concert. We hardly stay on stage. I’m wireless and Chris is always wireless, so we very seldom are on stage, always moving around. I put Chris on my shoulders and he played guitar solos and then jumped off my shoulders. It’s just a crazy show and we like to get everybody involved.”

“Buy the whole seat, but you’re only gonna need the edge, that’s our motto,” intones Jake, “It’s a lifestyle. A lot of people out there today have kinda forgotten what it’s like to be an entertainer, they’re all about hitting the right chords.”

“We’re really blessed for everything we’ve received over the last five years,” Chris says. “To take this from a high school band doing backyard barbecues to a national level, we’re really blessed; we thank God everyday for everything that we’ve gotten.”