Wyatt's return

Teenaged blues guitarist Wyatt Lowe was on a roll three years ago when he and his band the Youngbloods played the House of Blues, Gator by the Bay, and Adams Avenue Street Fair.

But in the summer of 2013, Lowe was yanked from his musical cocoon and classes at San Marcos High when his parents moved the family to Jackson Hole, Wyoming

“I was devastated,” says Lowe, now 18. “We were just starting to take off.” But the self-starting musician used the new environment to retool his music career.

“I took my move to a secluded place as a chance to stare at nature’s beauty and figure out how I could expand my music and build my brand.”

Lowe returns this weekend with a new band and the revelation that there is more to music than just the blues.

“It can pigeonhole you,” admits Lowe. “I wanted to get out of the blues niche. I spent the past two years in a secluded mountain region and started seeing another side of music.”

Lowe says his band, the Mayhem Kings, displays his new wide-open-space concept that embraces Americana, outlaw country, roots, and rockabilly. “I use the word ‘Ameripolitan’ to describe it.”

Lowe says it was difficult to put a band together in a city of 9000. “You really have to search to find other people to play with up here.”

He set up his own tours in Idaho, Montana, Utah, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado. In April, Lowe and the Mayhem Kings released their first record, Songs From a Bottomless Well.

But Rockies wilderness isn’t all wonderful.

“Wyoming has what I call this survivalist mentality. It’s a little freaky. It’s a mix of Mormonism and flatland cowboy nation. My sax player describes it by saying the people who live up here remind him of the Island of the Misfit Toys.”

Lowe says he left high school a semester early to pursue music and plans to move to L.A. later this year to network and study at the Musicians Institute.

Wyatt Lowe and the Mayhem Kings appear January 7 at the Tin Roof, at Proud Mary’s in Kearny Mesa January 8, and he’ll play an acoustic set at the Vessel Lounge at the Kona Kai Resort January 9.