Alley Chats: a new weekly series in The Argonaut that features interviews with live bands. While most editions of Alley Chats will take place at John’s Alley Tavern since the bar has live music most weeks and often hosts bigger names in the music world — there is no opposition to features at other Moscow business.

During music intermissions, there was a stark contrast between generations and social groups at John’s Alley Tavern Saturday night. The younger audience corralled themselves near the ping pong table, while older generations mixed and mingled throughout the rest of the bar with sprinklings of millennials.

But when the music started playing, the different groups began to gather together on the dance floor, moving together to covers of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and more classics. The Senders, rock n’ rolled timeless music from the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s to a mixed generational audience in Moscow Oct. 5.

The Senders have been rocking the Inland Northwest for some time, starting between 1987 and 1989. The original band was a three piece, consisting of a drummer, lead guitarist and a bassist. Jim Roberts, the current lead guitarist, and Hal Logan, the current drummer, were two of
the founding members.

“I was playing in this other band, and we were losing our drummer, and our bass player knew Hal, and so he got Hal to come and play in this other band,” Roberts said. “And so that’s where we met. Hal Logan and myself, and then the other bass player formed our own group, and that was the original (The) Senders.”

Three or four years after their formation, Jon Anderson, the current keyboardist, joined the band. Anderson, Logan and Mark Snodgrass — the current bassist — are all University of Idaho music alumni.

“The three of us are all Moscow natives, Jim’s the transplant from Midwest,” said Anderson referring to Roberts’ upbringing in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The name for their band came from the idea of sending people back to the ‘60s. It was also influenced by famous songs like “Return to Sender” by Elvis Presley, and “You Send Me” by Sam Cooke.

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A lot of The Sender’s music selection is meant for dancing. In part, the band loves playing music because they love watching people dance and have a good time. They play mostly covers of hit records because it’s timeless music.

“Everyone knows it, and we’ll be playing for things and there’s little kids that are ten years old and they’re singing the words and you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s so cool!’” Anderson said. The ‘60s is their favorite time period to cover but they love music from all eras.

Their usual closing song most nights is “Radar Love” by Golden Earring.

One of their favorite memories and gigs they’ve played was in Saint Maries, Idaho. The gig was the night after New Year’s Eve, and the audience was virtually non-existent.

“I don’t know what happened, no one knew we were coming, and we showed up and two people came,” Anderson said. “We had the best time playing for two people — they loved it and we had a blast!”

The Sender’s will be playing in Moscow again on New Year’s Eve at the Best Western Plus University Inn. They will also be playing at the Lewiston Elks Lodge on Jan. 15 and at the Greencreek Crab Feed in Cottonwood, Idaho the day after.

Sam Bruce can be reached at [email protected]