It’s been a great while since women cinched their calico skirts, men loaded the covered wagons and families headed west on the Oregon Trail. In this electronic age, local band Pioneer rekindles the frontier spirit in listeners with expressive melodies that celebrate a rustic simplicity.

Members Kenny Monroe, Jacqueline Kursel and Roger Barts seek to remain indefinable for listeners in terms of both genre and sound. Pressed to categorize their music, members of Pioneer classify themselves as an indie band and describe their sound as “vaguely folk-rock with some pop.” Despite its detail, such a description cannot adequately capture the refreshing tunes this talented trio from Madison conjures with their bows, picks and sticks.

“My roommate always says that we need to find our niche and define our sound down to something more particular, but I always tell him that I think he’s insane. My favorite part about this band is that we don’t stick within a genre,” Monroe said.

The group’s lyrical portfolio includes an array of songs from slow ballads to reeling pop melodies. This varied sound has enabled Pioneer to play a diverse body of shows appearing alongside acts ranging from rappers to rock bands to fellow folk artists.

“All our songs definitely don’t sound the same, which is a complaint that I have about some bands,” Monroe said. “I feel like it’s easy to get pigeon-holed, and keep writing the same kinds of songs, but I try hard to hop around.”

When Pioneer performs they avoid presenting listeners with a homogeneous set and instead use musical variety to engage audience members.

“It’s really common to see a show and have that mood set the whole night,” Barts said. “I think it’s kind of refreshing to hop around a little bit and keep everyone’s energy going all over the place.”

While a homestead in the west represented the ultimate goal for pioneers in the 19th century, Pioneer strives to broaden the popular conception of pop music. Performances including the songs “So Far Away,” “I Like You” and “Good for One Another” bring the group closer to this goal with each string plucked and lyric intoned.

“I’m tempted to call everything pop, because I try to write songs that are catchy and stick in people’s heads,” Monroe said. “But, people don’t so much identify with pop, because there’s some kind of a negative connotation surrounding it which hopefully we’ll help to put a more positive spin on.”

In addition to expanding the definition of pop, Monroe’s acoustic guitar and Barts’ drums coupled with Kursel’s cello allows Pioneer the opportunity to create music with darker overtones.

“I was trained as a classical cellist since the 4th grade, but in the past year I’ve started playing blues, folk and pop,” Kursel said. “I draw on all these different styles in Pioneer.”

Artists ranging from Bright Eyes to more obscure Wisconsin talent Sleeping in the Aviary have impacted Pioneer’s evolving repertoire. Growing up, Monroe’s proximity to the Michigan folk scene also exerted great influence on Pioneer’s sound.

“I grew up on the Wisconsin side of the Wisconsin-Upper Michigan border. I spent a lot of time in Upper Michigan, especially musically. Everyone I played music with early on was from Upper Michigan. Eventually these relationships connected me with people from the Lower Michigan folk scene,” Monroe said. “I hope to have Pioneer up there for the first time sometime soon.”

Pioneer’s sound relies on tempo variation and interweaving guitar and cello melodies bolstered by percussion. A healthy dose of reverb and guitar distortion also helps the trio to blend instrumentation and create a bigger sound.

“We don’t have a lot of instruments to fill space with,” Kursel added. “So we try to make the most out of that.”

It seems paradoxical that Pioneer could grow sound with such maturity in a live performance, but by the middle of their set, it seems as if even the audience’s breath follows the pace of their melodies.

“I think one of the most important things is being really dynamic. We have really, really quiet parts where nothing’s going on and really loud messy parts…all within one song, sometimes really close together,” Monroe said.

Increasingly, the group prefers to feature songs that incorporate personal experiences with similar emotional undertones.

Since the band’s inception, audiences have embraced the musical renderings of Pioneer and clamor to witness the magnetic connection they build through haunting instrumentation and compelling vocals.

As the group grows in popularity, they hope to continue to define the Madison music scene by promoting house shows that feature regional talent.

“We’re all fans and support local music,” Barts said.

“We’ve been doing a lot of house shows, which I think easily are the best things to play, because they’re really intimate,” Monroe said. “Bands have been contacting us a lot more now than in the past, because we’ve put on house shows. Our goal is to treat people really well when they come through, feed them, give them a really warm reception of a house show with local acts, and then visit them in the future.”

Pioneer has found a welcome reception at other atypical venues in Madison including Project Lodge, an art gallery and community space, where they recently played with indie artist Paleo.

Pioneer has only recently begun to appreciate their large impact on the Madison music scene after headlining the Rock County Folk Symposium. Besides an impressive regional folk line-up including Julian Lynch, the event boasted a collective corn harvest and roast on property by the Rock River near Janesville.

“It was a night when [everything] clicked and we were like, “Oh wow, we sound really good together,” Monroe said.

“Before that, some things didn’t quite click, but that night everything went really well, and I feel like it’s been going really well since then,” Kursel added.

With every show Pioneer continues to amass a dedicated following who would gladly ford rivers and mend axel wheels to listen to this UW talent. In an age of electronica and trip-hop, Pioneer invites listeners to appreciate the subtleties of folk instrumentation as a means to represent the unique personal experiences that bind listeners together. While a horse drawn wagon and foodstuffs are not necessary for this journey, a little plaid never hurt.

For videos and photos of Pioneer, visit local Madison music blog Urban Agrarian at www.urbagrarian.com. For news and up-to-date concert listings for Pioneer, visit them on Facebook or at www.myspace.com/welcometothewoodsmusic.