WENATCHEE — The Skiffs are an outlaw country love story of sorts. Kate Kennedy was a good-girl tomboy from a Seattle-area logging family. Darik Peet was a rebellious guitarist with long dark hair and dreams of making it big in Nashville. Together, they created their own brand of “skiff-ified” cover songs — a kind of slap-that-bass, ride-that-train romp around the barroom.

“We’re doing them in our own style, and we’re branding it skiffabilly,” Peet says. “It has to do with Kate holding down the rockabilly slap bass and I’m on acoustic guitar straight up playing and singing ... We play three chords and barely the truth.”

The “outlaw” in their music refers to their favorite artists — Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Paycheck, to name a few — all considered black sheep of the Nashville country mainstream.

The Skiffs are a relatively new band and an odd pairing, musically speaking. Kennedy first learned electric bass during a sleepy Christmas vacation in 2009, after listening to Peet dabble and plunk on guitar in their living room.

“My parents were musicians and I remember being a little girl wondering and trying ... but I was never a musician until about 30,” Kennedy says. She switched to a wooden stand-up bass about a year ago.

Peet started her off with the 12-bar blues he learned from a neighbor when he was 9 years old. Peet grew up to play guitar in several local rock bands: High Risk, Mercy Rain, Crazy Evelyn and Old Station Orchestra. He founded a recording studio on Springwater Street called Peet Productions.

The two met in his sister’s coffee shop, Sissy’s on Wenatchee Avenue, in 2000. She was a barista and Peet was working odd jobs for the place, saving up to go to Nashville.

“I lived there for a year. It was hard on the relationship,” he said of the move to Tennessee. “I tried out for a lot of people and I was close to getting there. It was tough.”

He moved back in 2007 to be with Kate, and to be more involved in the life of his daughter from a previous relationship.

“There are a couple of Nashville guys I sill keep in touch with, but I’ve moved away from that frame of ego, that frame of mind,” Peet says. “I’ve closed that chapter in my life for a different depth of music and spirit.”

For all the bands Peet played with, the deep-voiced guitarist never sang as the frontman. For Peet, the Skiffs represents a musical rebirth.

Kennedy had only been playing bass a few months when they played their first open mic at Caffé Mela. Peet admitted he felt more nervous than she did.

“I tried to memorize the lyrics, and I was very nervous,” he says. “It wasn’t in front of drunk people like I’d hoped it would be, but it went well.”

Since then, the Skiffs have performed more than 100 shows, including tours through Seattle and Houston. They recently became licensed Pike Street Market musicians.

After two years of playing covers, the two plan to start writing tunes of their own this spring.

“I’m already scared to death of writing,” Peet says. “We have been talking about a lot of concepts lately. I’m listening to a lot of Guy Clark and Marty Stuart and reading a lot of books. I’ve always been a music writer — I can write music pretty quickly — but writing lyrics, a story and putting my heart out there is a little different.”

Rachel Hansen: 664-7139

hansen@wenatcheeworld.com

If you go: See The Skiffs

Saturday: 8 p.m., Caffé Mela, free

Dec. 10: 8 p.m., Wally’s House of Booze, free

Dec. 17: 8 p.m., Garlini’s Restaurant, free

Source: theskiffs.com