The Sam Leyde Band grabs attention with its own mix of the country-rock formula that is equal parts bravado and vulnerable passion. The band – Leyde on vocals and guitar, Dillon Campbell on lead guitar, Mike Hensley on bass, Aaron Anstett on keyboards and Justin Ruggles on drums – formed in Coeur d’Alene, ID.

Since then, the group has released a debut album, “Big Small Town,” and kept a busy schedule of live shows throughout the region with a singular goal in mind: growing an audience large enough to allow the band’s members to quit their day jobs and devote themselves to music full time. As one of their songs implores, all that they need is one hit.

The band’s cause is helped by the fact that principal songwriter and frontman Leyde can effortlessly write songs that, even on a first listen, sound like familiar playlist classics and are rooted in rock, rhythm and blues, gospel and country/Americana. But Leyde did not set out to become a songwriter.

The debut album’s title track is a case in point, a tune that finds Leyde almost-grouchily bemoaning the changing landscape of his hometown (really Anytown, USA). And yet, one never gets the impression that he would rather be anywhere else. Another song, “Baby’s in Billings,” is a rousing example of the band’s effervescence.

When Leyde invites his mates to “Take It Away!” they joyfully do so, with Anstett and Campbell trading incendiary rockabilly bars while Ruggles and Hensley churn the number along with locomotive ferocity. These guys want to be in the same room bringing down the house together, and it sounds like it.

“We have had this chemistry from day one that shouldn’t have been there but is. Everyone does their part and pulls their own weight and just makes it so easy.” If possible, however, they will still take that radio hit.