The high cost of fuel has taken its toll on a lot of bands across the country, in some cases limiting or curtailing tours altogether.

Delta Highway is definitely not one of those bands.

The Memphis-based, self-described "high-octane blues band" brings its searing sound to Miller's Crossing on Wednesday, Sept. 10, at 9 p.m.

In the past few months alone, this up-and-coming band has toured just about every region of the country -- and even gone overseas, with a tour of Italy in July.

With all that moving around, tracking this band down can be tough. But vocalist and harmonica player Brandon Santini took a few minutes for a phone interview to discuss the band during an Iowa Cubs game he was attending after a recent gig in Des Moines, Iowa.

Santini said touring is still worth the expense and necessary to expose as many people as possible to a band's music.

"You have to get out there," he said, noting that he's seen any number of Memphis bands that are content to play the local clubs but never grow their name.

"It's like paying another member of the band," he said of fuel costs. "You definitely don't want it to get too out of control."

Moments later he acknowledges that things have gotten a little out of control in that regard lately for the band, which was to play a show in Lincoln, Neb., on Monday and leave the next day for the Seattle show three days later.

But he added that getting to see places like Italy and all corners of the United States while doing what they love definitely makes up for any headaches.

It's hard to please everybody, especially in the blues scene, where traditionalists and innovators have battled in recent years over the genre's future.

But Delta Highway has won over its share of admirers from both camps.

Santini said he doesn't really know how to compare Delta Highway's sound to other bands. A lot of people call the sound blues-rock, but Santini prefers a different description.

"One review I saw said 'Where tradition meets contemporary,' " Santini said of the band's sound. "I think that's a good way to describe it."

"It's moving," he said. "It's a freight train.

It's easy to understand how the band got such a hard edge to its sound. All four members grew up on rock'n' roll, though all were exposed to the blues at a young age.

Santini said the band got its start in 2003 when he and guitarist Justin Sulek left their native North Carolina to make a go of it in Memphis.

There they hooked up with bass player Paul Chase and drummer Kevin Eddy, the only Memphis native in the bunch.

As much emphasis as the band puts on the road, Santini said they love being part of the Memphis scene. He said being in Memphis has allowed the band to meet and play for some of the biggest names in music, who in turn spread the word about Delta Highway around the globe.

One of the highlights, he said, was getting the chance to meet Robert Plant, the former Led Zeppelin frontman.

"It doesn't get much bigger than that," he said. "You never know who you're going to meet."

The band's reputation is moving just as fast as the tempo of its songs.

Their second album, last November's "The Devil Had a Woman," was No. 2 on Bluesville on XM Radio's Picks to Click list in March. It was in the top 10 blues CDs of the week for three week's running on the Smokestack Lightning radio show in Orlando, Fla.

Santini said lately he's been listening a lot to the Red Devils and Kim Wilson, the former frontman of the Fabulous Thunderbirds, a band Delta Highway has been compared to.

This will be the band's first trip to Montana, coming on the tail end of a Pacific Northwest trip that also is taking them to Seattle, Electric City, Wash., Portland, Ore., and Boise, Idaho.

The Miller's show will be the band's only show in Montana.

"We're just gonna have a good time," Santini said. "Anybody who comes to see us is going to have a good time, I guarantee you that."

After Helena, the band goes back to the Midwest before going back home to Memphis.