UNITY – For many bands, the search for recognition can seem like climbing a wall.

Luther Wright & the Wrongs, an Ontario country-bluegrass group, won notoriety by rebuilding a wall instead. Pink Floyd’s classic “The Wall,” that is.

What started as a little picking in the tour van for Wright and his band, who play at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Unity Centre for the Performing Arts, evolved into a unique showcase, revamping the rock opera into a cowpunk opry. “Rebuild the Wall,” released last April by Backporch Records, served as the group’s entry into the States.

“It’s our first big push into the States,” said Wright from a tour stop in Minneapolis. “Americans like Americana music, who’da thunk it?”

Back before they risked the ire of diehard Pink Floyd fans, Luther Wright & the Wrongs, at first a spin-off of the Sarah Harmer-fronted band Weeping Tiles, were already earning a reputation with their two albums of originals, 1997’s “Hurtin’ for Certain” and 1999’s “Roger’s Waltz.”

In between the two releases came that fateful day when Wright began picking along, bluegrass style, when “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1” came on the radio. “It sure works as a country tune, eh?” he said offhandedly to his band-mates. “Rebuild the Wall” began with that simple observation.

During a power outage while recording “Roger’s Waltz,” the group’s members looked over the lyric sheets for “The Wall,” Wright recalled. Seeing such familiar themes as alienation, heartache, loss and disillusionment, they realized that album’s songs would work well in a country-bluegrass framework.

The band spent three weeks in Jamaica, learning and recording the album. Out went the psychedelia, in came the pedal steel guitar, banjos, fiddles, twang and honky-tonk.

The trick was balancing the group’s normal tongue-in-cheek style with reverence for the original album.

“The way we collaborated, each wouldn’t let the other go too far,” Wright recalled. “[Guitarist] Dan Curtis was the head cop in making sure I didn’t go too far.”

But even after recording the album, Wright and his band had one more hurdle to clear – receiving approval from Roger Waters, the former Pink Floyd frontman who wrote nearly all of “The Wall.” They sent him a CD-ROM of the album and a letter detailing any of the changes they made lyrically. Then, after a tense couple of months of waiting, they received an e-mail from Waters’ manager saying that he enjoyed the album and wished the band well.

Bob Ezrin, who produced “The Wall,” and Nick Mason of Pink Floyd both also had positive responses to “Rebuild the Wall.”

So did many critics. A review in Billboard said, “…this well-conceived, twang-infested foray into Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’ is not only a hoot, it’s carried off with lick-by-lick reverence and musical aplomb.”

In concert, Wright and the Wrongs mix blocks from their current album and the two previous albums of originals.

“Rebuild the Wall” has opened many doors for the group. They have been so busy touring that they have not yet been able to mix their next album of originals, “The Broken Heart,” due out in August from Backporch.

“I’m glad we waited,” Wright said. “We’ve got a whole bunch of new songs and experiences, which make it a better record.”

As the title suggests, the album will follow in an old country tradition, with songs about broken hearts and failed romances.

“We’re trying to combine the funny and the sad, and use all the experience we’ve compiled as a band playing over the last couple of years, using the styles we’ve learned with ‘The Wall’ tour,” Wright said.

Wright isn’t too concerned that he and the Wrongs will get labeled as “that band that remade ‘The Wall.'”

“Our taste lies in playing good music and good songs,” he said. “We want to get inside a song and mess around with it musically. We’re still driven to make records and sing songs to make ourselves happy. If anyone beyond me likes a song, it’s a bonus.”

For reservations to the Luther Wright & the Wrongs concert, call the Unity Centre box office at 948-SHOW.