Rockzilla World Review
Hey Nashvegas!
by William Michael Smith

How many years has discussion of country music focused on what's wrong with Nashville? How many times have you heard some know-it-all wag on a barstool say "what's coming out of Nashville these days ain't country music?" There is a
broad undercurrent of belief that a pent up passion for so-called "real country" music exists throughout the country,

a deep craving for the kind of stuff people like Johnny Cash, George Jones and the outlaws like Waylon and Willie did, yet the major labels and the media conglomerates that control country radio continue to indicate that's not where the money is, that not enough of the record-buying public wants that music to make it financially viable.

Whatever. Fortunately that doesn't mean that music is not out there. You can sit on your barstool and whine about "real country music" or you can buy stuff like Jesse Dayton's latest release, Hey Nashvegas!

Jesse Dayton is one of those artists who just has too much talent and too much
breadth to be confined to one style or one type of musical presentation. In his
career Dayton has put his own twist on punk (Alamo Jets) in the '80's, had a
critically acclaimed alt-country, neo-Texas, Americana album, Raisin' Cain, as
well as recording four of the flashiest, tastiest rockabilly records of the
'90's with his Road Kings project. Where Dayton's previous Tall Texas Tales
release was what Dayton called "my songs-with-too-many-words singer-songwriter
record," on Hey Nashvegas! Dayton has switched gears again, this time giving us
"the record I would make if they took me to Nashville and handed me the keys
and said do what you want."

Hey Nashvegas! finds Dayton sticking close to recognized country music forms.
And like his other work in other styles and forms, Dayton nails it again. While
the album was recorded mostly in Nashville and production-wise Dayton has
tipped his hat to many of country music's conventions and traditions, to the
experienced ear there is no doubt that this is a Texas band and that both
lyrically and musically this is anything but the same old same old. There is
Texas attitude all over the playing and the songwriting. Part of that is that
Dayton's rode-hard-and-put-up-wet band (Brian Thomas on steel, Charlie Sanders
on bass, and Richie Vasquez on drums) played the sessions. There is backing and
embellishment from Texans like Johnny Gimble, pianist Floyd Domino, accordion
king Flaco Jiminez, harmonica maestro Mickey Raphael, and the Dixie Chicks, so
what emerged from these sessions was no line-dance friendly Nashville pop
country. With this lineup, that wasn't about to happen. What did happen is that
Dayton came away with 13 tracks that have a vintage classic country sound
without a bit of the saccharine sweetness and simpering countrypolitan
blandness that gave country music the stigma it often carries today. Dayton
swings, he twangs, he cries in his beer, he croons regrets and lost love, he
even mo-o-o-o-ans the blues, but in a completely honest and authentically Texas
country way.

A prolific songwriter, Dayton can do the artistic singer/songwriter thing as
well as write radio and jukebox friendly songs with golden hooks. With Dayton
frantically twanging and Thomas wailing on his steel, the punchy title cut
stands as a symbol of everything Texas music can be and, while they weren't
intended that way by Dayton when recorded 5+ years ago, the lyrics can be
interpreted as an anthem for the whole neo-outlaw Texas anti-Nashville scene.

Hey Nashvegas!, I've been pickin' underground
Playin' in the honky tonks and looking for a sound
I still sing my songs for the good old boys
Prayin' that they ain't a dying breed

Those familiar with Dayton's other albums know he can do a heartfelt love song
with anybody on the scene. They also know that Dayton has mastered his craft
well enough to get a big sound out of a slow song. "Never Started Living" is
one of those buckle-polisher lady-killers with heart-melting lines.

I walked into a whole lotta bars
Even crawled out of a few
Speedin' tickets on an old shovel-head
Never ran worth a damn
I tried college and it bored me to tears
Guess my collar was a little too blue
And still I never started livin'
'Til I started lovin' you

With Vasquez and Sanders driving hard, "Date With the Angels" sounds like it
escaped from Dayton's edgy Raisin' Cain record. Add Dayton's twanging hot licks
and Thomas's full-speed steel wail to this song that Dayton cowrote with
Austin's Trish Murphy and the vibe catches a Dave Alvin or early Joe Ely band
feel. And as with Alvin or Ely, the lyrics are at once blue collar and fully
Technicolor.

Billboard sign says Jesus saves
She sees 'em every 30 minutes along the way
The Bible Belt and the guilt she felt
Blocks it all out with Jackie O shades
With her radiator smokin' outside of Palm Springs
She can almost hear the angels sing
Three cups of coffee and half a pack of smokes away
Hang on, LA, don't fall off into the sea
I've got a date with city of angels
Tell my mama them angels will watch over me

From here Dayton embarks on a tour-de-force of the hard country music landscape with a ten-in-a-row that covers an incredible variety of country sounds and themes with exacting precision, generous dosages of blue eyed soul and country whine, and stone-cold jukebox lyrics. Along the way Dayton repeatedly demonstrates his knack for writing top-shelf songs that, while they fit the country forms, have nothing in common with the wishy-washy clichés that seem to fill the current country charts. Dayton sends off more influences echoes than any sonar could decipher. Like a college professor, Dayton has a vast exposure to his subject and he can recall the information and use it seemingly without being conscious of the original material. These ten remaining tracks are, in a sense, Dayton's master's thesis in country music.

Jim Lauderdale, one of the recognized giants of the Nashville underground, a former Austin resident, and Dayton songwriting mentor, co-wrote "I Dream Too" and duets with Dayton on the track. As we might expect, the track exhibits many of the traits that mark Lauderdale's own work, particularly the great two part harmonies. Dayton takes the low and Lauderdale takes the high and the effect transcends any genre considerations. Fine singing is fine singing wherever and however it is encountered.

On "Heartbreak California," which Dayton wrote with Rosie Flores on a trip to California, Dayton augments the sound with Mexican brass arrangements and the expert accordion of Flaco Jiminez. The horn arrangement echoes those brilliant Johnny Cash tracks like "Ring of Fire" that combined twangy bottom end with bright brass to give a Latin sense to the music.
The bouncy "Wayward Soul" finds Dayton working in an almost mainstream country form with fine material. But what really sets this track on fire is Thomas's steel guitar work. Thomas doesn't lay back and fill a few quiet gaps, he jumps on the track and leads the band from start to finish. This is what separates the Texas thing from the Nashville thing. In the Lloyd Maines/Joe Ely Band tradition, there is no such thing as too much steel guitar in Texas music.
Thomas flashes to the fore again on the George Jones style slow-slobberin' tear jerker, "Don't Take Yesterday." Dayton's lyric is pure country "Cryin' Time," straight from Page One of the "How to Write a Country Hit" textbook.

Don't take yesterday like you took tomorrow
I know what we had, yes, and girl we had a lot
So don't take yesterday like you took tomorrow
I know that yesterday's not much, but it's all I've got

Dayton got the idea for "Panhandle Jane," the most surprising cut on the album, from a north Texas cowboy acquaintance whose father was the first "professor of horse doctorin'" at Texas A&M. According to Dayton, they sat up late drinking one night and the old cowboy's conversation wandered across many facets of the cowboy life in Texas in the old days. Dayton got most of the song down that night, as well as ideas for others. If Dayton is anything he is a stylist, and "Panhandle Jane" finds his ensemble doing a Western Swing vamp that echoes Bob Wills' well-known "Panhandle Rag." With Dixie Chicks singing the harmonies, Thomas demonstrating his hot-steel techniques again and Johnny Gimble providing that authentic Wills fiddle sound, this track drips with Texo-centric lines and a West Texas dancehall big beat. Asleep at the Wheel should listen up to this one and take note because Dayton has achieved a fresh and inventive authenticity in his Western Swing sound. The track sounds anything but stale or derivative.

While there are several tracks that have radio potential, "Roses Ain't Enough" is the track people I've played the album for can't seem to get enough of, especially the ladies. A big beat country-blues shuffle, it allows Dayton to draw heavily on his previous rockabilly experience vocally and he goes early-Elvis with a vengeance. Dayton also turns up the volume on his guitar and stretches out, way, way out beyond anywhere country radio feels comfortable these days. Dayton has played guitar for the likes of Ray Price and Waylon Jennings and he shows why as he chicken-picks and twangs his way all over the low end of his Telecaster. With his savvy rhythm section and pianist Floyd Domino swinging the whole number and with Thomas playing counterpoint to Dayton, once again the final musical impression is "Made in Texas."

Hey Nashvegas! may never be seen in the Billboard Country Charts, but it will certainly be the biggest selling record Dayton has yet produced and it will undoubtedly get wide Americana radio airplay and widen Dayton's visibility. Johnny Cash once told Dayton that he was "a little different" than most acts Cash had seen and for that very reason it might be harder for Dayton to break out, but once he did break out his different-ness would help prolong his career. There is a good chance that Hey Nashvegas! will be the album that causes Dayton to break out. It is certainly more than good enough.

And the next time that barstool know-it-all says there just isn't any real country music around anymore, tell him to shut up and buy Hey Nashvegas!