Here I Am in Dallas

Amazon.com
Imagine a burlier-sounding Randy Travis--stripped of varnish and steeped in the hard-twang influence of Buck Owens and Merle Haggard--and you'll have some sense of the rough-hewn gem that is Dallas Wayne. Though the uptempo opener, "Bouncin' Beer Cans Off the Jukebox," smacks of generic traditionalism, balladry such as "The Stuff Inside" and "Not a Dry Eye in the House" shows that there's plenty of room for subtlety and nuance within Wayne's brand of heartfelt honky-tonk. Other highlights include the soulful shuffle of "Happy Hour" (a song associated with the late Ted Hawkins) and the closing anthem for touring musicians, "I Hit the Road (And the Road Hit Back)," written with Robbie Fulks. --Don McLeese

Here I Am in Dallas,Dallas Wayne,Hightone Records,Contemporary Country,Country,Country & Western,Honky Tonk,Pop

Average customer rating:

Solid, straight-ahead honky-tonkin' country

honkytonk straight up

Here I Am In Dallas
Dallas Wayne
Manufacturer: Hightone Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Contemporary Country | Country | Styles | Music
General | Country | Styles | Music
Honky-Tonk | Country | Styles | Music
Contemporary | Bluegrass | Country | Styles | Music
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ASIN: B00005MLW3
Release Date: 2001-08-21

Tracks:

Bouncin' Beer Cans Off The Jukebox
Here I Am In Dallas
The Stuff Inside
If These Walls Could Cry
She Lit The Torch
Hillbilly Jitters
Not A Dry Eye In The House
I'm Gonna Break Some Promises Tonight
Shadows Of My Mind
Cheatin' Traces
Happy Hour
I Hit The Road (And The Road Hit Back)

Amazon.com

Imagine a burlier-sounding Randy Travis--stripped of varnish and steeped in the hard-twang influence of Buck Owens and Merle Haggard--and you'll have some sense of the rough-hewn gem that is Dallas Wayne. Though the uptempo opener, "Bouncin' Beer Cans Off the Jukebox," smacks of generic traditionalism, balladry such as "The Stuff Inside" and "Not a Dry Eye in the House" shows that there's plenty of room for subtlety and nuance within Wayne's brand of heartfelt honky-tonk. Other highlights include the soulful shuffle of "Happy Hour" (a song associated with the late Ted Hawkins) and the closing anthem for touring musicians, "I Hit the Road (And the Road Hit Back)," written with Robbie Fulks. --Don McLeese

Customer Reviews:

Solid, straight-ahead honky-tonkin' country.......2001-09-04

After recording a half-dozen albums in Finland (!), this native Missourian returned to the States and signed with the Hightone label. This second LP for Hightone sticks to the twangy straight-ahead country and honky-tonk sounds that are his stock-in-trade. His previous collaboration with alt.country stalwart Robbie Fulks is slimmed down to one co-write ("I Hit the Road (and the Road Hit Back)"), giving favor to Wayne's own pen, and some well-selected covers (including an oddly cheery take of Ray Frushay's "Cheatin' Traces" - recently covered by The Wandering Eyes).

Wayne's stinging criticism of modern country (most notably in the press materials and liner notes) might grow tiresome if his most effective refutation of mainstream country's "diluted and deluded" state wasn't his music. But from Chris Lawrence's stuttering guitar figures (tipping more than a few strings to Merle Haggard's Strangers) to Wayne's Vern Gosden-like bottom scraping vocals (with a twist of George Jones' multi-note runs), this is heartfelt thowback, rather than calculated nostalgia. The subject matter (drinkin', women, the road, and several stripes of misery) doesn't pave any new ground, but, in large part, that's the point. They're well-worn classics for a reason: listeners can relate. (And no one's complaining about blues tunes using the same old chord progressions, are they?)

Guest players Skip Edwards (piano) and Jay Leach (steel guitar) add weepy backing to "Not a Dry Eye in the House," while Wayne's band (The Roadcases) hold forth as a crack unit (unusual in the mainstream world of studio pickers who don't follow an album out onto the road). A solid outing that, sadly, you won't likely be hearing on a country radio station near you (unless you happen to have an Americana or non-commercial station nearby).

honkytonk straight up.......2001-08-27

If you didn't listen to what passes for country radio, you'd swear we'd entered a golden age of honkytonk music. Alas, as Dallas Wayne observes in his brief liner notes, mainstream country just gets more "diluted and deluded." So thank Hank's ghost, or whomever, for the likes of Wayne, Roger Wallace, Heather Myles, Justin Trevino, James Hand, Don Walser, Dale Watson, and others who carry the hard-country flag on independent labels. Wayne's last outing, Big Thinkin', his first for Hightone, amounted to a collaboration with Robbie Fulks, who co-produced and wrote or co-wrote all of the songs. The result, a brilliant, edgy exercise, alternated -- or, sometimes, fused -- wit and mockery with despair and violence. The effect, one might say, was too country even for too country. This time Fulks appears only once, as co-composer with Wayne of the last cut. As Wayne takes charge with co-producer Bruce Bromberg, Thinkin's rock inflections largely disappear in favor of more traditional hillbilly-shuffle rhythms and slow heartache melodies. This is honkytonk served straight up, and if you like it that way, you'll like this CD a whole lot. Wayne writes in-the-tradition songs well, and he has a good ear for other people's songs. It's a pleasant surprise to see "Shadows of My Mind," a minor hit for Vernon Oxford in the 1970s (even then it seemed about 25 years behind its time), resurrected, and done justice. "Happy Hour," memorably recorded on a 1980s Rounder album of the same name by the late Ted Hawkins, is another treat. So, come to think of it, is everything else here.

Music Album:

Music Album