Search - Dallas Wayne :: Here I Am In Dallas

Solid, straight-ahead honky-tonkin' country

hyperbolium | Earth, USA | 09/04/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"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)."