Grindstone Magazine, Issue #10

interview

Grindstone Magazine, Issue #10
Interview by Laura Kane

Texas heritage notwithstanding, listening to Jesse Dayton and his Road Kings is like eating a steak and drinking a good bottle of wine. From note one of their amazing first album to the end of their most recent Surfdog release, this mighty three piece delivers a juicy, mouth-watering, honky tonk and blues drenched experience in roots, roadhouse and rockabilly as our saying goes. Dayton's guitar is all beef, and is perfectly complimented by the velvety depth of his powerful voice.

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Between the two Road Kings discs he also had a solo release, "Raisin' Cain" on the ill-fated Justice label. This band was a "who's who" of Austin all-stars including Flaco Jimenez and the late, great Doug Sahm, to name but a few. Over the course of the three releases, Dayton has exhibited an enviable facility for cross-genre alchemy. Besides the usual Clash and Social Distortion infatuations, Beaumont native Dayton grew up on honky tonk, blues and zydeco in George Jones and Lightnin' Hopkins territory. A drummer at first, he switched to guitar when he found his mentor sitting under a tree drinking Mad Dog 20/20. His story is that of a roving gunslinger who early on brought the punk back to country music, and vice-versa. Perhaps because his journey has been so long and his projects so varied, it's taken longer for him to come full circle. But with a six month tour opening for Mike Ness notched on his belt and a current headliner tour, The Road Kings would appear to be on the verge of winning the widespread cult status they deserve. Bon appetite!

GM:

How did you get started?

Jesse:
I started out playing drums in little country bands around town when I was a kid. I met this killer black blues guitar player named Granville Cleveland, and learned a lot from him. I also learned a lot from this guy named Mack Minor, another black blues guitar player, who was Mance Lipscombes' and Lighting Hopkins' cousin. Mack was a wino — he didn't even have a guitar. He used to sit under a tree and get loaded all the time. When I found out who he was I started bringing him a guitar and playing with him. Those two guys were my big influences.

GM:

Was Mack good?

He was awesome, man. He played that country blues -- it wasn't Chicago blues at all.

GM:

Isn't George Jones from Beaumont?

George Jones went to my dad's high school. The whole town knew George. He used to stand in the corner of this honky tonk off the I-10 singing and playing guitar accompanied by an accordion player and a guy playing triangle.
He owned a big house but he was never there. Tammy and him used to check into the hospital all the time to dry out. We heard all kinds of stories.

GM:

When did you start gigging?

I started gigging when I was fifteen. When I got a little older Clifford Antone, who owns Antone's in Austin, gave me four original Chess records and said, "Learn this."

GM:

What did he give you?

He gave me Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy and Lightnin' Hopkins. I was doing cover tunes, playing in country cover bands, in rock bands ... everything. I'd be up there with my Social Distortion t-shirt playing "He Stopped Loving Her Today" with my little greasy haircut.

GM:

The atmosphere in Beaumont was musical?

It was a very rich culture; a lot of indigenous music and little roadhouses and honky tonks to play. First show I ever saw was a George Jones concert at a drive-in movie theater and he didn't show up. They gave us our money back. We went back the next week and he showed up and he was totally smashed.

GM:

Was George Jones good live?

He sang his ass off.

GM:

Did you start a band?

I usually just played for people, but I had a little band called the Midnight Ramblers. We played rockabilly, blues and country. We played some of my originals and a lot of covers. We'd do a Johnny Burnette song and then we'd do "Got My Mojo Working" then "White Lightning," that kinda stuff. At 18 I started going back and forth to Austin. I was a huge blues fan. That was a period of my life where I didn't listen to anything but the blues.

GM:

What was going on in Austin at that time?

There was huge scene going on there. I started playing the Black Cat Lounge. This band called Two Hoots and a Holler got me up on stage and let me sit in. That was Rick Broussard's band, and to me he is the most natural, unaffected, talented rockabilly singer, guitar player ever to come out of Austin. He was a star. You couldn't take your eyes off of him. Then the guy that owned the club gave me my own gig there, and that band kinda turned into the Road Kings.

GM:

What was the original lineup?

It was just a jam session at that point, so different people played in it. When we really got the name and started playing steadily, Jason Burns, Eric Tucker and I formed the band as it is now.

GM:

So the original project was rockabilly?

Rockabilly, blues and country. I was playing table steel when we first started. I got to go see people like Junior Brown play over at Henry's for, like, five people. Then I'd go watch the Vaughan brothers. Then I saw the Thunderbirds play and the next day I put grease in my hair. I had a revelation and thought, "This is what I need to be listening to."

GM:

When did the first Road Kings album come out?

It was probably '91 or '92. We were together for quite a few years before we cut that record. We put it out ourselves and it's no longer available.

GM:

That's a shame because it's a great record. Is there any chance of it reappearing at some point?

There are some European distributors interested in putting it out, so we're talking about it. I think it might happen.

GM:

What happened after that?

I had a honky tonk band in Austin called the Alamo Jets. We played the Continental every Tuesday night for 8 months with the Derailers and Junior Brown. That was around '93 or'94. It was then I met Jim Lauderdale who really helped me learn how to craft a song. He was a big, big influence on my songwriting. Justice records started up in Texas and signed Willie Nelson, Billy Joe Shaver, Kris Kristofferson, and Waylon Jennings, and they asked me if I wanted to do a solo record. "Raisin' Cain" came out in '95 and went to #1 on the Americana charts. I got a stack of big press and subsequently toured with everybody from Willie Nelson to George Strait to Merle Haggard. I got all the great gigs. So when it came time for me to do my second record they wanted me to go to Nashville. I said I'd record there if we could make a real country record. So we went in and did the record and we had everybody on it. I had my band playing behind me, which is unheard of in Nashville. I even did a western swing song with Johnny Gimble, and the Dixie Chicks came in from Dallas and sang background. That was two years before they went mainstream -- they were still doing straight bluegrass in Dallas. Me and Mandy Barnett did kind of a Conway-Loretta style duet that I wrote. Then the record company went under. That was about '97.

GM:

Is the record finished?

It's all recorded. It's called "Hey Nashvegas." It's sitting in a vault. Justice has the rights. They're talking to BMG about releasing it. After that went downhill, I was still in Nashville. I got to go on that Crook and Chase show with Kristofferson. The next morning I get this phone call and it's this producer saying Waylon Jennings cut his finger last night and wants me to come down and play guitar with him. In the middle of the session, Cash walks in and tells me, "Hey, me and June came in from a gig last night and saw your second song on Crook and Chase. You're a little different but if you keep at it you're going to be great." Me and him and Waylon spent the whole day in the studio together. I spent 3 weeks with Waylon playing lead guitar on his record "Right For the Time." I got to play some shows with him and it was just unbelievable. He was one of my idols. After that the Supersuckers called me to play guitar on their country record. I went up to record in Seattle and they invited me to bring my band out on tour with them. They'd come out and open up for me with their country record; then I'd do the middle slot; and they'd finish the night with their punk show.

GM:

What changed?

I started hanging out in Los Angeles and writing more hybrid songs. I was trying to find my own voice as a writer. I've always mixed it up a little bit, but I wanted to really mix it up and make a hybrid form of music with blues and rockabilly and pop and zydeco and honky tonk all thrown in. I didn't want any parameters placed on my writing. I'd had a tough time in Nashville when I was there because I was too country for Nashville. And I had all these other songs that were more singer-songwriter stuff. That was just me -- I'd been listening to a lot of Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt. After playing honky tonk in every punk club in the United States in '95, my writing started changing. So I hooked up with manager Dave Kaplan. A lot of labels were interested in me doing a record, but when it came down to it, if they were Nashville labels they'd want me to play their songs, with their musicians, and I'm not into that. Kaplan told me about this label he'd started and asked if I wanted to put out a Road Kings record in the meantime. We knew if we got back together and just did the same old roots record that we'd fall into this 'no depression' kinda category. I really wanted to make a record that had all my influences on it, from jazz to blues to punk to rockabilly. That's why the record came out so aggressive. Then we went out on tour with Mike Ness. He was so cool to us -- going on stage every night talking about how great he thought we were and how everybody should buy our record. We ended up selling more records on that tour than I've ever sold. We're also going out and headlining at bigger venues, like the American Music Hall in San Francisco. This was because of Mike.

GM:

The hybrid went over well.

Big time. A lot of the rockabilly and the punk rock kids are coming together and that's our crossover. I didn't want to go play the little rockabilly clubs where you've got to turn down and pretend like you're in the fifties. I wanted to go out and play rock shows and not try to hide the fact that when I was listening to the Sun records I was also listening to The Clash and Social D.

GM:

What's going on right now for you?

We're starting in Texas and doing a West Coast tour (Feb/Mar). In the meantime I got two things that are fixin' to come out. I played lead guitar on the new Ray Price Orchestra record with Junior Brown. It's a 36 piece orchestra. Then I've got a cut that I did with Pete Anderson -- an old Lightnin' Hopkins song called "Gimme Back My Wig." That's coming out on this Sire/Antone's release called "The New Guns" featuring all guitar players.

GM:

What's interesting to me is how much you've been around and you're still a cult figure.

Whether it's Willie Nelson, Tom Waits or Steve Earle, my favorite writers have always attracted large cult followings and have still been able to do exactly what they wanted to do. If I end up having a big cult following, that's not such a bad life. I can have a ranch in Austin and a couple of hot rods and life will be good. It's happening pretty fast with the Road Kings. We're all laughing.