Surprisingly, Dayton didn't play much more from his latest record, "Tall Texas Tales," except 'Arkansas Chrome.' One has to assume from his "we're tired of the same old set" comment that his band has been playing the record in those "north of the Red River gigs" Dayton referenced throughout the evening in his between-songs patter.

And throw out the set list Mr. Dayton did. Oh, he had a list back on his amplifier and he would walk back and take a peek at it once in awhile. But when fans hollered out things like "Blood Bucket Blues" or "Planet of Love," Jesse would just grin and say, "Yeah, let's do that one, guys."

To hell with the set list. This is our house and these are our people.

And in this free form "we're playing in a friend's living room" atmosphere, Dayton and his bandmates delivered one of the freshest, most rousing and pleasing sets of music seen in Houston in quite a long while. When it was over at ten minutes 'til 2, there was no doubt in my mind who the best Austin band not from Lubbock is these days -- even if they are all Houston transplants.

"We're in Houston and Beaumont's just right over there, so would it be alright if we played a George Jones song?" Dayton told a great story about how his father had gone to high school with the Jones brothers and how they were so poor they often came to school without shoes -- until the day George came to pick up his little brother from school in the biggest Cadillac anyone in Beaumont had ever seen. And with that setup, Dayton gave a white soul rendering of Jones' classic 'The Grand Tour' that few singers on the scene today could pull off, much less have the cojones to try.

Mixing long time Dayton standards with choice covers, Dayton and his band put on a tour de force performance of what Duane Jarvis calls "rock'n'roll country soul." Dayton covered Marty Robbins ('Singin' the Blues'), Tom T. Hall ('That's How I Got to Memphis'), friend and mentor Jim Lauderdale ('King of Broken Hearts' and 'Planet of Love'), and paid moving tribute to Eddy Shaver with a sizzling version of 'The Hottest Thing In Town.' And when the diehards chanted "Jesse, Jesse, Jesse, Jesse," he encored with a blazing medley of Willie's 'Bloody Merry Morning' and Terry Allen's 'Hard Amarillo Highway.'

Along the way, Dayton and his band of virtuosos -- bassist Charlie Sanders is a show in and of himself, and whether Brian Thomas is playing steel guitar with a beer bottle slide or red-lining the tachometer on his black electric banjo machine (imagine Earl Scruggs after a few lessons from Jimi Hendrix and powered by a Marshall amp stack) -- revived favorites from his previous album, "Raisin' Cain": the radio friendly 'She's Kissing Abilene Goodbye,' the soulful Lauderdale-ish 'She Used To Say That To Me' ("a song about the big D -- and I don't mean Dallas" in which "instead of writing a song about the woman who left you, you write one about the guy who stole her"), 'Next Time I'm In Town,' and 'Big City Blues.'

Dayton also reprised the dark and dramatic 'Boystown' ("Wow, we haven't played that in a long time, but we'll give it a try") and a screamed request for longtime Houston club crowd favorite, 'Carmelita.'

Dayton introduced Horseshoe's obscure, braggadocious, tongue in cheek 'Tall Texas Trash' by saying "we're gonna put this one on our live record." Where Horseshoe's original version had been loopy and loose-jointed, with an informal "this is just a rehearsal" feel, Dayton has infused high energy and a certain blue-eyed soul vocal delivery to this humorous, self-deprecating, Tex-o-centric tune.

I've been tempted by the Devil himself
But I guess the Devil done met his match
'Cause not even the Devil wants to mess with
This tall walkin' Texas trash

Dayton's onstage patter is some of the wittiest in the business. He introduced 'Let's Go Get Stoned (And Listen to George Jones)' with a commentary on his former record companies. "I've wanted to put this one on record before, but the record company always said no. But like my Dad used to say about Willie's concerts - 'son, it looks like there might be some free thinkers in this crowd'." Dayton now has his own company, Bullet Records, and is producing his own records, so we can probably take him at his word that 'Let's Go Get Stoned' will be on his forthcoming live album recorded during a series of gigs at Houston's Continental Club in January. The song has that singalong feel like Garth Brooks' 'Friends in Low Places' had, but given the subject matter it is likely that this song will remain one of those hip underground classics that only hardcore Dayton fans will be acquainted well enough with to sing along. Judging from the audience participation, the as yet unrecorded song has already achieved a certain cachet.

Dayton was preceded by California's rockabilly Western swingers, Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys. They gave a well received set that had the swing dancing element in ecstasy. The band has a studied minimalist retro sound and works mainly in the rockabilly genre, with the occasional bow toward Western swing. Guitarist Ashley Kingman played some outstanding guitar reminiscent of the low end twangy licks on Johnny Horton's rockabilly numbers.

But Dayton was clearly the focus of the evening and he delivered a set that must have made Big Sandy happy that he had been the opener because as sharp and road-honed as Dayton's band is at this point they are one tough act to follow. Dayton's current lineup, repertoire and approach to live playing reminds me of the Joe Ely band. Austin has always been known as a place where musicians who don't fit the mold can develop "their thing." Dayton has developed his thing -- a white soul singer voice with classic country sensibilities, Dave-Alvin-meets-Waylon-Jennings guitar chops, and a throw-away-the-formulas-and-rules attitude -- into what is one of the hottest bands around. As Clay Farmer, a none-too-shabby singer, songwriter and performer in his own right who opened for Dayton during his Continental Club recording dates, said, "Jesse's found his true voice and is really bringing it right now. I can't think of a better act out there at the moment."

Me neither, Mr. Farmer.