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JESSE DAYTON & BRENNEN LEIGH
After 10-plus years of rockin' the international honky-tonk circuit with his bands, as a solo artist and as lead guitar player for the likes of Waylon Jennings, Ray Price and The Supersuckers, Austin's Jesse Dayton made the decision to pay homage to the classic country duet recordings that he grew up with in the '70s. He found the Tammy to his George in the up-and-coming Austin singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Brennen Leigh and the result is Holdin' Our Own and other COUNTRY GOLD Duets. (And keep your eyes peeled for a fast-action, 70s mock-Grindhouse style trailer for the album by Austin filmmaker Ben Foster to blow onto screens very soon.)
Dayton's "turbo country" style is a nod to his past with his early rockabilly outfit the Road Kings and the countrified Alamo Jets. Since then, he's done live and studio work for the aforementioned folks as well as Willie Nelson and legendary songwriter Johnny Bush. In 2001, he formed his own label, STAG RECORDS, which debuted with Hey Nashvegas, a set of classic country tunes that included Floyd Domino, Jim Lauderdale and the Dixie Chicks. He's also been tapped by Rob Zombie to become the fictional band Banjo and Sullivan from Zombie's film Devil's Rejects, resulting in a "faux" greatest hits collection: Banjo and Sullivan: the Ultimate Collection 1972-1978 (Universal Records) which includes soon-to-be hillbilly classics like "Dick Soup" and "I'm Home Getting Hammered While She's Out Getting Nailed." And 2006 saw Jesse launch his inaugural "Honky Tonk and Hot Rods Festival." (He drives a 1950 Ford Coupe that's been "Frenched, lowered and shaved" if you're wonderin'.)
23-year-old Brennen Leigh has been singing and playing bluegrass music (she plays fiddle, mandolin and guitar) with her brother, Seth Hulbert, since she was 12 years old. Leigh's pure, raw, bittersweet way with a song and lyric adapted itself perfectly to Dayton's pure country style and the chemistry is tangible. Opening with the skies-the-limit optimism of "Let's Run Away," a Doug Sahm-flavored, Tex-Mex rocker, the album plunges into the lovin' and fightin' relationship painted in "Holdin' Our Own," where the protagonists have their share of troubles but are "scared to death of winding up alone."
While "Holdin Our Own" consists mainly of Dayton & Leigh originals, the album includes a few classics ("Brand New Heartache") to drive the vintage sound on home. These are old-school, real life country songs about lovin', troubles, rehab, two-steppin', revenge and heartache. Dayton & Leigh's characters feast on "butter beans and lunchmeat" in "Something to Brag About with You," and in "Two Step Program," you find the dueling couple "dancing with every stranger in sight to get you off my mind … getting' back at you steppin' out on me."
A highlight is the '50s-style dance ballad "We Hung the Moon," which features harmonies that evoke the classic era of country duets where couples like George & Tammy and Conway & Loretta reigned supreme. Wente Vinyards has selected "We Hung The Moon" as one of 6 featured tracks in their "Discover The Wine, Discover The Music" campaign which also kicks off in November. "Long Legged Guitar Pickin' Man" is pure Johnny and June, all sass and hot licks, and Dayton and Leigh do their version of the song proud.
Profile courtesy of Press Darling PR.