By Andrew Daly
Inspired by equal doses of country, blues, hard rock, and, oh, yeah, horror movies, there’s a very real argument to be made that Texas native Jesse Dayton is one of, if not the most idiosyncratic guitarist in the game today.
Don’t believe it? Listen to his latest, Death Wish Blues, which he co-penned, co-recorded, and co-shredded his way through alongside fellow modern-day blues rocker, Samantha Fish. One listen to cuts like “Deathwish,” “Riders,” and “Trauma” tell you all you need to know—Dayton has got it going on.
But beyond the chops, vibes, and gorgeous vintage amps—which he’s paired with some lovely hollowbody Gretsch curios—there’s a sense that Dayton, who has been at it since 1995’s sizzling Raisin’ Cain, may well be hitting his stride.
And that’s a bold statement, given that he’s served up 17 albums (including Death Wish Blues) and played alongside greats like Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash. Oh, and lest we forget his soundtrack work alongside the indomitable Rob Zombie, which no doubt injected heaping doses of I-can’t-put-my-finger-on-what-this-is-but-I-like-it vibes into his preexisting country/blues stew.
With Death Wish Blues in the can and loads of shows on the docket, you’d probably assume that Dayton is taking it all in. But no, he’s reportedly back in the studio, searching for the next set of sounds that will once again transform him into the player he’s yet to become.
Restless as he wrestles with his next musical creation, Jesse Dayton dialed in with Buddy Magazine to talk approach, gear, new music, and growing up in the Texas music scene.
As a young player coming up in the Texas scene, who were some of your favorite players?
Billy Gibbons must be one of the big ones. Those first five ZZ Top records were like the soundtrack of our lives. Growing up in Beaumont, I always saw Johnny Winter around town. I used to see him at a Dairy Queen, and he had tattoos when only sailors and bikers had tattoos. I loved James Burton. I liked the way that James blurred the line between what was blues and what was country and could live in both of those worlds.
All the Excello label stuff was great… Slim Harpo, Lazy Leste, all that stuff. I saw Stevie Ray Vaughan play with Paul Ray and the Cobras when I was a kid, and I distinctly remember leaving, going, “Wow, those British guys on the radio aren’t that great.” Not that they aren’t; they’re all brilliant, but I was a young kid watching Stevie Ray play, thinking, “Pete Townsend can’t do that.”
You’ve always got a lot of exciting things going on, like Death Wish Blues with Samantha Fish. How do your Texas roots continue to manifest themselves in your playing?
There isn’t any way for it not to happen; it finds its way into whatever I play. There’s stuff that I try to play and represent that style in a pure, honest way; those Texas roots will just come out. That’s the cool thing about it: if I go out and do a session in Los Angeles or New York or whatever, and I’m the only guy from Texas on the session, it becomes incredibly evident when they go back and listen to the recordings.
How would you best describe the player you are today versus when you were younger, especially after working with Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash?
I don’t think about that as much as I did back then. That was some heavy stuff for a young guy, so I thought about it a lot. I would overthink it, saying, “Am I playing too much, or am I playing too little?” or “Am I getting the melody line in there?” Now that I’m older, I’m just totally in the moment. I don’t worry about any of that stuff anymore. The great thing about getting older is not giving a damn [laughs].
How has working with Rob Zombie influenced the work you’re doing?
With Rob, I mostly wrote original soundtracks, so I had a lot of freedom to do what I wanted. I didn’t have to go in there and pretend I was John 5 and do a bunch of tricks. Working with Rob was incredible because he helped me see music more cinematically; I learned a lot from him. Rob is bigger now than he was on the radio, so I learned a lot about business from him, too, and how to make stuff work.
After I did those Rob Zombie films, I made my little film, Zombex, with Malcolm McDowell and many other good people in it. It was like going to a little film school. I would send Rob some stuff, and he would give me feedback and constructive criticism, so I learned a lot from that guy; he’s a brilliant person. I don’t know anyone who works harder.
Many people associate you with blues and country, but you’ve expanded into other genres. What keeps you from getting trapped in a box?
It’s partly because I’m a Gemini. I get bored quickly, but I think it’s simply because I can. I have many contemporary friends I love and admire, but if you threw them in a different genre, they’d be screwed. When I grew up on the Texas/Louisiana border back in the day, I had to learn all these arrangements from rhythm and blues, western swing, honkey tonk, and all that that would go on to form how I play.
Listen to the great rock bands, including the Rolling Stones, [Led] Zeppelin, and The Clash. You can hear that every one of their records has a different style…their version of country, swamp pop, rockabilly, blues, or whatever, and people don’t make records like that anymore. That’s what Samantha [Fish] and I wanted to do.
You and Samantha show very distinct sounds on Death Wish Blues, but it works. Why do you feel your styles play off each other so well?
It’s because we’re so incredibly different stylistically; we’re not close in how we play, like Bernie Taupin and Elton John. Bernie was really into country songwriting, and Elton was into soul, and they made this hybrid; that’s how I feel about this album with Samantha. She has her own voice on the guitar. She plays real lyrically, and I play differently than that, and that’s what makes it work. We’re listening to each other and conversing; I’m not waiting for her to quit speaking so I can start blabbering.
Given your distinctive approach, how do you insert yourself between the lines of Samantha’s lyricism?
I was kind of playing the contrarian, like, “Oh, you’re gonna go there, then I’m gonna go here.” That can make music really balanced as opposed to having two shredders simultaneously. It’s cool when one person is doing the opposite of the other: it’s like a yin-yang type of thing. Keith [Richards] and Ronnie [Wood] call it the ancient art of weaving.
Another good example would be Joe Perry and Brad Whitford. They would say there’s not necessarily a conversation of “you do you this, you do that;” it’s more layering different guitars for textures. Is that how it is between you and Samantha?
Totally. We knew our spots; I’m playing this big Gretsch hollow body guitar with a Bigsby on it, and she’s playing this [Gibson] SG, and we use these guitars on basically the entire record. We used an old Silvertone in a song and a couple of Martin acoustics. When we were recording and listening back to the songs, you could hear what they needed, and that took the mysticism out of production. We cut that album with the band live in the studio in less than ten days.
Are there any songs on Death Wish Blues that you identify most with?
We wrote all the songs together, and I think Death Wish Blues is our ultimate collaboration method. I believe songs like “No Apology” are more of her world, and songs like “Lover on The Side” are more of mine. But the exciting thing was that we both got to live in each other’s worlds, and we got to dip our toes in the other’s water, and it was enjoyable.
The combination of me, Samantha, and John Spencer became the Three Musketeers. The record sounds the way it does because it allowed us to do something different with blues bass guitar. I’m not saying it’s blues music, per se, but it’s got Freddie King licks all over it and it was different.
You mentioned that you relied heavily on the Gretsch hollowbody and Samantha the Gibson SG. But how about amps?
We had an arsenal of vintage amplifiers; we were constantly changing them up. We used blackface Fenders to Supro’s, old Gibson amps, Airline, and Silvertone amps. We use one that was an actual PA out of an elementary school from the ‘60s that we just plugged into. We went crazy, but I made sure we had plenty of room mics to mix and create the vibe we wanted between the solos and the whole band in the studio.
What is your approach to solos? Are you an off-the-cuff player or premeditated?
I’m not a premeditated type. Unless I know songs will have a strong theme, I’ll figure out a sound for it. Is it going to have a Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western guitar part or Ennio Morricone or something like that? Most of the time, I go into the studio, roll with it, and see what happens.
Looking back, what does Death Wish Blues mean to you?
It was a musical corner I got to turn that many people don’t get to turn for one reason or another. This record opened me up to a whole new world, and now I’ve got this solo record that I just did with Shooter Jennings producing it. This record was Samantha opened me up to do more stuff because I never want to get stuck in that traditional box where I’m just doing impressions of other artists; I want to be more honest than that.
And then you’ve got the new record, The Hardway Blues.
The new record is called The Hard Way Blues. I’m really excited for people to hear it. It has a lot of blues-influenced songs, be it electric Texas blues rock or acoustic country blues. The songs are mostly stories about my life or other people’s lives that affected me. It’s got some rockers on it, too, and I can’t wait to play live. The whole thing is a straight-up guitar record.
Does your process differ on this record as opposed to working with Samantha?
I’m always writing, whether it’s song title ideas, lyric ideas, or guitar riff ideas. I’m constantly recording them on my phone, then going back to those ideas and flushing them out. Some musicians have to wait for the ideas to come, but I take a very blue-collar approach to writing music, melodies, and lyrics. I wake up in the mornings with a cup of coffee and just write.
I try not to put pressure on the songs, not judge them, and just finish them. Great songs aren’t written; they’re rewritten. Usually, I write all of them on my acoustic guitar, but sometimes I set up an electric rig, too, just to feel the power and make some noise!
Where are you pulling inspiration from on this record?
I draw inspiration for songs from things that I react to, be it happy, sad, outraged, funny, angry, you name it. It could be a throwaway line someone says in a bar, movie, book, or interview. Sometimes, it’s a historical, political, or just a song about sex, which requires love, hope, and dreams. I’ve spent my 10,000 hours working on songwriting, which is as important, if not more, than the time I’ve put into playing guitar.
What gear helped shape The Hardway Blues?
Yeah, I’m a tube amp-only guy. I’ve tried digital amps and just don’t like them. I like to play the same gear that was used on the records I love and grew up on. I used vintage Fender tube amps the whole time on this new record, a 1962 Princeton and a ’66 Black Face Super Reverb. I used an old tube Echo Plex and my King guitar on everything. All the acoustic stuff is played on a 1981 Martin D45 that Wayne Henderson made while he was at Martin… it’s an amazing-sounding guitar.
Shooter Jennings worked on this with you. How did he impact the sessions?
I met Shooter when he was 16 and I was 24, playing guitar for his father, Waylon Jennings, on a record called “Right for The Time.” Fast-forward 20 years, and Shooter is a Grammy-award-winning record producer for many huge acts, so it just made sense for us to work together.
He was a huge help in creating cool arrangements and getting killer sounds for the songs. People probably thought we’d make an outlaw country record together, but it turned into more of a ’70s singer-songwriter-style record with big blues guitar parts and sounds. I’m lucky to have Shooter as a friend.
Which songs mean the most to you and why?
My songs are like my kids, so I love them all differently. They are all personal, whether directly about my life or not. I’ve co-written with other writers who either look down on being vulnerable or biopic in their writing or just can’t live with it. For me, the more personal my songwriting is, the harder it affects my audience. This batch of songs on this new record is really me opening up a vein and stretching out my arms to the universe.
What does the blues mean to you these days, and how does the guitar fit into that?
I think electric blues guitar is going through a transformation. There’s obviously a huge Stevie Ray Vaughan contingent still thriving, but there’s also this new crop like Jack White and the Black Keys that are obviously borrowing heavily from the North Mississippi scene as well.
I feel deeper in touch with the East Texas country-blues music like Lightning Hopkins and Mance Lipscomb because that’s where I was born and where my family is from. My guitar style is not something I hear much out in the world these days, and it’s all rooted in the blues.
Even my more country and hillbilly licks are rooted in the blues; people just can’t hear it because most listeners and players are stuck in this pentatonic Clapton thing. That’s what they know to be blues, and that’s fine. But there’s so much more to blues than just that.
Does people boxing you into genres bother you?
I think people have a hard time putting me in a category because I’ve played different styles of music. But all my classic favorite bands growing up, like The Rolling Stones or whoever, all made records with some blues, rock, country, and acoustic folk songs on them. I grew up on the Texas/Louisiana border, so I played everything from zydeco to honky-tonk to full-blown rock n roll. I was amazed when I moved away and found out that most players didn’t do that and stuck with one genre.
What is your outlook as you move forward as you prepare to put your next solo record out?
I’m moving into this American type of music where I’m really blurring the lines between rock, blues, and country and all these little sub-genres that I love, like swamp pop and punk and rockabilly, hard rock, and metal. If I’m writing good stuff that feels honest, that’s a great freedom to have.
Are there any genres you wouldn’t touch?
Not really. I love jazz music. That would be cool to get into. I wouldn’t touch on anything, like, I don’t think I would make a full-on Jamaican record, but I love that stuff. I love the old Trojan Records recordings and things like that. There’s folk, blues, rock, and country, and that’s my wheelhouse. I love how Dire Straits did it; they put all their influences into their music.
Have you made your best record yet?
That’s a tough one to answer. That’s for other people to answer. I got a lot of satisfaction out of this new record, and the record I did with Shooter has some heavy blues on it, too, which the record influenced, no doubt, Samantha. And it’s a guitar record.
I played leads on just about every song on it, but I wonder if they’re the best; that’s for the people to decide. I’m about to go into the studio with Ian Moore and Johnny Moeller from The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and we’re about to go in and make a blues record. A lot is happening, and I think Samantha and I will probably do more recording at some point.
What are your plans beyond The Hardway Blues and your upcoming tour?
Here’s kind of an exclusive. I’m working on a new three-guitar band record right now that features myself, Ian Moore, and Johnny Moeller from the Fabulous Thunderbirds. All three of us will be singing and playing together, exchanging vocals and leads.
It’s kind of patterned after a blues record we all dug from the ’80s called Showdown, which featured Albert Collins, Robert Cray, and Johnny Copeland. The late great Clifford Antone discovered all three of us, and we go way back. I think it’s going to be a monster blues record with all original songs, and I’m super excited about it!
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