Road-weary but ecstatic after a successful album and tour with Samantha Fish (VG, March ’23), Jesse Dayton is riding a wave with The Hard Way Blues. Equal parts Texas swagger and humidity, he digs deep with a potent mix of dry humor, unadulterated twang, and the ghost of Link Wray.
What was the secret sauce for Death Wish Blues, your album with Samantha Fish?
A million things could have gone wrong, but they didn’t, for some reason. We ended up co-writing all the songs and it sounded like nothing else out there. In blues, there’s a lot of paint-by-numbers stuff. It was our opportunity to do something different, and people dug it.
We live in a very noisy world, so for me and Samantha to rise above and have something of a hit was shocking. Also, there’s no act out there where there’s a guy and a girl singing their guts out and shredding. That visual was like, “Oh wow! What’s this?” It made a lot of people stop and say, “This is different!” I’m a 57-year-old overnight success (laughs). We got a bunch of cool magazine covers, but Vintage Guitar was the coolest.
How did The Hard Way Blues come about?
During the pandemic, I started thinking about East Texas blues – Blind Lemon Jefferson and that whole thing. I grew up on the Texas/Louisiana border, and I was like, “This is my way into this genre…” It was something I could build a concept around, and the songs are more story oriented.
I listened to a lot of Townes Van Zandt and Bob Dylan, thinking, “How could I bring this heavy Texas-blues sound but arrange them so they’re story songs?” But there’s also a British influence; when I listen to “Hard Way Blues,” it sounds to me like a Pete Townshend solo record, or Dave Edmunds. Or Nick Lowe. Plus, I really wanted to play a lot of guitar (laughs). The record is all guitar!
“Huntsville Prison Rodeo” takes the listener on a ride.
It all happened to me and my uncle. My parents would take me to that in the late 1970s. People were getting killed. It was traumatic! Even on “The Hard Way,” it’s about banging your head against the wall and expecting different results. The whole record is about getting out of my own way. Finally getting old enough to have some clarity and see. “Oh, I see what I need to do here.” Lyrically, I’m very proud of this record.
Your guitar is a force of nature.
I played a prototype made by a company called Blast Cult. There are only two like mine, and I have the first. The second was owned by the late Nick Curran, a killer player from Austin who was in The Fabulous Thunderbirds. I used it in this Rob Zombie Halloween movie because Rob wanted an evil guitar. Everyone thinks it’s a Gretsch, or they say, “What’s with the ‘Trini Lopez on crack’ guitar (laughs)?” It has that big, full hollowbody sound with TV Jones pickups and I can get super-warm clean stuff or low-down dirty swamp s**t. Its Bigsby forces me to approach the bar in a different way – I use it almost like a pedal-steel. It’s kind of cool if you’re playing rock and roll because no one is expecting it. They’re expecting dive-bombs. I love Van Halen, but that’s not my world.
Do you tour with it?
Non-stop, and I cannot believe how well it stays in tune. I use it to intentionally get feedback. I place my amps so if I move my body a little, I can get feedback. It’s all sustain, and I can control it. I get all kinds of Duane Eddy and Link Wray-sounding stuff. I’m really into Link. I got to open on one of his last tours. I tried to go back to that sound with the tube Echoplex plugged directly into a small Fender amp.
Are you using small amps onstage?
I prefer using smaller amps, but I have to use bigger amps because we’ve been playing bigger places. I tried using my blackface Super Reverbs, but they were too woofy, so I bought a couple of Princetons.
What’s next?
Do you remember the Showdown! album with Albert Collins, Robert Cray, and Johnny Copeland? Me, Ian Moore, and Johnny Moeller, the guitar player from the Thunderbirds, went into the studio and cut some s**t, and it is on fire! It’s the most Texas-sounding s** I ever played in my life!
This article originally appeared in VG’s July 2024 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
