Dennis Jay and Lonesome Town

Friday night my family and I ate dinner at River Hofbrau & Beer Garden in New Braunfels. They typically have live music on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, and this particular evening Dennis Jay and Lonesome Town were playing. I have to admit I personally am a dramatically eclectic music listener, I grew up on country, rock, classic rock, southern rock, blues, jazz, hillbilly, classical (you get the picture).

Dennis writes songs that appeals to one of the very thick layers of my inner music fan. I really picked up on what Dennis was doing about a year and a half ago, and once I realized that most of the songs he was doing that floored me were songs that he wrote, I was hooked! On the surface, this may just seem like another guy doing western or cowboy music, but Dennis goes way deeper than that, he is staying truer to the origins of his music than possibly anybody I've encountered, then he takes it one step further and makes it his own, including many of the country and folk songs he covers from songwriters of primarily the 40's through the 70's.

I had the privilege of going into the studio twice with Dennis this year as he's been recording a new album at The Zone in Dripping Springs. Lloyd Maines is producing this project, as well as playing pedal steel and some guitar parts. It's almost surreal watching a grammy winning producer such as Lloyd Maines work, he makes everything look easy and he makes everybody's jobs easier because he appears to have a very clear vision and he heads steadily in that direction. I can't wait to hear the final mixes, and I am very ready to see this new piece of music history hit the shelves!

Dennis Jay and Lonesome Town is:
Dennis Jay - lead vocals/guitar
Howard Levine - guitar/vocals
Jimmie Calhoun - bass
Billy Mansell - drums