Wayne "The Train" @ Dan's

I went to Dan’s Silverleaf this past Saturday for an evening of good ol’ country swing with Wayne “The Train” Hancock and, for the first time in many years, I was thoroughly worn out at the end…in a good way, of course. He came on at a little after 10:00 and said right of “Well, it’s against my religion to stop playing before two, so they’re gonna have to kick me off this fucking stage.” Funny joke, ha-ha, until they finally did have to kick him off stage at around 2:30. Four and a half hours of old fashioned rockin’ country music and more than enough to drink put the hurt on me, and I loved every second of it. He comes up here every couple of months (he’ll be back in mid-December), but this was the first time I’d actually seen him. I didn’t expect somebody so troll-ish up on stage, which doesn’t matter, of course, but there sure was a lot of soul coming from that short, pudgy, weird-looking body.

He comes across fairly crazy, so I’m not sure whether he’s telling the truth or not but, if he’s to be believed, it was lucky for him to make the show. It’s pretty clear that he’s a hard living kind of guy and, apparently, he was arrested the previous Tuesday and, fortunately, only served eight hours of a six day sentence, and was able to make it to Denton. It was just him, another guitarist, and a double-bass player for most of the show playing a good blend of his own songs and (mostly Hank Williams) covers, including the entirety of his new album. For part of the show, though, he brought up somebody he knew to play a third guitar and this older guy who happened to have a harmonica in his pocket to help him out. Everyone, and nobody more so than Wayne himself, was having a great time. It’s clear that he plays for one reason, that he loves playing. There’s not a lot of money in playing places like Denton in front of a hundred people, but it’s a damn good, if not quite rowdy, crowd. Like he said to close the show, “As long as I live, I guaran-fucking-tee you that you’ll never go without good music but, considering how I live, who knows how long that’s going to be.” I hope he’s wrong, but I know better, and so does he.