Waylon Payne Interview (photo by Glenn Cook)
Waylon Payne is a seasoned entertainer and musician with a marked ability to touch people’s hearts with his songwriting. As Waylon Jennings’ godson, he was steeped in music from a very early age and understands it in a lived way from the inside. As a frequent traveler with Willie Nelson, immersion in the scene continues. His new album Wayward was produced by Frank Liddell and Eric Masse, and immediately sounds like an instant classic, with co-writes with Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe and more. We had a chance to chat with Waylon about the album, music, and other topics along the way.
Americana Highways: Anybody who has been in any proximity to me since 2020 knows that Blue Eyes, The Harlot, The Queer, The Pusher & Me is a fundamental, foundational album to me. Changed my musical DNA. The last album that had this kind of affect on me was Green Day’s American Idiot. Definitely a different genre, but similar themes. Almost operatic, with struggle, failure, and redemption.
Waylon Payne: Well, the blue eyes record was certainly something that I feel I had to make. those songs and that journey was something I needed to tell and I’m very pleased with the way that the story unfolded. Wayward, the new one, is a record that we decided to make because we just wanted to make music. Frank Liddell has a knack for making great records or helping people make great records and I am really pleased that we made this one. I’m still telling stories. The stories are a bit lighter maybe and come from somewhere different. The last record was very serious and dealt with some serious things. I think the new album just allows us all to feel a little bit easier in our skin.
An album that had a huge impact on my life was Bobbie Gentry‘s Patchwork. It’s an album I’ve gone back to over and over through the years and it always gives me a satisfying listening experience. I have taken that album and breathed it in. I feel like I know note for note every bit of it. Other records that were really monumental in my life, Amy Grant’s “Lead Me On” was groundbreaking at the time. Any Willie Nelson record can move me the same way. Of course my momma Sammi Smith made the best records I ever heard.
AH: Does genre really matter for a songwriter? I mean, it certainly matters when it comes to what audience it is marketed to. But do you ever sit down and say, well, today I’m gonna write a rock song, or a country song. Or do you just write what comes to you with whatever melody comes with it?
WP: I don’t know necessarily if genre is something I ever think about I just write songs. I definitely have a very unique style. That is my own. But I have borrowed licks, phrasing, or taken inspiration from my heroes; I think everybody does. I think I just am a very personal writer. I write about things I’ve seen and done. Or saw and heard.
AH: One reason I ask is, jumping into the new album, Wayward, you started off with a banger with “Looking For a Feeling.” Like kicking down the front door here I am. Did that song just wind up coming first on the album or was that done intentionally, to just, ya know, come out guns a blazing?
WP: Looking for a feeling man that’s just a rockin song. I wrote it with Pam Tillis. I think the beats and the instrumentation and the overall production of this song is incredible and as far as the sequence, I think that we oughta thank either Eric Masse or Frank Liddell for that.
AH: “Holding On To Lonely” is one that to me is really you feeling comfortable in your own skin, the security of not feeling the urgency of connection. The difference between being comfortable being alone and being lonely.
WP: “Holding Onto Lonely” I wrote with Charlie Worsham. Again I’m a very personal writer and I don’t mind sharing stories with people im cowriting with. There’s a little bit of me in there. There’s a little bit of Charlie in there and there’s a heck of a memory of a good song. I am a songwriter and it’s our job to make you feel or at least try to.
AH: “Hell is Empty” reminded me so much of Bob Dylan’s “Ring Them Bells.” I am not just saying this because one of the lyrics was about ringing bells. Dylan’s song was a kind of call to action for people to be aware of right and wrong on a personal level when everything seems to be going sideways in the world around them. Does this comparison resonate?
WP: I wrote “Hell is Empty” with Matraca Berg and we were both under a lot of emotions the day we wrote it. There was a lot of unrest in our country and a lot of things were going on that just made us stop and go “What the heck is going on?” It was a commentary on that and I am glad it is hitting home.
AH: “The Roses,” to me, is the “Shiver” of Wayward. There seems to be a place in your heart where both of those songs live. Your thoughts on that comparison?
WP: It is a love song that I wrote about a sweetie that I had during a moment of personal crisis. I look back fondly on people that I loved and had great moments with. This was a great moment of my life, and it was worthy of a song.
AH: So what’s coming up for you?
WP: Well I will be on the road again with Willie Nelson. We’ve got Farm Aid on September 26th that you can stream live on CNN and You Tube. I am also playing some dates with Little Big Town in October and November. After that, I don’t know just yet.
Thanks very much for chatting with us, Waylon Payne! Find the music here: https://waylonpayne.ffm.to/wayward
Enjoy some of our previous coverage here: Show Review: Robert Earl Keen and Waylon Payne at Lincoln Theatre 12/6