Artist:     Dennis Jay

Album:     Western & Country

Label:     Linkhorn Music

Release Date:     09/01/2016

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San Antonio native singer/songwriter Dennis Jay collaborates with some well known Austin musicians including multi-instrumentalist and music producer, Lloyd Maines, on his newest CD, Western & Country. While Jay’s high tenor vocals and yodeling deliver some emotional lyrics, Maines’ superb performances on steel guitar, as well as bass, percussion and spoons make the album memorable. Kudos too to locals Terri Hendrix on harmonica, Bukka Allen on piano and accordion, drummer William Mansell, Jimmie Scott Calhoun on upright bass, Howard T. Levine on lead guitar and Richard Bowden on fiddle and trumpet.

Since the 1980s, Jay has performed throughout Central Texas in honky-tonks and beer gardens, solo or with his Lonesome Town band. Together Jay and Maines co-wrote “Texas Skies Shining in a Cowgirl’s Eyes,” a lyrically sparse song that instrumentally conjures up the spirit of the late great Western Swing bandleader Bob Wills. Vocally, Jay performs best solo on banjo for a version of the folk music standard, “Streets of Laredo,” also known as “The Cowboy’s Lament.”  Fans of classic country may enjoy Jay’s album infused with Mexican language and reminiscent of the late great crooners Hank Williams, Ernest Tubb and Lefty Frizzell.

-Donna Marie Miller