The Waybacks

Dirty Linen

This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen #136 (June/July 2008).
The full article is in the magazine, available on newsstands, by subscription, and at the Dirty Linen webstore.

The Waybacks

Song Jam

by Michael Parrish

Virtuoso quartet the Waybacks are a study in contradictions. Generally thought of as a Bay Area group, the quartet now has half of its members residing outside California (drummer Chuck Hamilton lives in Seattle, and the group's newest member, Warren Hood, lives in Austin). Over the years, the band has been labeled as an acoustic, largely instrumental ensemble, yet its newest effort, Loaded, is mostly electric, with nary a breakdown in sight. Taking a different direction, the Waybacks are a classic example of a group following its collective artistic muse, taking musical and personal chances in pursuit of an ever-evolving sound.

The Waybacks came together in the late 1990s in the San Francisco Bay area and performed for years as a quintet, but personnel changes resulted in the current four-member lineup that recorded the band's latest album. Guitarist/mandolin player James Nash and fiddler Warren Hood, who only recently joined the group, are the primary songwriters. Drummer Chuck Hamilton and bassist Joe Kyle Jr. hold down the rhythm section.

Nash said that the band approached the recording sessions for Loaded with a bumper crop of new songs; however, remaining members had to adjust their approach after the departure of their longtime musical compatriot, guitarist and songwriter Stevie Coyle, shortly before the recording sessions. "This was our first album without Stevie, which means that we only had one guitar player, which really kind of pushed us in some different directions. I think the writing is stronger than before, and for that reason we decided not to do any cover tunes. We had so many original songs that we actually had to throw out four or five that we really wanted to record, just not wanting the thing to get too long. The other new factor is Warren, with he and I having split the writing duties just about equally on the record, which is just great. It's given us a whole different sound, and I think it gave us a lot of compositional inspiration. We had a lot of stories that needed to be told and feelings that we wanted to express."

The group recorded Loaded at Compass Records' studio in Nashville, with multi-instrumentalist Byron House handling the production duties. Hood was impressed with House's style in the studio. "Byron was great -- the most professional, organized producer I've ever done a session with. He had notepads with everything written out and mapped out within a few minutes for every day, for every hour -- just trying to stay on schedule and, if we got behind schedule, to make the necessary adjustments to catch up the next day. The last day of recording was actually a 24-hour day, and Byron, James, and the producer, Eric, were the only guys that were there the whole 24 hours."

[cover #136]