New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Waylon Payne releases the first of four acts from his forthcoming album Blue Eyes, The Harlot, The Queer, The Pusher & Me, (out
September 11 via Carnival Recording Company/EMPIRE) in the form of three new original songs: "Sins of the Father," "Dead on a Wheel," and "High Horse". The four-act album represents Payne's first new music in more than 16 years.
Produced by Eric Masse (Miranda Lambert, Rayland Baxter) and Frank Liddell (Lambert, Lee Ann Womack), Blue Eyes has already been praised as "a stunner of an album" by Garden & Gun which ran a multi-page feature on
Waylon earlier this year. In each song on the album, he testifies to a decade-long journey, through drug addiction, the loss of his parents, and homelessness, as well as the grace and relationships that led him to sobriety and redemption.
"The essential DNA elements of this record are my written confessions and pleas for forgiveness," says Payne. "It all revolved around me getting right with myself and the universe. Maybe I still am a preacher in a way — I just channel it into what's supposed to be."
As the son of country artist Sammi Smith and longtime Willie
Nelson guitarist Jody Payne, Waylon's country music roots run deep. His own childhood came flooding back while recording this album at Southern Ground studio in Nashville. In a past life, the room had been known as Monument Studios, and it was there that Payne's mother had cut "Help Me Make It Through The Night" and a slew of other memorable tracks. Guests on the album include Cage the Elephant guitarist Nick Bockrath, Nelson's long-time harmonica player Mickey
Raphael and others.
The album opens with the bluesy gospel country of "Sins of the Father," a powerful reckoning with the past in which Payne confronts the full weight of his inherited demons, and the timely "Dead On The Wheel" calls for mercy and compassion in a world of cruelty. Act I is all about taking stock of where Payne has been.
Blue Eyes, The Harlot, The Queer, The Pusher & Me Tracklst:
Act I
1. Sins of the Father (Waylon Payne)
2. Dead on a Wheel (Waylon Payne)
3. High Horse (Waylon Payne)
Payne has written for artists like
Miranda Lambert, Lee Ann Womack,
Ashley Monroe and others and has shared bills with acts including Dwight Yoakam, Kris Kristofferson, Willie
Nelson and more.
Payne's team includes Carnival Music, EMPIRE, Paradigm Talent Agency, Shore Fire Media and Girlilla Marketing. For more information on
Waylon Payne, visit waylonpaynemusic.com.
