The Waybacks
Encyclopedia
The Waybacks are an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 four-piece band based in the San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...

 area of California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. Their style has been alternately described as Americana
Americana
Americana refers to artifacts, or a collection of artifacts, related to the history, geography, folklore and cultural heritage of the United States. Many kinds of material fall within the definition of Americana: paintings, prints and drawings; license plates or entire vehicles, household objects,...

, Progressive bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...

, rock-n-roll, folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

, and acoustic
Acoustic music
Acoustic music comprises music that solely or primarily uses instruments which produce sound through entirely acoustic means, as opposed to electric or electronic means...

 mayhem. They described themselves as a "power trio with a fiddler" in an interview with NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...

.

The group's most notable performances to date have included sets at large festivals such as MerleFest
MerleFest
MerleFest is an annual "traditional plus" music festival held in Wilkesboro, North Carolina on the campus of Wilkes Community College . The festival, which is held the last weekend in April, is hosted by Grammy Award winner Doc Watson and is named in memory and honor of his son, Eddy Merle Watson,...

 in Wilkesboro
Wilkesboro, North Carolina
Wilkesboro is a town in and the county seat of Wilkes County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 3,159 at the 2000 census, and it is the second largest municipality in the county. The 2010 Census listed the town's population at 3,044. The town is located along the south bank of the...

, North Carolina, the Riverbend Festival
Riverbend Festival
The Riverbend Festival, or called Riverbend by locals, is an annual music festival in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which was started in June of 1981 as a five night festival. Over the years, the festival grew into the nine nights of its current run and presently ranks in the top 10% of all American...

 in Chattanooga
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Chattanooga is the fourth-largest city in the US state of Tennessee , with a population of 169,887. It is the seat of Hamilton County...

, Tennessee, and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco's
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

 Golden Gate Park
Golden Gate Park
Golden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, is a large urban park consisting of of public grounds. Configured as a rectangle, it is similar in shape but 20% larger than Central Park in New York, to which it is often compared. It is over three miles long east to west, and about half a...

. They have also headlined the Great American Music Hall
Great American Music Hall
The Great American Music Hall is a concert hall in San Francisco, California. It is located on O'Farrell Street in the Tenderloin neighborhood on the same block as the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theater...

 and Yoshi's (jazz club)
Yoshi's (jazz club)
Yoshi's is the preeminent jazz club of the San Francisco Bay Area.Started as a Japanese restaurant in Berkeley by Yoshi Akiba, a World War II war orphan, , and her friends Kaz Kajimura and Hiroyuki Hori, the club soon moved to a larger space on Claremont Avenue in Oakland, California and began to...

 in their home city of San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

. They have a tradition of covering entire classic rock albums such as Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...

's II
Led Zeppelin II
The finished tracks reflect the raw, evolving sound of the band and their ability as live performers. The album has been noted for featuring a further development of the lyrical themes established by Robert Plant on Led Zeppelin's debut album, creating a work which would become more widely...

, the Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers
Sticky Fingers
-Personnel:The Rolling Stones*Mick Jagger – lead vocals, acoustic guitar on "Dead Flowers", electric guitar on "Sway", percussion*Keith Richards – electric guitar, six & twelve string acoustic guitar, backing vocals...

, and the Beatles' Abbey Road at the Hillside Album Hour at Merlefest. They have performed with a wide array of artists, including Bob Weir
Bob Weir
Bob Weir is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist, most recognized as a founding member of the Grateful Dead. After the Grateful Dead disbanded in 1995, Weir performed with The Other Ones, later known as The Dead, together with other former members of the Grateful Dead...

, Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris is an American singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to her work as a solo artist and bandleader, both as an interpreter of other composers' works and as a singer-songwriter, she is a sought-after backing vocalist and duet partner, working with numerous other artists including...

, Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...

, Joan Osborne
Joan Osborne
Joan Elizabeth Osborne is an American singer-songwriter. She is best known for her song "One of Us". She has toured with Motown sidemen the Funk Brothers and was featured in the documentary film about them, Standing in the Shadows of Motown.-Biography:Originally from Anchorage, Kentucky, a suburb...

, Sam Bush
Sam Bush
Sam Bush is an American bluegrass mandolin player considered an originator of the Newgrass style.- History :...

, John Cowan
John Cowan
John Cowan is an American soul music and progressive bluegrass vocalist and bass guitar player. He was the lead vocalist and bass player for the New Grass Revival...

, Gillian Welch
Gillian Welch
Gillian Welch is an American singer-songwriter. She performs with her musical partner, guitarist David Rawlings. Their sparse and dark musical style, which combines elements of Appalachian music, Bluegrass, and Americana, is described by The New Yorker as "at once innovative and obliquely...

, and David Rawlings
David Rawlings
David Todd Rawlings is a professional guitarist and singer. He is best known as the longtime musical partner of bluegrass singer-songwriter Gillian Welch.David attended the Berklee College of Music and studied with guitar professor Lauren Passarelli....

.

The band's second album, Burger After Church, was described by David Royko of the Chicago Tribune as the "near-ideal balance of irreverence, chops, discipline, and originality". The band began recording for Compass Records
Compass Records
Compass Records is a Nashville-based independent record label founded in 1995 by musicians Garry West and Alison Brown. Currently home to nearly 100 folk, bluegrass, Celtic, jazz, and new acoustic artists, the label releases about 20 records a year...

 in 2006, releasing "From The Pasture To The Future," produced by Lloyd Maines
Lloyd Maines
Lloyd Maines is an American Grammy Award-winning country music record producer, musician and songwriter. He was born and raised in Lubbock, Texas and is now based in Bulverde, Texas....

. Their 2008 Compass release Loaded, produced by Byron House, made it to number 4 on Billboard's Top Bluegrass Albums list, and featured a guest appearance by Sam Bush
Sam Bush
Sam Bush is an American bluegrass mandolin player considered an originator of the Newgrass style.- History :...

 on mandolin.

1998: Formation

The band began in 1998 with founding members Stevie Coyle (vocals, fingerpicked guitar), Wayne "Chojo" Jacques (vocals, fiddle, mandolin) and Glenn (Pomianek) Houston (flatpicked guitar), soon to be joined by Peter Tucker (drums) and Chris Kee (vocals, bass). Live performances of this first iteration of the band drew much acclaim in the San Francisco Bay Area, not only for the Jacques/Houston solo duels and for Coyle's onstage banter, but for Kee's and Tucker's tight-as-can-be rhythm section as well.

1999–2000: Rise to national attention

Songwriter, lead guitarist and singer James Nash, replaced Glenn Houston in June 1999, before the recording of The Waybacks' first album "Devolver". With the addition of Nash's songwriting and distinctive guitar improvisations , The Waybacks - managed, promoted and fronted by Coyle - quickly moved from playing small local pubs and coffeehouses to headlining concert halls and roots/folk/bluegrass festivals throughout North America and abroad. James Nash remains the most consistent of the band's members, and he is featured on all of The Waybacks' studio and live recordings .

Performances during this period included the Strawberry and Wintergrass music festivals , and showcases at the Americana Music Festival in Nashville, TN, and Folk Alliance in Vancouver, BC, and Kerrville, TX. The band began to build a national audience as tracks from its first album were added to playlists on KPFK Los Angeles, WNUR Chicago, WICN Boston, KFAI Minneapolis, WYEP Pittsburgh, and WYMS Milwaukee .

2001–Present

Bassist Joe Kyle, Jr., and drummer Chuck Hamilton replaced Chris Kee and Peter Tucker in early 2001, as the Waybacks transitioned into a full-time touring project. Songwriter, fiddler and singer Warren Hood replaced Chojo Jacques in September 2004 during the recording of the band's third studio album, "From The Pasture to the Future." Stevie Coyle left the band in September 2007, leaving the quartet lineup that continues to this day: Nash, Hood, Kyle, Hamilton.

The band's performances have included venues such as the Kennedy Center , Ryman Auditorium, Old Town School of Music , The Warfield, The Fillmore, and the Bumbershoot , Wakarusa , and Edmonton Folk festivals. In their peak touring seasons between 2000-2009, The Waybacks averaged between 100-200 shows/year.

The Waybacks continue performing sporadically, and in July 2011 the band released a live album covering The Allman Brothers' "Eat A Peach" in its entirety with Joan Osborne on lead vocals .

Side-Projects

In 2010, The Waybacks cut back their touring schedule, with James Nash and Warren Hood devoting more time to side-projects including The NashVillains , James Nash and the Nomads , and Warren Hood and the Goods .

Kee, Tucker, and Houston, joined by Travis Jones (vocals, guitar) and Henry Salvia (vocals, keyboards, accordion), now perform as Houston Jones. In addition, Stevie Coyle is touring nationally and internationally as a solo performer, and occasionally appears with Houston Jones as a guest. Wayne "Chojo" Jacques now performs with Texas musician Billy Bright (vocals, mandolin, guitar).

Discography

  • Devolver (2000)
  • Burger After Church (2002)
  • Way Live (2003)
  • From the Pasture to the Future (2006)
  • Loaded (2008)
  • "Secret Stage Mixes Vol. 1 - 3" (2009)
  • "Merlefest Watson Stage w/Special Guests" (2009)
  • "Hillside Album Hour 2008: Led Zeppelin II"
  • "Hillside Album Hour 2010: Abbey Road"
  • "Hillside Album Hour 2011: Eat A Peach"

External links

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