Jesse Dayton may boast one of the most impressive resumes of any modern country artist not immediately in the public eye.

The Texan has done session work with the likes of Ray Price and Waylon Jennings (with whom he's also performed), as well as the Seattle-based punk band The Supersuckers.

There have also been opening slots with Merle Haggard, George Strait and former Clash frontman Joe Strummer, among others. There's been movie and TV soundtrack work.

And songwriting collaborations with Dale Watson ("Caught" from Watson's first album) and Rosie Flores ("Heartbreak California" from Dayton's latest) round out Dayton's resumZ.

Now, Dayton has released his third album, "Hey Nashvegas!," a long time in coming.

Dayton, 35, grew up in Beaumont, Texas, a city known primarily for its oil industry, blood-soaked honky-tonks and the fact that George Jones (with whom Dayton's father went to high school) grew up there.

"I come from a long line of fire fighters, oil men and that kind of thing. We've been down there for generations. I grew up listening to 24-hour Cajun and classic country stations. Until I was 15, you had to try to tune into a rock station in Houston because we didn't have one."

Though Dayton started out as a drummer, he began playing guitar as a teenager.

"I learned a lot of guitar from this guy named Mack Minor, who was a country-blues guitar player. He was Mance Lipscomb's and Lightnin' Hopkins' cousin. He played on some of their recordings. I actually have footage of me and him playing together when I was a little kid."

"When I got out of high school, I went to Austin, which every Texas guitar player does. I really was just a guitar player for a long time. That helped me out, looking back on it, 'cause when I got to play with Waylon and Ray (Price), I had spent years working on my chops."

Dayton's "Hey Nashvegas!," is a fine album; at its core as hard core country as any Dale Watson album, but at the same time it's not hard to imagine radio getting behind uptempo numbers like "Never Started Living" and "Date With the Angels" if radio were more inclined to play independent releases.

Dayton's secret weapons, though, are his savvy songwriting and a graceful baritone voice that's equal parts Jones and Conway Twitty, with perhaps a little Watson thrown in as seasoning.

"George Jones is my favorite singer. The first concert I went to was a George Jones concert at the Beaumont Drive-In, and he didn't show up. We got our money back and went back the next week, and he came out totally smashed; sang like five songs and left. Tripped over the monitor."

"I spent a lot of years trying to imitate him (musically), and now I've spent a lot of years trying to find my own voice. It's no different than George's early records when he was trying to imitate Hank Sr. And I've always been a big Elvis fan. I come from a big Elvis family. The whole white boy blues thing is a little more prevalent in my stuff than it is in a lot of the new guys coming up."

Dayton released his debut, "Raisin' Cain," for Justice Records in 1995 with the help of Doug Sahm, Floyd Domino, Flaco Jimenez and Gimble, mixing honky tonkers, country rock, Tex-Mex, blues and swing.

Throughout much of the '80's and '90's, Dayton led a rockabilly trio, the Road Kings, who recorded four albums before splitting in the late '90's.

"The Road Kings were my first band. We played hot rod country music. Up until that point, I was all about the groove and the riff, and that was the extent of my songwriting. As that progressed, the limitations of playing in a trio were getting on (my nerves). I was writing stuff for twin fiddles, border songs, Cajun songs, and trying to sow my oats as a writer. And you can't really do that in a trio."

In fact, Dayton's songs are far removed from the usual wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am rockabilly approach to arranging.

"(When) I started trying to write songs, I met (Jim) Lauderdale at the Continental one night, and he really encouraged me to get the songwriting thing going. Jim didn't so much teach me as he influenced me as far as (setting) a bar of writing. When he came into Nashville after (Rodney) Crowell, he set the standard, and that really influenced me. It was like an epiphany. I started going to Nashville and writing songs - got a publishing deal - and tried to find my own voice as a writer."

Until about a year ago Dayton had been spending most of his time living in Los Angeles, though also renting a room from a friend in Austin for when he was in town.

"When I was in Los Angeles recording with Ray (Price, on whose last album Dayton played guitar), I got to record with Pete (Anderson), too. Him and Dwight (Yoakam) let me use their studio as much as I wanted. Which was awesome because I got to learn all kinds of production stuff, which was a big influence on me. You learn all these little tricks, shortcuts and ways to make songs sound like records."

Around the same time, Dayton performed on Waylon Jennings' 1996 Justice album "Right For the Time."

"I went to Nashville and did this interview on 'Crook and Chase.' Me and Kris Kristofferson were on there. All of Kris' friends were watching it. That night while we were taping Waylon cut his finger cooking. So, I'm walking out of my motel room, and I get this phone call. It's from Waylon's producer saying he's got to be on this Willie Nelson tribute record ("Twisted Willie"), and he wants (me) to come and play guitar for him. So, I went in and played that cut for him, and two weeks later I got a call to play lead guitar on his new record. But that first day was especially cool because I spent the whole day with Johnny (Cash) and Waylon. That opened up a lot of doors immediately."

Dayton returned to Texas late last year because his work in Texas was increasing.

"Well, I just got so busy down here with the whole Texas music thing exploding. It was kinda dumb for me to keep two places. We do pretty well down here, and it's to a point now where we're starting to get a lot of offers nationally, Europe and Australia to come over and play. And with me and my manager down here, it's a lot better to run our label."

"Hey Nashvegas!" was originally recorded in 1998 for Justice, but just released almost one year after he put out "Tall Texas Tales" on a tiny Texas label.

Randall Jamail's Houston-based Justice label that briefly counted the likes of Waylon Jennings, Price, Willie and others before it closed its doors around that same time, stranding Dayton's record without a label until Dayton released it himself on his own Stag label.

"We licensed the record. (Justice) actually owns the masters. They might be willing to sell it at some point. We're kind of keeping our options open."

"We recorded it in Nashville in this old church on Music Row, Oceanway Studios. And then we recorded some of it at Willie's place (Pedernales), and some of it in Los Angeles. When we were recording at Willie's place we had the Dixie Chicks, Johnny Gimble and Flaco Jimenez."

"We also got Mandy Barnett to come in and sing the Conway/Loretta-type thing on 'Don't Take Yesterday,'" says Dayton, referring to the soaring honky tonk number that feels like the album's centerpiece.

The new album also features some excellent backing vocals from the Dixie Chicks on the western swinging "Panhandle Jane." At the time the album was recorded the trio was still relatively unknown outside of Texas.

"They were pretty hardcore hillbilly/bluegrass before they went mainstream. They're obviously great singers, so it was a great fit for the part. They came in and nailed their part in half an hour and were gone."

For the moment, Dayton seems perfectly happy as an independent artist; running his own label and recording the kind of material he likes.

"We're really focused on staying indie because we do have national distribution. When I first got away from Justice, I put out that little 'Tall Texas Tales' record. I made it at a friend's studio for next to nothing and put it out myself. And I've re-couped (the costs) umpteen times."

"I hate to use this analogy because it's not really my style of music, but I like what the rap artists and the hippy bands are doing. They're saying, 'We'll record our records. Keep your money, and keep your advance, and when we need you guys, we'll call you in to work this record.'"

As for his future plans, Dayton continues working on soundtracks and sessions, and is currently working on his fourth solo album, tentatively due in early 2002.

"We're in the studio right now working on an acoustic record. It's not gonna be like a folkie coffeehouse kind of thing. It's going to (have) fiddles, mandolins, dobros, banjos, accordions, tubas, pianos and all kinds of stuff. But there'll be no electric instruments. It's a lot of songs that I've written that I'm not going to try to push towards commercial country radio."

"I'm (also) scoring this indie film that's going to be at Sundance called "Wrecked," so I'm pretty excited about that. A friend of mine who's an actor/director named Lou Temple (is making it). I actually co-wrote part of the script, and I'm going to be in it, too."

And though the Road Kings aren't Dayton's main concern these days, he leaves the door open for more recordings. "Yeah, I think at some point we're going to do this real rootsy, stripped-down country-blues-sounding record. I never was into that kind of militant rockabilly thing. My rockabilly stuff was Johnny Horton, early Cash...that kinda stuff. I grew up in country cover bands playing 'He Stopped Loving Her Today' and I'd have a Social Distortion tee-shirt on. So, (this) is a natural progression for me.

"But it was the best stuff I ever could have cut my teeth on. When you're young and single, and you're playing music that comes from below the waist, it's a blast." -+