It's Monday afternoon in Seattle, and Dallas Wayne is hanging out with Merle Haggard lead guitarist Redd Volkaert; drinking coffee, chain-smoking and swapping road stories.

Wayne and Volkaert make up one-half of the Twangbangers, a touring supergroup of sorts also including fellow HighTone artists Joe Goldmark on steel guitar and former Commander Cody guitarist Bill Kirchen, along with Kirchen's regular rhythm section. The group is set to make its debut the following night in Seattle, and they're waiting for Goldmark and Kirchen's band to show up for their first rehearsal.

"It was the brainchild of HighTone," says Wayne. "It's a good way to get the acts out; get us lazy bastards back to work."

In truth, the concept is a throwback of sorts to HighTone's mid-'90's Roadhouse Tour, which included Dale Watson, Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys, Dave Alvin and Rev. Billy C. Wirtz.

And with all four Twangbangers having released new albums over the past few months, the time seemed ripe for the Oakland-based label to dust off the concept, with the possibility of a live album emerging next year as a result of the tour.

In Wayne's case, he's promoting "Here I Am In Dallas," his second album for HighTone, and eighth album overall, counting a half-dozen that he recorded for Finland's Texicali label in the late '90's, of which 1999's "The Invisible Man" is probably the best known in the U.S.

Though none of the albums Wayne released in Finland (where he and his wife lived for a time while she worked for the Nokia corporation's home office) have seen release or wide distribution in the U.S., Wayne was well-known in Scandinavia; as an expatriate American country singer living in Finland, he could hardly have failed to attract attention.

"Yeah, they did (well), in a sick, twisted sort of way. When you're the only guy doing it full-time for a living, you get most of the gigs that come down the pike. I had a lot of friends who'd say, 'Hey, can I come over there and make a living?' And I'd say, 'Well, probably not, but please come. It'd be nice to have somebody to talk to.'"

"The music business over there pays pretty well. I know a lot of songwriters over there who release an album a year, and they never tour."

"They don't have to. They make enough money off royalties and airplay."

Wayne and his wife returned to the U.S. about two years ago, settling in San Jose. Almost immediately Wayne hooked up with the HighTone label, which later released "Big Thinkin'," an album Wayne recorded a few months earlier with old friend Robbie Fulks, who co-produced and played on the recording, in addition to writing or co-writing all of its songs; Fulks as David Bowie to Wayne's Iggy Pop.

Something of an iconoclast, Fulks, 38, has been a phenom in alt.-country circles since the release of his critically acclaimed 1996 debut, "Country Love Songs."

Fulks and Wayne had played together in the Chicago-based bluegrass band Special Consensus in the late '80's and early '90's, striking up a songwriting partnership as a way to pass time on the road.

"Every record has at least one song of his on it and maybe two things we'd co-written. We'd started writing during the Special Consensus days and kept doing it, even when I was still living in Chicago, but doing nothing but touring overseas."

"After the fifth record, I just did a bitchfest with Robbie on the phone, saying, 'I don't really know what to do on this next record.' And he said, 'Why don't you make it back here? We'll co-write all the songs, I'll help produce, and we'll do it at Lou Whitney's in Springfield (Missouri).' Which was great because it's only about 20 minutes from my mom's house in Branson. It was pretty much Robbie's brainchild."

Wayne says the album did better in Scandinavia than in the U.S., but that having Fulks associated with the project certainly didn't hurt.

"It helped a lot, 'cause Robbie's worked that market a lot, and Robbie's heard me sing for a long time. He had a definite program in mind."

For "Here I Am in Dallas" Wayne co-produced the album with HighTone label head Bruce Bromberg, though Fulks' name does turn up once again with a co-writing credit on "I Hit the Road (And the Road Hit Back)."

The new 12-song album is a combination of original material and mostly obscure covers.

"Thank God for Bruce Bromberg because he's the biggest vinyl junkie I know. I would say, 'Well, what about so-and-so?' And he'd say, 'Yeah, that'd work. But listen to this. It's the same type of tune, but it was recorded by some guy in Texas in '61, and it sold 400 copies, but it's a dance hall favorite.' He's like an ency- ' clopedia. He turned me on to 'Happy Hour,' which was a song that Ted Hawkins actually did. And 'Cheatin' Traces' was one of those obscure Texas dance hall standards."

"'Shadows of My Mind' was one of my picks. I love Vernon Oxford. When he came out, I thought that was the coolest thing I'd ever heard. To listen to that stuff today it sounds better to me than it even did then."

Wayne's rich baritone voice has also improved since the last record, taking on some of the phrasing and note-bending employed by Lefty Frizzell and George Jones during their peak years; something Wayne credits to having stopped smoking.

"That's purely physical because I quit smoking until about a week ago."

"The bus has a new engine in it, and every little noise it makes I'm in the back freaking out all the way on the drive up here, so I went and bought a pack of cigarettes. Actually, I still consider myself quit because I'll binge-smoke about half a pack, and I'll stop for two or three days. But I came into the new record more healthy than I did before and it smoothed out some roughness."

During the conversation, one gets the impression that Wayne is still getting used to the new album, though in some ways it's hard to understand why. Although it's hard to top some of Fulks' contributions on "Big Thinkin'," Wayne sounds terrific, and the musicianship of his regular backing band the Road Cases - guitarist Chris Lawrence, bassist Jeff Roberts and drummer Dale Daniels - is up to the task at hand.

"I like this new album just fine, but we did it awfully fast. When we got the go-ahead to do the record, we were scheduled for April, and then I had some back problems, so then (we were going) to do it in August. Then in May I got a call that the record's on, so I packed a bag and started driving to L.A. We got the band together, and by that night we were rehearsing. We rehearsed for two days, then went in and started cutting."

Still, lack of rehearsal isn't always a bad thing, as Fulks and Wayne both learned from former Buckaroos steel guitarist Tom Brumley, who played on Wayne's last album.

"Tom was talking to us about (the Buck Owens sessions), and he said that they would never know what they were going to do. Buck would go out of his way not to tell them."

"I'm pleasantly surprised about the new record and how it's doing. People seem to be accepting it, even moreso than the last one. It's taken me a while to warm up to (the new) record. After we got done with the final mix on 'Big Thinkin',' I thought 'This is about as good as it gets.' And I still enjoy listening to that record. I think it'll be the yardstick that I measure everything I do on."

In at least one respect Dallas Wayne is in a bit of an unusual position; one that can be difficult for marketing purposes. Though for all practical purposes he's a new artist as far as Americans are concerned, at 45 he's a good 15 or 20 years older than other country singers releasing their first or second albums.

When asked if this is something he ever thinks about, he replies, "Yeah, every day. I've done very little (country) in the States. I was with a bluegrass band, Special Consensus, for five years, but that's a whole different audience. I bailed on country music because I just (didn't like) where it was going. The opportunity to do the Special C. thing came along, and I went ahead and did it."

"It's been about 15 years since I've done anything in the States at all, and before that, it was singing demos for publishing houses in Nashville when I was living down there and going on the road as a bass player with people."

Like most people playing a more traditional style of country music these days, Wayne bristles at the current state of the country music industry.

"It's a source of sadness for me right now. There are bands out there that actually make a decent living almost parodying this kind of music, which bothers me a little bit. It's like making fun of your girlfriend."

"Redd and I were talking about it earlier today."

As for current artists who Wayne admires, he quickly cites Fulks, Dale Watson (with whom Fulks and Wayne wrote "Old 45's" on the last album), and Gillian Welch as particular favorites. Of Welch in particular Wayne comments, "Aw, she's nothin' but fine."

"The Opry's really trying to make a stab at getting something happening, realizing where their next core audience is going to be coming from. I'm really tickled to see them doing this, bringing in people like Big Sandy, Dale (Watson), and The Derailers, and that kind of thing. This is a good thing."

Wayne remains hopeful about the future of country. "It's gonna change. It has to change," he says.