Jayson Bales, who was born in Austin and calls Dallas home, doesn’t shy away from his Texas roots, but at the same time has made his way apart from just the “Texas music scene.” “I love a lot of the music coming out of Texas right now,” says Jayson. “At the same time though, I don’t want to be boxed into a certain genre. It doesn’t allow for flexibility with your audience as you grow musically. Most of what I am doing right now is more influenced by rock-n-roll, and less by the outlaw country music typically identified with the Texas music scene. I still have a hard time defining what is Texas music anyway. It’s not a genre. It’s just where you are from.” “I started out writing folk music on the acoustic guitar by myself; political songs, story songs, love songs, but I quickly figured out the music I like best had many sound dimensions to it and that I could create that with a fuller sound. I started really getting into Brian Wilson, Calexico, Los Lobos, and Wilco. My drummer Greg Fontanillas also schooled me in jazz, so I fell in love with Thelonius Monk, Miles Davis, and Coltrane. These artists are making sonically interesting music. My thoughts were to merge some of those sounds with the writings of a folk singer. So I guess now I play folk-rock. Who knows really?” With other musicians he’d met through various gigs, Jayson formed his band which is like his second family. Greg Fontanillas (drums), Johnny Ferrell (guitar, vocals), and Peter Wilkins (bass), make up the core alongside Jayson (lead vocals, guitar, songs). If anything the band family is flexible and a host of other musicians have been known to lend their talents to Jayson’s music. Artists like Rich Brotherton, Trish Murphy, Scrappy Jud Newcomb, John Lefler, Salim Nourallah, and Carter Albrecht have all joined Jayson before. “Greg, Peter, and Johnny are my family and I think that makes us tight onstage. At the same time, I’m flexible enough to adapt with other musicians based on the needs of a performance.” Though he doesn’t tour like he used to, Jayson is still making albums and playing shows across Texas and California. Jayson’s last album, Cruel & Unusual, spent 10 straight weeks on the AMA Top 100 radio charts and hit #4 on the Roots Music folk charts. The album showed a darker side to Bales from his previous record, Broken Furniture. The darker, less polished sounds of Cruel & Unusual were brought out by producer, Salim Nourallah (Old 97s, Carter Albrecht, Sorta) and a cast of rock, country, and jazz musicians. For his latest album scheduled for release in the Fall of 2008, Jayson has reunited with Nourallah and is focusing on cutting the basic tracks strictly with his core band and then adding some world music and pop flavors to the album.