Alternative Country singer/songwriter Dewey Wayne is no stranger to hard work. After completing a degree in Chemical Engineering at Auburn University and beginning a career working on NASA’s Space Shuttle, he decided to exchange his calculator for a guitar and a song. That choice led to the independent release of his debut album, Here for the Music. It blends progressive country, honky-tonk, rockabilly, and Sand Mountain bluegrass into self-styled “tonkgrass” music.

Dewey was born in Fyffe, Alabama and was exposed to music at a very early age. His stay at home mom ritually played country music on the radio every day. However, it wasn’t until his short collegiate basketball career was over at Snead State that he finally began to explore his true passion: creating music. Then, one Christmas at a music shop, a stranger approached Dewey and handed him a new Les Paul guitar saying, “The Lord told me to give you this guitar”, and walked out of the shop. The stranger had paid cash for it, and Dewey never saw him again. Dewey feverishly began to write his own music and play in the local college venues in Auburn, Alabama while studying there. Always searching for his own musical identity, he made many trips to Nashville trying to find his niche. Once he moved to Huntsville, Alabama to work with NASA, these trips became even more frequent. However, the alt-country sound being made in Texas soon got his attention, and it didn’t take long for him to pack his bags again and be on his way to Houston.

After four years of playing in dive bars around Texas with his newly formed band, Dewey was satisfied that he had found the sound he was looking for. The hard lessons Dewey learned from the legions of jaded Nashville musicians led him to create his own record label, Fyala Records, and maintain control over his album. He found his co-producer in award-winning producer Tommy Detamore. It was the vintage/roots flavored albums that Detamore had recorded in his Floresville, TX studio that made Dewey jump at the chance to work with him. Big John Mills (2006, 2008, 2010 Texas Musician of the Year) helped to create the raw Telecaster-prominent country sound and The Gary Waldrep Band came in to add the unique Sand Mountain bluegrass to the project.

Here for the Music was released independently as an Alternative Country album and is an eleven song collection of the band’s best-loved songs. Since its release, Dewey was nominated as the “2010 Rising Star” by the Academy of Texas Music, and the album won “2010 Musician of the Year” at the Texas Music Awards for Big John Mills's guitar performance on the album. Be sure to check out Dewey and the band while they are on tour to promote this debut CD.