Wayne "the Train" Hancock

Last time Wayne Hancock came to town, Brian Setzer showed up at Lee's, surprising the star of the show, who promptly invited Setzer onstage for a couple of songs. It was a rare treat to see the founder of rockabilly-nouveau playing with the granddaddy of Western swing revival. But the proximity of a genuine star highlighted just how unfair it is that Wayne Hancock's never gotten famous. His recreation of '40s-style country and western is spot on, full of glorious slide guitar, low-down cheating husbands, and a walking bass line perfect for getting down to business on the dance floor. Directing his band like a general commanding troops, he stages epic solo battles between steel guitar and bass as his own guitar drives the tempo faster. With seven albums' worth of genuine honky-tonk under his belt, Hancock figures giving you your money's worth requires him to play pretty much all of it, all in a row—more than once, the bar-close lights have gone up and the Train has kept on rolling. With Whitey Morgan & the 78s. (Photo by Mike Boles)
Fri., Oct. 30, 9 p.m., 2009