It’s been a long time since country music outside of Texas was meant for dancing. Wayne “The Train” Hancock—who, for the record, is from Texas—is firmly planted in the stuff that was engineered to be hot and jazzy. Keeping his repertoire to once-popular honky-tonk, Western swing and hillbilly-jump blues—and generally sounding like Hank Williams whenever he wants to—has aligned Hancock with country of the alt. variety, a state of affairs he’s seemed pretty contented with for a decade-and-a-half. Committed as he is to the styles, it’s not like his shows are all “Your Cheatin’ Heart” and “Take Me Back To Tulsa” on repeat—he writes new material. The swinging title track off his previous album was his own “Tulsa”—not that of Bob Wills. And the same goes for all but one of the songs on Viper of Melody, released earlier this year.
Sat., Nov. 14, 9 p.m., 2009
