Cowboy Jamboree Music Review
WILL PAYNE HARRISON'S
STILL FEELIN' THE PAYNE
by Adam Van Winkle
August 14, 2025
I’ve been diggin' Will Payne Harrison’s music for a good while. Chalk it up to one of the best music discoveries I’ve made through social media dumb luck. In thinking about his appeal, the phrase that keeps coming to mind is connective tissues. His lyrics, voice and swampy tonk sound all swirl between ports that are part Woody Guthrie, part early Americana, a little Cajun, and some of the best of the Bakersfield sound.
Kids, his is just a knockout sound
Still Feelin’ the Payne, his newest album, launches Friday, August 15th. And let’s cut to the chase here: it’s goddamned good.
Harrison’s lyrical style is something else. It’s hard to be direct, absolutely straight forward and plainspoken yet still be poetic. But Harrison pulls it off to be sure. There’s no fluff or flower to the emotion in the songs. That’s not to say you won’t find a symbol or image or three. But be it his story songs or his relationship songs, the speaker(s) says what is happening directly. It makes for an immediate link with the listener. Whether you’ve ever felt you couldn’t do enough to save a relationship (“I Ain’t the Man for You”), needed to get fucked up to get over one that’s already lost (“High As Willie”), felt yourself not being present for your child (“Daddy Daughter Time”), or felt good for being a rebel until you felt the force of the consequences (“Angola by 18”), there’s plenty here to hang on to.
I certainly hung on to every word.
“High As Willie” is definitely a highlight: “I’m gonna drink like a sailor/I’m gonna smoke like a train/I’m gettin high as Willie/I’m gonna curse your naaaaame/When I am through/I’ll be over you/And though I smile for a while/I’ll cry the whole night through.” I love the turns here–so much is in a single verse. The speaker sits and gets drunk and stoned, gets mad at his lost love, gets happy that it’s over, then gets sad it’s gone. We’ve all probably been there a time or two.
Guest vocals here are some of the coolest new collabs I’ve heard in a while. Van Plating, Matt Moran and liv. are all kickass artists in their own right. It only makes sense that they add something special here.
Moran joins in on the opener, “Dusk to Dawn,” as two road weary musicians try to get back to the real: “And I’m so tired of staring at screens all day looooong/I just wanna fish and write some brand new songs/Cut a record and not be broke as shit/If it ain’t askin much maybe have a country hit.”
Plating plays the femme foil to Harrison’s heartbroken man in “I Ain’t the Man for You” with a beautiful crooning lilt: “I try to give you my sunshine/But you still want to be blue/My tears they fall in the starlight/I ain’t the one for you.”
liv. barrels into the last track, “Sagebrush,” with searing kd lang-esque twang talkin’ truth: “He’s a fast talkin’ man who can’t shut his mouth/And I’m a woman with burnin’ ears/Every word he says just confirms why my eyes are full of tears.”
Instrumentation here definitely don’t let the lyrics down. There’s some superb playing here. Especially noteworthy are the fiddle playing of Van Plating and Jason Harrell, the pedal steel and Dobro licks from Christopher Bauer, and the electric guitar chops of Harrison and Adam Guillory. Put it with the stellar drums and percussion from Tim Kuras and Stephie Gee, impeccably beat bass from Harrison and Nelson Williams, Dan Moran’s slick piano and keys, whip sharp banjo from Harrison and Jesse Reaux, and good country harmonica from Christopher Lockett and you’ve got a perfect package to deliver the country and roots of Will Payne Harrison at his best.
And oh yea, there’s a fucking trumpet. Played by Austin Mayse, it’s such a cool flavor. God bless the malleability of Americana music.
So make your own life better and jump on Still Feelin’ Payne when it launches this week. There’s not a word or sound on this album that will let you down. Definitely support the artist to the max: buy the vinyl or cd (https://www.willpayneharrison.com/) or stream it wherever you stream music.
WILL PAYNE HARRISON'S
STILL FEELIN' THE PAYNE
by Adam Van Winkle
August 14, 2025
I’ve been diggin' Will Payne Harrison’s music for a good while. Chalk it up to one of the best music discoveries I’ve made through social media dumb luck. In thinking about his appeal, the phrase that keeps coming to mind is connective tissues. His lyrics, voice and swampy tonk sound all swirl between ports that are part Woody Guthrie, part early Americana, a little Cajun, and some of the best of the Bakersfield sound.
Kids, his is just a knockout sound
Still Feelin’ the Payne, his newest album, launches Friday, August 15th. And let’s cut to the chase here: it’s goddamned good.
Harrison’s lyrical style is something else. It’s hard to be direct, absolutely straight forward and plainspoken yet still be poetic. But Harrison pulls it off to be sure. There’s no fluff or flower to the emotion in the songs. That’s not to say you won’t find a symbol or image or three. But be it his story songs or his relationship songs, the speaker(s) says what is happening directly. It makes for an immediate link with the listener. Whether you’ve ever felt you couldn’t do enough to save a relationship (“I Ain’t the Man for You”), needed to get fucked up to get over one that’s already lost (“High As Willie”), felt yourself not being present for your child (“Daddy Daughter Time”), or felt good for being a rebel until you felt the force of the consequences (“Angola by 18”), there’s plenty here to hang on to.
I certainly hung on to every word.
“High As Willie” is definitely a highlight: “I’m gonna drink like a sailor/I’m gonna smoke like a train/I’m gettin high as Willie/I’m gonna curse your naaaaame/When I am through/I’ll be over you/And though I smile for a while/I’ll cry the whole night through.” I love the turns here–so much is in a single verse. The speaker sits and gets drunk and stoned, gets mad at his lost love, gets happy that it’s over, then gets sad it’s gone. We’ve all probably been there a time or two.
Guest vocals here are some of the coolest new collabs I’ve heard in a while. Van Plating, Matt Moran and liv. are all kickass artists in their own right. It only makes sense that they add something special here.
Moran joins in on the opener, “Dusk to Dawn,” as two road weary musicians try to get back to the real: “And I’m so tired of staring at screens all day looooong/I just wanna fish and write some brand new songs/Cut a record and not be broke as shit/If it ain’t askin much maybe have a country hit.”
Plating plays the femme foil to Harrison’s heartbroken man in “I Ain’t the Man for You” with a beautiful crooning lilt: “I try to give you my sunshine/But you still want to be blue/My tears they fall in the starlight/I ain’t the one for you.”
liv. barrels into the last track, “Sagebrush,” with searing kd lang-esque twang talkin’ truth: “He’s a fast talkin’ man who can’t shut his mouth/And I’m a woman with burnin’ ears/Every word he says just confirms why my eyes are full of tears.”
Instrumentation here definitely don’t let the lyrics down. There’s some superb playing here. Especially noteworthy are the fiddle playing of Van Plating and Jason Harrell, the pedal steel and Dobro licks from Christopher Bauer, and the electric guitar chops of Harrison and Adam Guillory. Put it with the stellar drums and percussion from Tim Kuras and Stephie Gee, impeccably beat bass from Harrison and Nelson Williams, Dan Moran’s slick piano and keys, whip sharp banjo from Harrison and Jesse Reaux, and good country harmonica from Christopher Lockett and you’ve got a perfect package to deliver the country and roots of Will Payne Harrison at his best.
And oh yea, there’s a fucking trumpet. Played by Austin Mayse, it’s such a cool flavor. God bless the malleability of Americana music.
So make your own life better and jump on Still Feelin’ Payne when it launches this week. There’s not a word or sound on this album that will let you down. Definitely support the artist to the max: buy the vinyl or cd (https://www.willpayneharrison.com/) or stream it wherever you stream music.
Album photo credit: Corrie Jones; Artist photo credit: Stephie Gee