The Waybacks

San Francisco’s the Waybacks draw from old-time string-band traditions yet extend far beyond them. Roots Town Music Magazine once characterized the group as “a dream combination of punk vandalism and hyper-intelligent, seldom heard, humoristic musicality,” whereas the Winnipeg Free Press singled out their “unpretentious musicality.” In a similar vein, www.shoprecords.com observed that the band’s style spans “‘Kumbaya’-like folk and cowboy jazz, space jam, celtoid, agnostic gospel, beat poetry, Grappelli-esque swing, and acoustic originals.” The quintet’s distinctive blend arises from the interlocking contributions of lead guitarist, mandolinist, and singer James Nash; fiddler, mandolinist, guitarist, Humanatone player, and singer Chojo Jacques; and rhythm, fingerstyle, and Weissenborn-slide guitarist and singer Stevie Coyle. Nashville native Nash began guitar lessons at nine and, during high school, worked with the celebrated session player Jerry Kimbrough. After enrolling at Stanford University, he settled in the Bay Area and joined the alt-rock outfit Occam’s Razor; later, drawn to Southern vernacular music, he mastered the mandolin on his own. Outside the Waybacks he appears both as a soloist and alongside Lane & the Badass Chicken Bones. Jacques started on piano and viola before discovering the guitar, which led him to a truck-stop bar band in East Missoula, Montana. He subsequently took up fiddle through the Montana Fiddlers Association and, two years afterward, added mandolin while performing with the Lost Highway Band. An eight-year stay in Austin followed, after which David Grisman encouraged him to relocate to San Francisco in 1982. In the nearly twenty years since, Jacques has become a sought-after session musician whose credits include Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Johnny Paycheck, Frank Wakefield, and Michael Hedges. Coyle supplies much of the band’s irreverence; his résumé lists emceeing killer-whale exhibitions, performing stand-up comedy as half of the Reagan Brothers, and appearing with the satirical folk ensembles the Foremen and the Frontmen. Anchoring the rhythm section are double bassist and vocalist Joe Kyle Jr. together with drummers Chuck Hamilton, who travels with the group, and Peter Tucker, who appears with them locally.