Tony Wain brings the Payne

The five piece country band Tony Wain and the Payne, fast becoming one of Asheville's most unique startups, ended Saturday night's kick off party for the Hobo Film Festival in the River Arts District with their third performance over the past several weeks.

"I got really screwed up, because this girl I was dating for five years, me and her broke up," said Tony Wain, the band's 28-year-old founding member, about how he started writing country songs during an alcohol and despair fueled period. "There were poor man's mimosas and coca-cobras and a lot of Sparks. I was going through crazy times."

Wain and Bryce Canyon, the band's drummer, said after a rough night while playing in another band together, they both took comfort in alcohol and country music, a genre famous for its temperamental, antisocial ballads about lost loves and hard times.

"We're an authentic country band with no alt, with no cow punk," said Canyon, 22, who listed Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams Sr. and Jr. among his main influences.

The bands other members include Wes Asheville the bass guitarist, Sugar Missouri, the band's multi-instrumentalist, self proclaimed cowgirl and Moon Cougar, who plays guitar, tambourine and writes songs.

"I wrote a song called I Ain't Got A Friend in this World, and it's about a guy who is down on his luck, and he's wanting to kill himself, because his only friend is the devil," said Cougar, 23, who grew up around the country and old-time music his parents played as musicians.

Cougar said he interprets Country music's archetypal characters like the lonesome hobo and the heart-breaking woman allegorically, similarly to characters from epic stories in Greek mythology.

Another song, Vine City Rag, recounts drug use prevalent in a neighborhood of Atlanta. Another, Football Bat, narrates a painful post-break up. Tony Wain and the Payne sounds upbeat and rowdy, but underneath their lyrics at least half-seriously relate hurtful feelings and circumstances that trouble us all. An unabashed truthfulness characteristic of the country genre manifests itself in their music.

"I think Tony Wain and the Payne is a really cool project and it's needed in this town to break up the whole rock, DJ, punk culture that is our town. We need a little more diversity and I feel like our fun-loving band will provide that for Asheville," said Missouri, 28-years-old, who plays everything from brass to banjo.

All of the members contribute to the band's vocals, the choruses typically sung in unison.

"I see it developing into a really fun band. I think everyone is really interested and has a lot of input. When we practice, things turn out well. Drunk Country…Woo," Missouri said.

According to its members and the positive reaction to their shows, a lot more can be expected from Tony Wain and the Payne in the future. For updates on shows and to listen to some staples of Tony Wain and the Payne's track list, log on to their Myspace at http://www.myspace.com/tonywainandthepayne.

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