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Plain speaking

Forget rockabilly: Ronnie Dawson just wants to rock and roll

by Chris Erikson

Whatever, there's no denying that things are looking up these days for Dawson, who makes his home in Dallas. There have been growing crowds, appearances at Carnegie Hall and on the Conan O'Brien show, and now the release of Just Rockin' and Rollin', his highest-profile record in decades. But Dawson's point is that his dedication to music hasn't wavered since he was first bitten by the bug as a kid in Waxahachie, Texas, in the '40s. Growing up in a musical family, with a father who led a Western swing band and a mother who sang in church, he never gave much thought to doing anything else.

"I always knew, from the time I could remember anything," he explains over the phone from a tour stop in Omaha. And when rock and roll hit just as Dawson was getting a jolt of teenage hormones, there was no turning back. "I had been heavily into country, Hank and Lefty Frizzell and people like that, and all of a sudden I hear this stuff, and it was my music. I heard Carl Perkins do "Blue Suede Shoes," and then Little Richard and Bo Diddley. When I heard that, man, I've never been the same."

Soon he had picked up a guitar and put together his own outfit, which he entered in the Big D Jamboree, a Dallas talent contest. He won 10 times in a row, in the process getting a manager, a nickname ("The Blond Bomber"), and a record deal that led to a pair of regional hits -- the now-classic "Action Packed" and "Rockin' Bones." When he was invited onto American Bandstand and then offered a deal with Dick Clark's Swan Records, the future looked bright. But no sooner had he cut a single than the infamous payola scandal hit, rocking Clark's world and leaving Dawson high and dry.

Thus began several decades of musical adventures that included working as a session drummer, getting signed twice to Columbia (as a blues singer under the name Commonwealth Jones and as a country singer under the wing of legendary Nashville producer Billy Sherrill), playing Vegas with a show band, and performing around Dallas with a country-rock outfit called Steelrail. When the latter group disbanded in the mid '70s, Dawson took a break from performing to make a living doing commercial voiceovers.

Then in 1987, he got a call from a British record collector named Barney Koumis, who told him that a couple of his early songs were big with the British rockabilly crowd and asked whether he could reissue some Dawson material on his No Hit label. One thing led to another, and Dawson soon found himself in England playing to crowds of reverential Teddy Boys in vintage motorcycle gear.

"It was very strange," he says. "But I loved it, you know, and it couldn't have happened at a better time. I wasn't afraid of anything, and I still ain't, so I just embraced the whole situation and really enjoyed it."

Having gotten the jumpstart he needed, Dawson threw himself back into performing, making regular trips overseas, where he recorded a pair of records for No Hit (later released in America by Dallas's Crystal Clear Records). Over the last few years he's begun to focus more on the States, where his energetic live shows, in which he is often backed by the Austin rockabilly combo High Noon, have earned him a growing following and a deal with the Somerville-based label Upstart.

His Upstart debut, Just Rockin' and Rollin', is a high-octane romp that makes a bold case for Dawson's continuing vitality. He sounds confident and rockin' as he navigates this feast of crazy rhythms, from the syncopated strut of the title tune to the horn-laced R&B of "She's a Bad Un," the tribal groove of "Club Wig Wam," and the sinister stomp of "Hoodlum."

Certainly there's some rockabilly in the mix, in the slapback boogie of "High on Love," or "Tired of Traveling," for example; yet the release backs up his claim that he is not, as he is often called, a rockabilly performer. It's a source of some irritation for Dawson, who says he doesn't want to be pigeonholed.

"I wouldn't be unhappy if I never heard that word again. It's rock and roll, that's what it is. I don't know where this rockabilly thing came from, man. I think of Carl Perkins and people like that as being rockabilly, and Johnny Burnette in the early days, and maybe even Elvis when he first started. That's why I called the album Just Rockin' and Rollin'. 'Cause that's all the hell it is."