Child of the Dark Hale alights at White Water

Jason Lee Hale has seen the light -- and the dark -- and it's the dark side he is celebrating with the release of his debut solo album, Child of the Dark.

"It's not meant to remind anyone of sinister things or satanic stuff or heavy metal," Hale, a singer and guitarist active in central Arkansas for some 25 years, explains, "but merely a salute to those of us who are always out in the bars at night, networking, which is just a fancy word for drinking and lying."

Hale came up with seven original songs for his album, which he started work on about mid-November and finished in July. He co-produced the album with Jay Wedaman, owner of the Brown Carpet Studio in North Little Rock, who also served as the project's engineer. Three of the songs -- "The Minus Man," "Just Wait for the Night" and "All My Women" -- are available to hear on reverbnation.com.

Though Child of the Dark is Hale's first CD under his own name, he can also be heard on Kerfuffle, released a few years ago by The Hi-Balls, which also includes Larry Mann, Vince Martini and Lance Womack.

The White Water Tavern show at 9 p.m. Saturday will feature a plethora of musicians, Hale notes, in addition to his band, which consists of Mike Nelson on bass, Womack on drums and Stuart Baer on keyboards.

"I wanted it to be a celebration of my favorite artists," Hale says. "So I've invited Amy Garland Angel, Barbara Raney, Jay Jackson, Reade Mitchell, Justin McGoldrick, Darrell Johnson, Chris Long, Shannon Boshears and Jamie Boshears. I wanted to spread the love around and hope that it will be an old-school White Water event, where lots of folks show up and play and sing with each other. Some will play together or alone or with my band backing them up, however it works out."

Born in Stuttgart, Hale was raised in England and has lived in central Arkansas ever since, except for a brief stint in Modesto, Calif. As long as he can recall, he has always wanted to play guitar and thanks his parents for giving him the opportunity to do so.

"My parents listened to the local radio station, KAAY-AM, all the time I was growing up, and my biggest influence became Jimmy Page, of Led Zeppelin fame," Hale says. "My dad bought me a guitar when I was 14, because I think he was tired of me taking the raw material of everything in our house and trying to turn stuff into a guitar. I've worked a lot of jobs but really only wanted to play guitar."

He also appreciates the fine wedding present that his wife, Dauphne Trenholm, gave him -- a 1953 Gibson Hawaiian lap steel, which can be heard on his song "The Minus Man."

As for his vocal influences, he likes to think he sounds like Tom Johnston of The Doobie Brothers.

"But I think I fail miserably at it," he confesses, "and I end up sounding like David Clayton-Thomas of Blood, Sweat & Tears. And I do a lot of Johnny Cash material, and usually sing that a little lower than Johnny did."

Weekend on 09/15/2016