One stanza into the tune, with a musical surname not to be ignored, Whey Jennings croons in a bluesy wail, “Grandpa Waylon, I’m missing you … .”
The acapella song, “Missing You,” seems sure to become a trademark title for the grandson of the country music legendary outlaw and his successful wife-singer Jessi Coulter.
The Texas native is expected to bring perhaps that and plenty of other tunes with him for the next segment of Cerafest 2021 at Ceraland Park at 6 p.m. Saturday southeast of Columbus. His latest extended-play release is “Gypsy Soul.”
“I haven’t sung that song song (about grandpa) in a long time, “ Jennings said, speaking by phone from Ohio on the road.
He mentioned that his set list here is undecided.
“Actually, I’d like it to be a surprise,” Jennings said, adding that “I love the people at Ceraland.”
Jennings, who has performed at Ceraland several times before, has frequently told media members his boyhood story of excitedly grabbing a mic that Coulter had just left on a backstage stool after a concert set list — and running onstage to launch into the country classic, “Mamas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys.”
According to the repeated telling and the grandson’s website, a proud grandpa looked out and shouted, “Hold on there, Hoss — wait for me!” The legend quickly accompanied the kid, and when the music stopped, they apparently both knew there would be nothing to stop the youngster from making his own way.
Today, Jennings growing popularity need not wait for anyone. To hear his vocals is to quickly realize that blues seem to have influenced his sound as much as anything. His best-known songs are “Bad At Being Sad,” “Lead Me Home” among others.
And as much as he has his own sound, he has been unafraid to embrace his grandfather’s music, including the classic theme song “Good Ol’ Boys” from “The Dukes of Hazzard” TV show of the 1970s and 1980s. He does expect that number to be a part of Saturday’s show.
“People just go wild when they hear it,” he said.
Local group Night Owl Country Band will open the show, as it has done before at Ceraland for Jennings.
“They have been really, really good to me,” the headliner said.
Lead singer Matt Lee said such a task gives him and his mates “a come-around-full-circle feeling. We have played with both Duke Boys (of ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’) for the Wounded Warrior Project Shows (locally), the character of Cooter (from the TV show) at the Grand Ole Opry, and the grandson of Waylon, the voice of the theme song from ‘The Dukes Of Hazzard.’
“Whey Jennings is a great person and a great artist.”
