There are very few singers who can take control of an audience with nothing more than words and an acoustic guitar. There is no flash, no big show, no fancy guitarwork � only one spotlight, one voice, and one guitar. I discovered Walt Wilkins just over a year ago when his fourth album, Mustang Island came across my desk. I recalled his name from a mention in a 2001 hit by Pat Green - �Carry On.� So, I decided to give Wilkins a listen and was instantly a fan. Upon further research, I found that Wilkins is an Austin native, that was living in Nashville as a songwriter. His songs have been released by the likes of Perfect Stranger, Ricky Skaggs, Ty Herndon and most recently (March 2006) by Kenny Rogers. Wilkins is also a producer whose credits include the likes of up-and-comers Brandon Rhyder and Autumn Bouakadakis (AKA Autumn from Mix 94.7�s JB and Sandy morning show). After spending a decade in Nashville, Wilkins took an opportunity to move back to Austin in late 2004. He now spends his time playing some of the best listening rooms in the state and many times is able to be home with his wife (Tina Mitchell Wilkins a singer-songwriter as well), and four-year-old son, Luke, at the end of the night. Recently Wilkins produced and released his newest album, Hopewell on his own label - Highway 29 Records. Sean Claes had a chance to talk to this born-again Austinite in mid April.
Sean Claes: About a year-and-a-half ago you moved back to Austin from Nashville. What sparked the move?
Wilkins: I�d been away a long time, 10 years. I never thought I�d be away that long. I�ve got a boy, at the time he was about three and I wanted to raise him down here. I really just wanted to come home for a while. I was feeling pretty beat up by Nashville. Plus, the three years previous to the move I was playing here a lot. I was out on the road with Pat Green and his band for one year � about 130 nights, and then I got back out on my own. Where I play is Texas. It�s where I can get people to come and see me. So two years in a row I was playing 100 nights, and that would mean when Tina and Luke were in Nashville, I�d be away for two weeks at a time. It was hard.
Claes: Why did you end up leaving Austin for Nashville in the first place?
Wilkins: I had a great job in Austin. I was working for the State at the Texas Film Commission. It was a great life. But I had started playing my songs because I realized that no one else was going to hear them unless I played them. You can�t be a beginning writer and just get other people to sing them. I really liked performing more than I thought I would.I made a little cassette of my songs and it wound its way around to a guy in Nashville in a big publishing company. He called me out of the blue in 1992 and said �you should come to Nashville.� I told him �I live in Austin, why would I move?� But he flew me up there and on my first trip I met some really cool writers. He planted the seed. He also offered me a publishing deal. I didn�t realize at the time what a big deal that was to not hit the streets looking for one. I grew up in Austin. Sometimes you have to move away to go out and chase down that golden fleece. A lot of singers and songwriters moved to Austin for that reason. I didn�t know any of those people I wasn�t in that clique of writers and musicians. I hung around with the people I grew up with. I was too country or too square for Austin really.
Claes: So being a songwriter was first, then becoming a performer was second and it was all a second career for you.
Wilkins: From the time I was a kid I wrote poetry. I started learning guitar when I was about 14 and I knew I was going to write songs. I wrote some songs for my high school band. I didn�t even want to go to college, I just wanted to play guitar. But I kind of took the unbrave way out and I went to college. I went into the funnel and went into the mainstream.
Claes: Before you went to work for �the man�, I hear you went to seminary as well.
Wilkins: I don�t really know why, I just went. It just seemed interesting to me. So I went and it was not the place for me at all, but it was an interesting time and I wouldn�t trade it. I also wrote my first song when I was there. I was moving and stretching those muscles to a point where maybe I hit a stride there and I wrote a song that I thought �This is a song.� It was �Songs About Texas� which later was recorded by Pat Green and it helped him break through here in Texas. So that was my first song. It was the first time where I said �This is it. I can do this and I can show this to anybody.� There were a lot of attempts
before and thank God they didn�t see the light of day.
Claes: There�s this perception that Nashville is this horrible place with all sorts of evil people and Austin is this hippy, weird Mecca. I personally don�t buy into either one of those�
Wilkins: All the terrible stuff you hear about Nashville� It�s all true and it�s worse than that� really. But, it�s also incredible. Hundreds of the greatest musicians of all kinds live in Nashville and you bump into them everywhere you go. Bump into Webb Wilder at the neighborhood grocery store and sit there and talk in the canned goods aisle for awhile. Darrell Scott at the coffee shop. Taking a walk with Guy
Clark from a bar to the studio. That doesn�t happen here. Austin is a big nirvana where everybody goes. They�ve always talked that Austin is the next Nashville. Well, let�s pray that never happens. Because the weight of all those weasels can really kill the energy of the place. But, Austin is as cliquish as Nashville and it�s still a popularity contest and it still plays favorites and it�s very self-conscious about stuff and being hip. That�s the bad side, but the good side is it�s really the freeist place to create. You really can do
anything and you can�t put a price on that. Gosh, what a place to grow up listening to music.
Claes: You mentioned looking up to, meeting and taking a walk with Guy Clark. Now, you�ve had some comparisons to Guy Clark, is that odd to you?
Wilkins: It�s humbling. It�s funny, if you are a Texas songwriter and some of your songs are story like, the comparisons to Guy Clark and Townes (Van Zant) will come. It just happens. So, I never want to say �Wow, I�m as good as Guy�
Claes: So, it�s kind of the same thing as saying a young Texas blues guitar player is �like Stevie Ray Vaughan?�
Wilkins: Completely. It�s fine with me. I relate to Guy. I would say Guy�s music is in my bones. I really did get nourished by him. There is no way I couldn�t have been influenced by him. He�s Guy Clark.
Claes: I discovered you when I got hold of Mustang Island (2004 release) and probably the reason I picked that up was because I recalled hearing Pat Green mention your name in �Carry On.�
Wilkins: Pat�s done a lot for me. There�s no way to undo what he�s done. He�s talked about me a lot and of course there�s that song. I mean, how many people get their names in songs. Not too many. And he�s a great guy. Plus everything he�s done of mine I�ve loved and I�m always proud of it.
Claes: What is your favorite version of someone else covering one of your songs?
Wilkins: I�ve got to say this Kenny Rogers version of �Someone, Somewhere Tonight� is really extraordinary. It�s my favorite song I�ve ever written and I love that version. He�s in his late sixties now and to hear that age sing that song� you get something more out of it than when I sing it. Kenny, whatever anyone thinks of him anywhere, he�s made a great career and he�s seen a lot. That�s a very philosophical song.
Claes: Back to you singing your own songs� I see you�ve got �Absolut Crazy� on your new release Hopefall. That�s the first song you ever had cut by someone else � Perfect Stranger.
Wilkins: Perfect Stranger recorded it. At the time, I�d just been in Nashville for a short time and I thought, �wow, this is easy.� Then I didn�t have another song recorded for like two years. I put �Absolut Crazy� on this record because people ask me to play it and I never recorded it.
Claes: Well, the last time I saw you live, you played a beautiful ballad called �The Angels Share� that is on the new album as well. What�s the story?
Wilkins: I had heard an interview on NPR�s �All Things Considered� and they were interviewing a whiskey distiller. He was talking about all of the whiskey that evaporates. The interviewer said �you must lose a lot of whiskey.� He said �We lose about 3-5 percent of the whiskey every year. In Ireland they call that the �Angels Share.�� If you are a professional songwriter and you can�t write a song about that�
Claes: I�ve seen you play a lot of song swaps. Is that your preferred way of playing?
Wilkins: My favorite way is to play with my guitar and myself and that�s it. That is about the hardest thing, and that�s how I prefer it. Song swaps are all the rage right now in Texas and I�m invited to play some and I enjoy them. I especially enjoy Brandon (Rhyder) and Susan (Gibson) because we�ve done it a lot and they are great to spend an evening with. If I�m going to be away from home, that�s who I want to be with if I�m going to get to play.
Claes: Outside of Austin is it more difficult to get a gig as a singer-songwriter playing originals?
Wilkins: Absolutely. At my age, what I want to do with my time, if I�m going to be out of town, I�m going to be playing songwriter places. Meaning, I�m playing listening rooms. Austin has several great places to play, San Marcos has Cheatham Street, New Braunfels has a couple great sitting rooms depending on the night. San Antonio has a couple of places. Fort Worth and Houston have a couple of great rooms. There are great rooms all over the state between the big cities, but not hundreds. Frankly, I don�t even like playing if someone doesn�t know me. I haven�t skipped any steps in this path and I want to play where I�m wanted. You�ve got to have an ego in this business. To get up on stage and say, �Hey, I want you to hear these songs. I think it�s worth your time.� You�ve got to believe in yourself before you can have someone else believe in you. Absolutely. And you�ve got to believe in your song and you�ve got to believe in your ability to put them out there.
Visit
http://www.waltwilkins.com for more information on this phenomenal singer/songwriter. Sean Claes (
www.seanclaes.com) is a freelance entertainment writer living in Kyle, Texas. You can purchase Walt's latest CD at LoneStarMusic.com.
