THE O T M A V Van Wilks 21st Century Blues ·  · 2016-04-04Heart, Journey, Van Halen and ZZ Top,...

8 BUDDY APRIL 2016

LEGENDARY GUITARIST VAN WILKS HASLreleased a new record titled 21st Century BluesLand it is a magnum opus of majestic guitartone that raucously rocks. There are twelve finelycrafted songs, designed to take the listener on asonic tour of Texas.

BUDDYTHE ORIGINAL TEXAS MUSIC MAGAZINE

APRIL 2016VOLUME XXXXIII, NUMBER 11

Creating aural imagery suchas driving down a lost road tomake a dirty deal at midnight orlooking for vinyl record houseparties, vintage pawn shops withfive-watt amplifiers and lowdown dive bars with quarter juke-boxes. It takes you to the bigarena rock shows and funky hotspots of a Texas summer, blaringFM radios by the lake. There is aTexas style swagger in every song.In Texas, blues and rock musicgo hand in hand; some tradition-alists fuel the competition be-tween the two while others knowhow to blend them into one. Vansays, “To me, this is my blues,but it’s the 21st century now, it’snot your grandmother’s blues.”

Austin-basedBORN IN GALVESTON IN1951, a real BOI, Van Wilks hasbeen based in Austin for overthirty years and is a musician’smusician who has won numer-ous awards with The AustinChronicle as best guitarist in bothelectric and acoustic categoriesand Best Rock Band four years ina row as well as being inductedinto the Texas Music Hall ofFame.

Van still has his Gibson BlackBeauty Les Paul that his dadbought for him in 1969, influ-enced by Jimi Hendrix,psychedelia, and the British In-vasion of the ’60s, “We neverreally practiced; we just played.”

He remembers “Nobodywanted to sing in school, so likeeveryone else, I started out bycopying The Ventures and TheBeatles records, and I learned toplay solos by learning the melody,to me it is better to play a me-lodic solo than just a bunch ofnotes.” It is something Van stillthinks about to this day.

After signing with ZZ Top’smanager Bill Ham, his first recordBombay Tears was released onvinyl, cassette and 8-track in1980. It will be re-released thisMay in England along with BoysTown the EP from 1982, “I’mpretty jazzed about it!”

Thirty six years later and it’sstill popular. “We are workingwith a promoter to play Switzer-land, France, and Germany. Wehave a great fan base over inEurope that appreciates Texasblues rock, sometimes more thanit is over here.” I actually found asealed cutout copy in a localrecord store for five dollars, Vantold me to look on the inner

groove of the record for the words“Fools Live On” that was etchedon to the original copies. “Thatwas the band I had with TommyShannon after he left JohnnyWinter and before he joinedStevie Ray Vaughan.”

The next decade was non-stop touring with the biggest actsof the day such as Aerosmith,Heart, Journey, Van Halen andZZ Top, to name a few.

Veteran bluesmanA VETERAN OF THE MUSICbusiness, of which Wilks says,“That’s the biggest oxymoron ofall, it’s a catch 22, you got to tourto sell records, but you have tohave a record to tour.” Takingthe music to the people, that’swhat musicians do and to dateVan has released six studiorecords and one live one, but thenewest one is starting to roll in abig way like the slick locomotiveon the cover of 21st Century Bluesthat is transporting a smokingblack guitar on top. “I’m realproud of it” says Van from hishome in Austin. “It was a longtime in the making, and I had a

lot of help from some great mu-sicians.” Recorded and mixedby Chet Himes, Van was backedby his core rhythm section ofCharlie Fountain on drums andDave Ray on bass. There are guestappearances by ZZ Top’s Billy F.Gibbons, Grammy award win-ner Christopher Cross andMalford Milligan as well as anarray of musicians who contrib-ute such as Tommy Taylor,Reggie Witty, and Chris Mareshwho have toured and recordedwith Eric Johnson.

The disc opens with “StrangeGirl” and lets the listener knowthat rock ’n’ roll is alive and well.It is an exciting ear opener andVan’s vocals are strong, grittyand robust. Next is “Drive ByLover” a song that Van co-wrotewith “Drill Sergeant” Billy F.Gibbon’s way back in the mid’70s. They were banging aroundon a couple of unplugged guitarsat Van’s house and recorded it ona cassette. Short on material andneeding a tune, Billy called andasked if he still remembered thatsong.

Van sent a few vignettes thathe had digitized and within a fewhours, Billy calls back and hadlaid down the tracks in an LAstudio and asked Van to whip upsome words! It ended up on ZZTop’s La Futura album. So on“21st Century Blues” they “messedit up” just right for Van’s take on

the tune. “Golddigger” is a song about

those clever women you shouldavoid, it has that classic Texasfeel that SRV fans will recognizeand gives fair warning, “She’llturn your dollars into dimes, andthen she’ll throw you on the trackone more time.” On “Just WalkAway” there is this strange chordon the intro. Van told me, “Thatis a E9#11/G, Billy showed methat chord in the ’70s.” It’s a slowminor blues where Van plugsstraight into a pawn shop ap-proved amp with all the knobs tothe right for that pure blues tone.

Always searching for the ul-timate tone, Van laments, “Thesearch will never be over; youcan play better when your tone isright. It starts playing you, in-stead of you playing it; tone iswhat it is all about for a guitarplayer.” His fiery fretwork isheard throughout the songs withthat feeling of “Whoa, did youjust hear that?” and “What justhappened there?” His commandof the guitar is that of a seasonedpro but still fresh with prevailingpyrotechnics. Van Wilks has cre-ated a fantastic new record usingmultiple amps, effects and blend-ing a variety of vintage guitars togive you the true tones of Texas.

PioneerVAN HAS ALWAYS BEEN Apioneer with the effect pedals

Van Wilks 21st Century BluesFirst studio release in more than ten years.By Jackie Don Loe, photo by Chuck Flores

used to color the guitar’s overallsound. “I’ve always tried to usethe effect and not let the effectuse me” he adds, “Some peoplepaint in black and white andsome use color. For me the coloris the effect. Every time I’ve got-ten a new effect or stomp box,I’ve usually written a song withit.” Van jokes that, “If I had onemore box on the floor, I’d bereally good.”

“There’s A Sin In There Some-where” the longest song at 6:15and is a tour de force. They found

an old HuddieLedbetter 78 rpmrecord to get thatauthentic soundof the scratchyshellac you hearat the beginning,followed by a1929 NationalDuolian dobro inan open-G tun-ing with a capoon the fourth fret.Like the train onthe cover, thesong rollsthrough theDelta and on intothe big city night!Van tried to useone of his BombayTears LPs, for thescratch sound,“But it wasn’ts c r a t c h yenough!” The in-credible slidework on “If IWere ARichman” re-minds me of JeffBeck’s song“ D e f i n i t e l y /Maybe.” It is apoignant songpainting whereVan sings “I’llnever be a rich

man, but you’ll always be myqueen, We’ll rule the world, Inour dreams.” The chord work onthe title track 21st Century Blueshas the feel of his old friend EricJohnson, I’m sure they havetraded a few licks together. And“Who’s Foolin’ Who” is a funkynumber that mixes in nicely be-fore the rockin’ radio friendlysongs “Can’t Stop Thinking” and“She Makes Me Crazy,” the latterthat was written by Cross andfeatures Milligan.

“I usually write alone, butChris, he’s an old friend andoffered up a song, it was alreadytracked, I just went in and messedit up.”

The record ends with “Mid-night Crossing” which soundslike a soundtrack to a movie, “Ilike atmospheric sounds”, andthis track is one to take you faraway.

At 64, Van declares, “I feellike I’m 22, I don’t feel any differ-ent than I ever have; we are moreseasoned and mature insongwriting and I’m just glad weare still doing it!

“But what choice do we have?Once you start this journey, itsgets in your blood and you justhave to keep going.”

He adds, “It would take a lotfor us to go away, our audiencehas gotten older but we are stillhere; We are glad that we havethe people out there who listenand enjoy it and will jump on thetrain with us and keep riding it!”

And in the end when the dayis done and the night begins, youjust hope for another day to cre-ate your art and to perfect yourmind.

Van Wilks has found a hisway down the tracks and hismessage is not surreptitious orhard to learn, “When you can dowhat you love to do and carry iton – That’s what we do!” ■

“I’ve always tried to use theeffect and not let the effect useme. Some people paint in blackand white and some use color,for me the color is the effect.Every time I’ve gotten a neweffect or stomp box, I’veusually written a song with it.If I had one more box on thefloor, I’d be really good.”

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–VAN WILKS

He will perform at the Dallas International Guitar Show at Dallas Market Hall on April 30: Van Wilks