Wink Keziah is a true son of the South, an urban hillbilly by birth, and
a musical outlaw by his very nature. Yet at the same time he's a man of
many other worlds, too. All that and more can be heard on Cowbilly, his
latest album on his own label, Great South Records.
Hailed as "a
master of many styles that all speak to blue collar America" by Vintage
Guitar magazine, Keziah knows of what he writes and sings about in his
supercharged real-life country songs. He grew up dirt poor in Charlotte,
NC's hardscrabble redneck ghetto, first met his father through the
chain-link fence of a prison yard, and later watched his mother shoot
his dad twice as he was getting ready for school. "My life reads like a
cheap C movie script," Keziah says with a chuckle. But it's one with a
happy ending where the hero triumphs.
The man also knows his music
and all about playing it live for people from many walks of life. He
started in his first band at nine years old, began writing songs by the
age of 12, and at 14 had a regular gig with a group in a strip joint. He
went on to blaze a trail throughout the South with bands like The
Rollin' Tumbleweeds, Adam's House Cat and The Houdauls before stepping
out under his own name to make three critically-acclaimed albums of
hardcore rocking country.
Now with Cowbilly, Keziah delivers his
strongest and most varied collection yet of songs that ring with the
truth and never stray from the true spirit of genuine country music.
Recorded in North Carolina, Austin, TX, and Los Angeles, it was produced
by Keziah with the assistance of his guitarist Dale Meyers. Guest
artists include such Austin notables as hip honky-tonker Jesse Dayton,
Mark Stuart from the Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash and neo-rockabilly
guitar star Danny B. Harvey plus LA-based talents like guitarist Doug
Pettibone (known for his work with Lucinda Williams, Marianne Faithfull,
Jewel, John Mayer and many others) and singer Marcy Levy (who has sung
with the likes of Eric Clapton, Leon Russell and Bob Seger, co-wrote the
Clapton hit "Lay Down Sally," and was one half of the chart-topping duo
Shakespeare's Sister). And throughout the album the songs are laced by
the lovely accents of North Carolina instrumental wizard David Johnson
on violin, viola, cello, mandolin, pedal steel and banjo.
The disc
opens with "When I Get Paid," a working man's lament that's spot on for
the hard times we currently live in. And then runs the gamut from the
sacred on the closing bluegrass gospel number "When The Shadows Come A'
Callin'" to the profane blues-inflected country-rock cautionary
"Moonshine and Dope," and from the lonely lament of "Cincinnati" to the
search for a better place with "Time To Move On" to the Cajun-flavored
rave-up of "Life on the Bayou" on to the haunting last thoughts of a
condemned killer on "Dead Man Walking." Keziah carries on his tradition
of red-hot honky-tonk on "Holdin' On (Gets the Best of Me)" and "Second
Chance (At a First Impression)," and delves into gentler and more
sensitive songs and sounds as he examines family legacies on "The Quiet
Kind" and "Faithful Son." All told, Cowbilly showcases the
ever-expanding breadth and depth of Keziah's musical creativity.
Despite
growing up in dire poverty, Keziah's youth was musically rich. His
mother would spin 45 RPM singles by her favorite artists like Jim
Reeves, Ray Charles and Johnny Cash on the hi-fi console in the living
room, and for Christmas when he was age four, his older sister bought
Wink The Best of the Box Tops. "It had all these great songs and lit a
fire under my ass," he recalls. On his next birthday a mere month later,
he got a Sears Silvertone guitar and combo amplifier/record player as
presents along with a Learn To Play with Mel Bay instruction book.
"Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck learned from the same book."
Even though he
spent his teen years playing music by night, Keziah still excelled
enough by day in school to win a college art scholarship. Unable to
afford the other costs, he instead went to cosmetology school and
started what eventually became a chain of three salons with nearly 50
employees, living prosperously for 20 years among the redneck
aristocracy on North Carolina's Lake Norman.
All the while Wink was
also singing and playing everything from Southern, new wave and indie
rock to country music throughout the South, cutting four independent
albums with different bands, and sharing stages over the years with
everyone from Marty Stuart to Black Flag, also including Joe Ely, John
Anderson, R.E.M., The Blasters, Southern Culture on the Skids, The
Hoodoo Gurus and Martina McBride, to name some but hardly all. His band
The Rollin' Tumbleweeds eventually won a development deal with MCA
Records. But Keziah turned down a full contract with the label for fear
it would lead him to compromise his music. The decision broke up the
band.
It also eventually led him after a five year hiatus from music
and stab at living "a normal life" to step out under his own name with
the 2005 release of his album Delux Motel, backed by his band of the
same name, and pursue his music full time. The disc earned airplay
across North America and Europe, and launched Keziah on a round of some
150 club and festival dates here and abroad over the year that followed.
His next disc, Working Songs for the Drinking Class, was hailed as
"pure genius" by the Philadelphia Inquirer, "masterful" by the Knoxville
Voice, and "ten songs' worth of honky tonkin' that Waylon, Willie and
Tompall would give their outlaw country stamps of approval to" by Stomp
& Stammer magazine. In 2008 he bought a second home in Austin, TX,
where he now bases himself for part of the year and has become an
integral part of the city's thriving musical community. "It gets me away
from Carolinas and all the things I've known, and it's another place to
be at home," he says. The following year Wink expanded his stylistic
range even further with the release of Hard Times, recorded in LA with
his pal Mark Stuart producing.
As No Depression notes, Keziah "has
mastered a variety of musical styles, but also understands everyday life
in rural America." As he says, "I want people to know that what I'm
talking about is real. I have seen some really bad times. I have seen
really good times. A lot of people have had some kind of trouble in
their lives. Maybe they'll hear something that gives them some kind of
hope. And it might do some good for somebody. People say, "How can all
these drinking songs and things help somebody?" Well, that's just life.
But if you listen to the words, really, there's something else in
there."
He's also a musical lifer who after 39 years of playing has
still racked up well over 100 shows in 2013, including one of his
regular visits to Scandinavia, where he's a popular musical attraction.
"I am dead serious about what I do," Keziah asserts. "I'm not going away
until I die. The records are going to keep coming. And that's what
keeps me going. I'm gonna keep digging my heels in and keep gettin' it
until I can't do it anymore."
