Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: The Vine That Ate the South
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S): Wilkes, Joshua
BIRTHDATE: 4/18/1972
WEBSITE: http://www.jdwilkes.com/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._D._Wilkes * http://www.jdwilkes.com/bio.htm
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2013060898
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2013060898
HEADING: Wilkes, J. D. (Joshua D.), 1972-
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100 1_ |a Wilkes, J. D. |q (Joshua D.), |d 1972-
400 1_ |a Wilkes, Joshua D., |d 1972-
670 __ |a Wilkes, J. D. Barn dances and jamborees across Kentucky, 2013: |b ECIP t.p. (J.D. Wilkes)
670 __ |a Email communication from publisher, Sept. 27, 2013 |b (Joshua D. Wilkes, born April 18, 1972)
953 __ |a vk37
PERSONAL
Born April 18, 1972, in Baytown, TX.
EDUCATION:Murray State University, B.A.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Musician, visual artist, videographer, author, filmmaker. Dirt Daubers, musician; lead singer for the band, Legendary Shack Shakers.
WRITINGS
Illustrator for various comics, including Juxtapoz, Snicker, ALARM Magazine, and TopShelfComix.com. Illustrated the 2010 book Spookiest Stories Ever.
SIDELIGHTS
Born April 18, 1972 in Baytown, Texas, rockabilly and country blues musician J.D. Wilkes was a member of Legendary Shack Shakers and is also a fiction writer, historical writer, filmmaker, and visual artist. He has recorded with Merle Haggard, Hank Williams III, and John Carter Cash, and he has made music videos for Shooter Jennings and Wanda Jackson. Wilkes holds a bachelor’s degree in Studio Art from Kentucky’s Murray State University. He is also an official Kentucky Colonel. As an illustrator, Wilkes drew comic strips, including the satirical Head Cheese which ran in the Nashville RAGE/Metromix weekly newspaper from 2005 to 2008. He also drew illustrations for Juxtapoz, Snicker, ALARM Magazine, and TopShelfComix.com, and illustrated the 2010 book Spookiest Stories Ever.
Wilkes played in his rockabilly band, the Dirt Daubers, and was frontman for the band, Legendary Shack Shakers. Wilkes’ song “Swampblood” appears on the soundtrack for the HBO program TrueBlood that was nominated for a Grammy Award. In describing the Legendary Shack Shakers’s music, Julie Wenger Watson said on the No Depression website: “This is more than music. It’s Appalachian-Gothic tinged performance art at its finest… Part vaudeville, part circus sideshow, there’s plenty here to keep you entertained. The energy of the whip-thin, often bare-chested, Wilkes is palpable and contagious, especially when he’s wailing on his harmonica.” Noting that his music draws from the past, Wilkes told Watson: “I find that the best music, art, architecture, cars, well you name it, came from that era before pop culture was born.”
Wilkes also writes about Kentucky’s folk music heritage. Commenting on the various aspects of his life, with music, videos, and writing, Wilkes spoke to Susan Hubbard online at Mother Pew Church, saying: “I always liked acting up and playing piano, I thought I’d always be a cartoonist though, it’s my first love. There’s no way I ever imagined this would be my life. I mean, I don’t really even know what it is I do now, as an adult. I can’t describe it, it’s strange, but it’s fun, whatever it is.”
In 2013, Wilkes wrote Barn Dances & Jamborees across Kentucky, a look at the state’s love of folk dancing. He travels the state discovering social dances, porch pickins, square dances, barn dances, oprys, and jamborees. One location with a musical and dance tradition is Tadpole’s Dew Drop Inn that featured Marshall County music. Wilkes also looks at the historical places of dance in Kentucky’s two hundred year history. He explains how bluegrass founder Bill Monroe got his start at a Rosine barn dance, and describes Clawhammer banjo players, Appalachian cloggers, and square dance callers Possum Trot and Rabbit Hash.
Wilkes published the novel, The Vine That Ate the South, in 2017. Set in western Kentucky and drawn on American folk-demon heritage, the book is a fantasy about hillbilly J.D., a thirty-something man trying to regain his lady love, Delilah Vessels, who left him for flashy Stoney Kingston. J.D. asks his friend, the Elvis-haired hellion and compulsive liar, Carver Canute, to travel with him to the legendary Kudzu House of Horror museum where the terrifyingly relentless vine supposedly ate an elderly couple whole, their bones still hanging from the vines invading their house. During their journey, J.D. and Carver enter the haunted woods known as “The Deadening,” where they encounter all manner of Southern demons, witches, albino panthers, gun-toting hillbillies, a shrunken head collector, a vampire cult of role-playing gamers, and Sin Eaters. J.D., who grew up poor, is also dealing with the disappearance of his father and their relationship which could use some mending. Throughout the story, Wilkes comments on contemporary Southern life, and relationships with friends and family.
In a positive review, a writer at Publishers Weekly noted: “Wilkes’s sardonic humor and twisting literary explorations of Southern lore are as relentless as the kudzu.” The writer added that the story is more fun than being attacked by ghosts, and that readers who enjoy myths and folklore will enjoy the book. A Kirkus Reviews contributor commented: “Wilkes taps into ancient archetypes to transform everyday characters into phantasmagoric figures by wrapping them in Southern euphemisms, counterintuitive contexts, and florid language more at home in a pulpit.” The contributor called the book a rich and heartfelt yarn and an epic of Wagnerian proportions that reminds readers of Nick Cave’s The Death of Bunny Munro or Steve Earle’s I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive.
According to Michael Schaub online at NPR: “Wilkes peppers the narrative with flashbacks to the narrator’s childhood and a series of philosophical meditations on religion, folk tales and the culture of Kentucky. …The closest Wilkes comes to a statement of purpose for his novel is a beautiful passage in which the narrator reflects on the importance of local and regional history.” Schaub added that as it’s obvious Wilkes enjoys sharing Kentucky culture with readers, “his excitement about each folk tale, each bit of history, shines through the narrative.” The book is relentlessly funny, and Wilkes has an excellent ear for the Kentucky dialect with bright writing making the book a smart original Southern Gothic tale, said Schuab.
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, January 1, 2017, review of The Vine That Ate the South.
Publishers Weekly, December 12, 2016, review of The Vine That Ate the South, p. 128.
ONLINE
J.D. Wilkes Website, http://www.jdwilkes.com (November 1, 2017), author profile.
Mother Pew Church, http://www.motherchurchpew.com/ (July 28, 2016), Susan Hubbard, author interview.
No Depression, http://nodepression.com/ (February 15, 2012), Julie Wenger Watson, author interview.
NPR, http://www.npr.org/ (March 14, 2017), Michael Schaub, review of The Vine That Ate the South.
home links NEWS
BIOGRAPHY
JD Wilkes is an American musician, visual artist, author, filmmaker and self-proclaimed "southern surrealist". He is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist (notably on harmonica and banjo), having recorded with such artists as Merle Haggard, John Carter Cash, Mike Patton, and Hank Williams III. Wilkes’ latest solo album Cattle in the Cane (Arkam Records, January 2015) includes his own renditions of traditional tunes (mostly old-time mountain music), with performances by elder Kentucky fiddler Charlie Stamper (the brother of Art Stamper) on many of the tracks. In the last two years, Wilkes has continued to develop his solo project, having toured with Charlie Parr and The Tillers, as well as performing at the 2015 Winnipeg Folk Festival.
Wilkes is perhaps best known as the founder of the Legendary Shack Shakers, a Southern Gothic rock and blues band formed in the mid 90s. Fans of his work with Legendary Shack Shakers include Stephen King, Robert Plant and former Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra. Rolling Stone named Wilkes as the “best frontman” at the 2015 Americana Music Association Festival for his performance with the band. Regarding the group’s "southern gothic" lyricism, Billboard Magazine said "[Wilkes writes] mind-blowing lyrics rife with Biblical references and ruminations of life, death, sin and redemption.” Legendary Shack Shakers have toured with the likes of Robert Plant and The Black Keys, among others. Their music has been featured in HBO’s True Blood series, and in a long-running Geico commercial.
JD Wilkes has been compared to iconoclasts like David Byrne, Iggy Pop, or Jerry Lee Lewis, and with his small, wiry frame and intense, incandescent performances, it’s not hard to see why. But while he plays the carnival barker onstage, he’s a dedicated lifelong student of true Southern culture. Master banjo player Dom Flemons said, “JD is a real old-Kentucky banjo player and he can take that to the bank! I gotta watch out next time I see his banjo.” A resident of Paducah, Kentucky, Wilkes is a Kentucky Colonel, an honorable title bestowed by the state's Governor upon those with a connection to, or who are famous residents of the state of Kentucky. In 2015, Wilkes was featured on the BBC original series Songs of the South, in an episode focusing on the musical history of Tennessee and Kentucky.
Aside from his prolific career in music, Wilkes is also a published writer, having recently authored the book Barn Dances and Jamborees Across Kentucky, an exploration of his state’s social music and dance history based on extensive fieldwork and research. A true Southern Renaissance man, Wilkes is also an accomplished visual artist (specializing in comics, sideshow banners and book illustrations) as well as a documentary filmmaker (his documentary Seven Signs explores “music, myths, and the American South” and was screened at the UK’s prestigious Raindance Film Festival).
DISCOGRAPHY
J.D.'s Tasteless Chill Tonic, Legendary Shack Shakers, (1996)
"Go Hog Wild" b/w "She's Gone Haywire" 45, Legendary Shack Shakers (1997, Misprint/Conan Records)
Hunkerdown With Those Legendary Shack Shakers, Legendary Shack Shakers, (1998, Spinout)
Cockadoodledon't, Legendary Shack Shakers, (2003, Bloodshot)
Believe, Legendary Shack Shakers, (2004, YepRoc)
Pandelirium, Legendary Shack Shakers, (2006, YepRoc)
"No Such Thing" b/w "Born Again Again" 45, Legendary Shack Shakers (2006, YepRoc Records)
Lower Broad Lo-Fi, Legendary Shack Shakers (2006, Arkam/BlackOwl Radio)
Swampblood, Legendary Shack Shakers, (2007, YepRoc)
The Dirt Daubers, The Dirt Daubers (2009, Arkam/Black Owl Radio)
AgriDustrial, Legendary Shack Shakers (2010, 30 Tigers)
Wake Up, Sinners, The Dirt Daubers (2011, Colonel Knowledge Records/30 Tigers)
Kitchen Tapes, JD Wilkes (2012, Arkam/Black Owl Radio)
Wild Moon, The Dirt Daubers (2013, Plowboy Records)
Dump Road EP, Legendary Shack Shakers (2014, Arkam)
The Southern Surreal (2015, Alternative Tentacles)
FILMOGRAPHY
Hank Williams: Honky Tonk Blues (2004)
Seven Signs (2007)
The Real Me, video for Shooter Jennings (2012)
Tore Down, video for Wanda Jackson (2012)
CRITICAL ACCLAIM
"Great stuff! (JD) is my favorite right this second. JD is a real old-Kentucky banjo player and he can take that to the bank! I gotta watch out next time I see his banjo."–Dom Flemons, Carolina Chocolate Drops
“(Wilkes writes) mind-blowing lyrics rife with Biblical references and ruminations of life, death, sin and redemption." –BILLBOARD
“(Wilkes) is the closest thing there is to the Ambassador of Genuine Traditional Southern Culture.” -ALARM Magazine
“JD’s art and music convey the dark and twisted underbelly of a country steeped in contradictions.” –JUXTAPOZ
“(Wilkes’ Swampblood is) one of the strangest and thoroughly drawn concept albums of recent times. -AMERICAN SONGWRITER
“What a great soundtrack...!” –author Stephen King (about JD’s material on the album Cockadoodledon’t)
“Dignified and disarming…” –Bill Friskics Warren, THE TENNESSEEAN (Regarding Seven Signs)
INSTRUMENTS
Vocals, Harmonica, Banjo
LABELS
YepRoc, Bloodshot, Colonel Knowledge, Arkam, 30 Tigers
ASSOCIATED ACTS
Legendary Shack Shakers
The Dirt Daubers
Reverend Horton Heat
Hank Williams III
Th Dixiecrats
J. D. Wilkes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
J.D. Wilkes
Jdwilkes.jpg
Wilkes in 2007
Background information
Born April 18, 1972 (age 45)
Baytown, Texas, United States
Genres Rockabilly, country blues, southern gothic
Occupation(s) Musician, artist, filmmaker, author
Instruments Vocals, harmonica, banjo
Labels YepRoc, Alternative Tentacles, Bloodshot, Colonel Knowledge, Arkam, Thirty Tigers
Associated acts Legendary Shack Shakers
The Dirt Daubers
Reverend Horton Heat
Hank Williams III
The Dixiecrats
Joshua "J. D." Wilkes (born April 18, 1972, Baytown, Texas, United States) is an American visual artist, musician, amateur filmmaker and author.[1] He probably best known as the singer for experimental rockabilly group Legendary Shack Shakers, and is also an accomplished harmonica player, having recorded for such artists as Merle Haggard, John Carter Cash, Mike Patton, and Hank Williams III in the American Masters film "Hank Williams: Honky Tonk Blues".[2] His song "Swampblood" can be heard on the Grammy-nominated soundtrack for HBO's True Blood series. Wilkes is a resident of Paducah, Kentucky and is the author of two books, The Vine That Ate The South and Barn Dances and Jamborees Across Kentucky.
Contents [hide]
1 Biography
2 Discography
3 Filmography
4 References
5 External links
Biography[edit]
Wilkes is known as the founder and only remaining original member of the Legendary Shack Shakers, a rockabilly/blues band he formed in Murray, Kentucky, in the mid 1990s. Before forming the band, Wilkes was a performer on the paddle wheeler Paducah Jubilee. He also played harmonica for the act "Popularity Showboat" at the Eddyville State Penitentiary.
Regarding the Shack Shaker's "southern gothic" lyricism, Billboard Magazine said "(Wilkes writes) mind-blowing lyrics rife with Biblical references and ruminations of life, death, sin and redemption."[3]
Wilkes is a Kentucky Colonel.[4]
Wilkes' holds a bachelor's degree in Studio Art from Kentucky's Murray State University.[5]His contributions to the visual arts include many illustrations, comic strips, and sideshow banners. His satirical "Head Cheese" strip ran in the Nashville RAGE/Metromix weekly from 2005 to 2008. Other illustrative works by Wilkes have been published in Juxtapoz, Snicker, ALARM Magazine, and TopShelfComix.com.[6] Wilkes illustrated the book "Spookiest Stories Ever" for the University Press of Kentucky, released in 2010.[7]
In October 2013, The History Press published Wilkes' book Barn Dances and Jamborees Across Kentucky, a history of traditional music get-togethers in the Bluegrass State.[8] In March 2017, independent publisher Two-Dollar Radio released Wilkes's novel "The Vine That Ate The South", a book praised by NPR as “undeniably one of the smartest, most original Southern Gothic novels to come along in years.” [9].[10]
In 2006, Wilkes, began work on a documentary film titled Seven Signs, that explored "music, myth, and the American South."[11] The film premiered on December 30, 2007, at the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville, Tennessee and debuted in the UK at London's prestigious Raindance Film Festival.[12] In early 2009, Wilkes formed The Dirt Daubers, an old-time roots-influenced side project with his wife, Jessica, and "Slow" Layne Hendrickson. The band's self-titled debut was released in October 2009. They are now referred to as JD Wilkes and the Dirt Daubers.
Occasionally, Wilkes and the Shack Shakers appear in the Danish theatrical production F.U.B.A.R., a production of Copenhagen's Mute Comp Theatre. The play, which tackles the subject of illegal gun trade around the globe, features a speaking part by J.D. He also reprised his "gothic preacher" character (developed for Shooter Jennings' The Real Me video) when he acted as the presenter at the 2013 Addy Awards in Cincinnati, Ohio.
In May 2014, Wilkes was selected by mayor Gayle Kaler to represent his home city of Paducah, Kentucky in a cultural exchange with The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Ireland. Wilkes was met by author/actor/playwright and deputy Lord Mayor Gerard Mannix Flynn at the Mansion House in Dublin, where the two exchanged gifts as part of a UNESCO-sponsored reception. Flynn was given a quilt from Paducah's MAQS museum and a copy of Wilkes' book on barn dances. Wilkes was provided with a copy of Flynn's novel and other literature to present to Paducah's mayor Gayle Kaler.[13]
Discography[edit]
J.D.'s Tasteless Chill Tonic, Legendary Shack Shakers, (1996, Conan Records)
"Go Hog Wild b/w She's Gone Haywire" 45, Legendary Shack Shakers, (1997, Conan/Misprint Records)
Hunkerdown With Those Legendary Shack Shakers, Legendary Shack Shakers, (1998, Spinout Records)
Tomahawk, Tomahawk, (2001, Ipecac Records); harmonica on "Point and Click"
Dressed in Black: A Tribute to Johnny Cash w/ Hank Williams III (2001 Dualtone Records)
Sharp Dressed Men: A Tribute to ZZ Top w/Hank Williams III (2002, RCA Records)
Cockadoodledon't, Legendary Shack Shakers, (2003, Bloodshot)
Believe, Legendary Shack Shakers, (2004, YepRoc Records)
Pandelirium, Legendary Shack Shakers, (2006, YepRoc Records)
"No Such Thing b/w Born Again Again" 45 (2006, YepRoc Records)
"Cock o' the Walk b/w Devil's Prayerbook" 45 The Dixiecrats (2006, Spinout Records)
The Bluegrass Sessions, Merle Haggard (McCoury Music/Hag Records)
Swampblood, Legendary Shack Shakers, (2007, YepRoc Records)
The Dirt Daubers, The Dirt Daubers (2009, Arkam Records)
True Blood Soundtrack Season One (2009, Elektra/Atlantic Records)
Twistable, Turnable Man: A Musical Tribute to the Songs of Shel Silverstein w/Todd Snider (2010, Sugar Hill Records)
AgriDustrial, Legendary Shack Shakers (2010, Colonel Knowledge/30 Tigers)
Wake Up, Sinners, The Dirt Daubers (2011, Colonel Knowledge Records/30 Tigers)
Kitchen Tapes, (2012, Arkam Records)
Wild Moon, J.D. Wilkes and The Dirt Daubers (2013, Plowboy Records)
Dump Road EP, Legendary Shack Shakers (2014, Arkam Records)
Go Hog Wild/Tickle Your Innards 45, Legendary Shack Shakers (2015, Arkam Records)
The Southern Surreal, Legendary Shack Shakers (2015, Alternative Tentacles)
Filmography[edit]
Seven Signs (2007)
BBC's Songs of the South (2015)
References[edit]
Jump up ^ "An Interview With JD Wilkes of Th' Legendary Shack*Shakers". Punkmusic.about.com. March 5, 2014. Retrieved 2014-07-12.
Jump up ^ Chet Flippo (September 27, 2007). "News : NASHVILLE SKYLINE: Haggard Goes Bluegrass". CMT. Retrieved 2014-07-12.
Jump up ^ "SeptDigital – 0025". US-NY: Myvirtualpaper.com. June 14, 2014. Retrieved 2014-07-12.
Jump up ^ http://www.thevinyldistrict.com/storefront/2014/09/tvd-interview-col-j-d-wilkes-legendary-shack-shakers/
Jump up ^ "Orange Hill Folk Art Gallery and Outsider Art Gallery – Artists". Orangehillart.com. Retrieved 2014-07-12.
Jump up ^ "J.D. Wilkes / Top Shelf 2.0". Topshelfcomix.com. Retrieved 2014-07-12.
Jump up ^ [1]
Jump up ^ [2]
Jump up ^ [3]
Jump up ^ http://twodollarradio.com/products/the-vine-that-ate-the-south
Jump up ^ "Thirsty : October 2006 : Col. JD Wilkes Featured Interview". Staythirstymedia.com. Retrieved 2014-07-12.
Jump up ^ [4] Archived July 8, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
Jump up ^ "J.D. Wilkes part of UNESCO program visits Dublin, US touring with Dirt Daubers". Bmetrack.com. April 23, 2014. Retrieved 2014-07-12.
External links[edit]
Official Site
Seven Signs
Truebloodwiki.wetpaint.com
Authority control
WorldCat Identities VIAF: 107458200 MusicBrainz: ef7d375f-9068-470d-a0b6-514918ce32a9
Categories: 1972 birthsLiving peopleAmerican blues harmonica playersAmerican male singersAmerican blues singersMurray State University alumniMusicians from Paducah, KentuckyBlues musicians from KentuckyArtists from KentuckyWriters from KentuckyRock musicians from Kentucky
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Mother Church Pew
HOMENEWSREVIEWSINTERVIEWSFEATURESABOUT
INTERVIEW: JD WILKES
JULY 28, 2016SUSAN HUBBARD LEAVE A COMMENT
Screen Shot 2016-07-28 at 2.11.27 PM
“I always liked acting up and playing piano, I thought I’d always be a cartoonist though, it’s my first love. There’s no way I ever imagined this would be my life. I mean, I don’t really even know what it is I do now, as an adult. I can’t describe it, it’s strange, but it’s fun, whatever it is,” laughs JD Wilkes, the high-powered frontman of veteran rockabilly outfit, the Legendary Shack Shakers. The band, whose fans include Robert Plant and Stephen King, has been making a ruckus since the mid-90s; members have come and gone, but the constant has been Wilkes, whose electrified performance style is, as he says, “fueled by Red Bull and bourbon. It just comes out naturally, a lot of it is my upbringing in a charismatic church, being a ham, and watching a lot of cartoons. My performance style reflects my passion for music. And Ren & Stimpy cartoons.”
The path to his rockabilly present was paved with youthful folly, testosterone, and a love of true American music. “When I realized I could make that kind of music with like-minded people, and love the way that feels, it was addictive. It’s like a bug that bites, like any drug. It gets in your system; you get a rush of affirmation from your audience. It’s undone a lot of damage from the high school years, it came in handy, and ultimately it’s been a good thing,” he says. “Revenge of the nerds!”
Wilkes, a bona fide Kentucky Colonel, has many irons in many fires; still an avid cartoonist, he has several musical side projects, has made a documentary film, is preparing for an early fall solo tour with Dex Romweber of the Flat Duo Jets, and is a published author. His novel, The Vine That Ate The South, comes out next year, and will coincide with the release of the next Legendary Shack Shakers album, tentatively named After You’ve Gone; “The lyrical material deals with my recent divorce, it’s the most personal record I’ve ever done. It runs the gamut—from tearjerkers to absolute raging, angry tunes. I tried to capture each emotion I was experiencing in a song,” explains Wilkes. “It’s a well-rounded representation of what I went through.”
The band released album Southern Surreal in 2015, and Lower Broadway Lo-Fi this year; after playing several shows and festivals this summer, they will head to Europe in November. If you’re in the Nashville area, you can catch their unforgettable performance live and in person at The Mercy Lounge on Saturday, July 29th.
“We’re not mainstream and we don’t have to fit in any kind of trend—that will wear you out, trying to keep up with trends,” Wilkes says of the band’s longevity. “I just keep up with myself and what I like to hear, I stay fascinated with what I like, and what appeals to my ear. All people have to do is look as the world around them, it’s easy to stay fresh. There are so many songs to be written, so many gigs to play, so many people to make happy. It’s a never-ending labor of love.”
Purchase tickets to the Nashville show: http://mercylounge.com/calendar/?event_id=6584965
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In "Features"
INTERVIEWS, LIVE SHOWS, NEWS ALT-COUNTRY, AMERICANA, FLAT DUO JETS, JD WILKES, ROCKABILLY, ROOTS MUSIC, SOUTHERN SURREAL, THE LEGENDARY SHACK SHAKERS, THE MERCY LOUNGE, THE VINE THAT ATE THE SOUTH
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A Brief Q & A with Th' Legendary Shack Shakers’ J.D. Wilkes
BY JULIE WENGER WATSON
FEBRUARY 15, 2012
(Log In or Sign Up to Follow Contributor)
Th' Legendary Shack Shakers Play Tulsa's Unit D this Month
By Julie Wenger Watson
Colonel J.D. Wilkes and his Legendary Shack Shakers will be rocking the house on Feb. 23 at Tulsa’s Unit D, a very hip venue flying under the radar for some, but well-known to those who like their music with more than a little attitude. While punkgrassabillyblues, courtesy of the Shack Shakers, is on the main menu, you’ll want to arrive in time to catch The Dirt Daubers open the show. This trio, comprised of Wilkes (banjo), his wife Jessica (mandolin) and Mark Robertson (Shack Shakers’ bass player), will quickly win you over with their take on an old-timey, more traditional sound.
If you aren’t familiar with the Shack Shakers, you owe it to yourself to at least check out a video or two, then you really ought to consider catching the live performance. This is more than music. It’s Appalachian-Gothic tinged performance art at its finest, the theatrical sense of Iggy Pop and Alice Cooper with a darn good soundtrack. Part vaudeville, part circus sideshow, there’s plenty here to keep you entertained. The energy of the whip-thin, often bare-chested, Wilkes is palpable and contagious, especially when he’s wailing on his harmonica.
Intrigued, I couldn’t resist a recent opportunity to ask Wilkes, who is also a talented visual artist and filmmaker, a few questions by e-mail.
JWW: At the Tulsa show, you are effectively opening for yourself. Is it hard to make the transition from playing the more traditional music of the Dirt Daubers to the amped up, punked out version of the Shack Shakers?
JD: It was hard at first, but one of the reasons why I wanted to form the Dirt Daubers was to present myself the challenge of playing a stringed instrument on stage. I wanted the responsibility of playing an instrument that was integral to the songs as a whole. With harmonica, I’m merely embellishing what the rest of the band is performing. But in the Daubers, the banjo has to be played throughout the song, or else there’s a gaping hole there.
JWW: Bishline Banjos, who make some of Danny Barnes’ banjos, is in Tulsa and Rob Bishline is a friend of mine, so I have a soft spot for banjos. Can you tell me a little about your own playing? What kind of banjo you play and how you first started?
JD: I have a few banjos, but mostly I’ve been playing a Deering Boston. I recently acquired an Eastman “Whyte Laydie” from Bernunzio Music in Rochester, New York. It’s an open back, so it’s more in keeping with that old-time sound. I also just traded an accordion for a primitive, handmade Appalachian style banjo, akin to the types shown in those old Foxfire books.
A few years ago, when I discovered Dock Boggs, I realized that you don’t have to play like Earl Scruggs to own or play a banjo. There’s so much music out there that’s good but different. I’ve always been more of a fan of that primitive, bluesy clawhammer sound anyway.
JWW: What about the harmonica?
JD: My grandfather gave me one as a kid. It was an old “echo-tuned” antique Hohner, the kind with two rows of holes, which was perfect for playing simple folky melodies. Once I discovered blues music, I graduated down to a simple 10-hole diatonic, the kind you can buy at Cracker Barrel. That’s when I got really into Sonny Terry, Little Walter and Sonny Boy. And an obsession was born.
JWW: Your art and your music seem to take inspiration from the past. Can you talk a little about this?
JD: I find that the best music, art, architecture, cars, well you name it, came from that era before pop culture was born. There was more originality before the homogenizing effects of Hollywood and Madison Avenue came into full power. That’s why everything from that era is labeled “classic.” Things were better made before greed was deemed “good” by Hollywood (and Washington DC, for that matter.)
JWW: Can you try to describe what this show might be like for those who’ve never seen you live?
JD: Lively, catchy, wild. Exhausting, perhaps. Did I mention “fun”?
-With permission from The Current.
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interview: J.D. Wilkes of the Legendary Shack Shakers
Posted September 18, 2017 by Erin Wolf.
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IN-STUDIO INTERVIEW
91.7 FM Club Garibaldi's J.D. Wilkes The Legendary Shack Shakers WMSE JD_Wilkes
Tune into WMSE to hear Tom Crawford chat it up with J.D. Wilkes of the Legendary Shack Shakers as they get ready for a show with Wood Chickens and The Jukebox Romantics at Club Garibaldi’s later that evening.
Described by guitar legend Jeff Beck as a cross between the Yardbirds and the Sex Pistols, Legendary Shack Shakers has obviously earned quite a name for itself. The bands hell-for-leather roadshow is infamous for its unique brand of Southern Gothic that is all-at-once irreverent, revisionist, soulful, dangerous, and fun.
Led by their wildly charismatic, rail-thin frontman/blues-harpist, J.D. Wilkes, the Shack Shakers are a four-man wrecking crew from the South whose explosive interpretations of the blues, punk, rock and country have made fans, critics and legions of potential converts into true believers.
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10/2/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
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Print Marked Items
The Vine That Ate the South
Publishers Weekly.
263.51 (Dec. 12, 2016): p128.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The Vine That Ate the South
J.D. Wilkes. Two Dollar Radio, $15.99 trade
paper (218p) ISBN 978-1-937512-55-2
Protagonist J.D. needs a quest to escape a trackless life, and to win back the heart of his one true love. He decides to
seek out the Kudzu House of Horror, where explosive kudzu once ate the elderly couple living inside (their bones hang
perpetually in the vines). Finding it will require navigating the Deadening, the forbidding wildland beyond Kentucky
Route 3075, with the help of rugged good ol' boy Carver Canute. Their quest takes them through a convoluted
Southern maze of mythology and folklore great and sundry, including a Sin Eater, the Bell Witch, Mothman, yelling
traveling evangelists, and of course, a lot of kudzu, the vine that ate the South and might eat you too, as likely as not.
Wilkes's sardonic humor and twisting literary explorations of Southern lore are as relentless as the kudzu entwining the
story, and more fun than being attacked by revenge-bent ghosts. Myth-loving readers will be happy to have Wilkes pull
them through the wicked high spirits of the Deadening. (Mar.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"The Vine That Ate the South." Publishers Weekly, 12 Dec. 2016, p. 128. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA475225061&it=r&asid=89b5415edbd7d6521bd94f5cbfc84f45.
Accessed 2 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A475225061
---
10/2/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1506979883833 2/2
Wilkes, J.D.: THE VINE THAT ATE THE
SOUTH
Kirkus Reviews.
(Jan. 1, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Wilkes, J.D. THE VINE THAT ATE THE SOUTH Two Dollar Radio (Adult Fiction) $15.99 3, 14 ISBN: 978-1-
937512-55-2
The epic saga of two Kentucky hillbillies in the wicked heart of the American South.Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor
might or might not embrace this backwoods odyssey, but proper Kentuckians Hunter S. Thompson and Johnny Depp
would be cackling to beat the devil over this brazen tribute to folklore, tradition, and hillbilly rituals. It's certainly true
that Wilkes (Barn Dances & Jamborees Across Kentucky, 2013) knows this territory, integrating similar imagery into
his day job as lead singer of rockabilly band The Legendary Shack Shakers. Here, our unnamed protagonist sets out to
discover a storied home where an elderly couple is said to have been eaten by an invasive species of vine. As with any
proper voyage, he hopes to win glory and earn back his love, Delilah Vessels, stolen away by cad Stoney Kingston.
Playing Sancho Panza to his Don Quixote is Carver Canute: "He's a cocky Elvis-haired hell-raiser who keeps his
pompadour aloft with pork drippin's, sweat, and a wafting circle of lies." Armed with supplies and a harmonica from
Cracker Barrel, our heroes head up The Old Spur Line, a dark path leading into the woods, where strange encounters
await. What's fascinating is how Wilkes taps into ancient archetypes to transform everyday characters into
phantasmagoric figures by wrapping them in Southern euphemisms, counterintuitive contexts, and florid language
more at home in a pulpit. Strange noises in the woods could be from a tectonic crack or a "Hell Hole" that serves as a
portal to the damned. A moody group of role-players becomes a vampire cult that roams the woods looking for
victims. For the narrator, God is simply "the only daddy I know." For anyone who grew up in the South, it's an epic of
Wagnerian proportions. Like Nick Cave's The Death of Bunny Munro or Steve Earle's I'll Never Get Out of This
World Alive, Wilkes' debut is a rich and heartfelt yarn that resonates as deeply as his music.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Wilkes, J.D.: THE VINE THAT ATE THE SOUTH." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Jan. 2017. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA475357463&it=r&asid=2633c6bb4df67fd2d61eecf1d0f332f2.
Accessed 2 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A475357463
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'The Vine That Ate The South' Blends Folk Tales With Southern History
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March 14, 20177:00 AM ET
MICHAEL SCHAUB
The Vine That Ate the South
The Vine That Ate the South
by J. D. Wilkes
Paperback, 212 pages purchase
If you ever want to make a group of Southerners groan, just ask them how they feel about kudzu. The now-ubiquitous vine was introduced to the United States from Japan in the late 19th century, and widely publicized as a miracle plant: it could be used as food for cattle; it made a nice ornamental addition to porches. But it didn't take very long for "the vine that ate the South" to go out of control, smothering Dixie and suffocating its other plants.
In The Vine That Ate the South, the bizarre, rollicking debut novel from rockabilly and blues singer J.D. Wilkes, kudzu is more than just annoying. The book opens with what the narrator says is a western Kentucky folk tale, about an elderly married couple whose corpses were devoured by the persistent weed. Their skeletons, according to legend, still hang in the possibly-haunted woods called "The Deadening."
The narrator of Wilkes' novel — unnamed except for an unfortunate and unprintable childhood nickname — decides to make the macabre tableau the destination of "my first and last childhood adventure, albeit one conducted in my thirties." His own upbringing was anything but carefree; he grew up poor, and lost his father (under mysterious circumstances) at a young age. "I am weak and incomplete," he says, "the curse of a fatherless home."
Knowing he'll never be able to find the skeletons on his own, the narrator enlists his friend Carver Canute, "a cocky Elvis-haired hell-raiser who keeps his pompadour aloft with pork drippin's, sweat, and a wafting circle of lies." The narrator, timid by nature, sets off with Carver on their mountain bikes, newly emboldened by the presence of his companion: "Yes, if ever the Devil was incarnate on earth, it is down South right now ... hiding in the Kudzu. And I've got a machete!"
Their journey proves difficult in short order. They pass a series of abandoned buildings, meet a shrunken head collector who doubles as an anti-abortion crusader, and wander around a long-forgotten, vandalized graveyard. They narrowly escape death by gunshot and hurricane. And the narrator is sure that he can feel the presence of Satan himself in the haunted forest.
Wilkes peppers the narrative with flashbacks to the narrator's childhood and a series of philosophical meditations on religion, folk tales and the culture of Kentucky. The narrator has fond memories of his education in a charismatic Christian school, but now harbors doubts that God exists at all. "I really hope there's a God," he reflects at one point. "And not an all-knowing One, because then I'd be mad at Him for all the evil and suffering. Yeah, I hope He's kind of a dumbass. With coke-bottle glasses, mismatched socks, and maybe his fly is open. Because how can you stay mad at that?"
The closest Wilkes comes to a statement of purpose for his novel is a beautiful passage in which the narrator reflects on the importance of local and regional history. "In every nook and cranny, in any direction on God's green earth, there is history to be learned," he muses. "Man, I don't know. A small-town kid has to cook up something interesting about his own back yard. Collecting folktales and courting ghosts is just another way for the rural-lonely to stay sane."
Wilkes shares his protagonist's interest in folk tales and history. His band the Legendary Shack Shakers incorporates Southern mythology into their rockabilly and swamp rock-tinged songs, and he's the author of a history book called Barn Dances and Jamborees Across Kentucky. His wide knowledge of the subjects is evident on every page of The Vine That Ate the South.
He takes obvious enjoyment in sharing the culture of his home state; his excitement about each folk tale, each bit of history, shines through the narrative. And it's contagious: It's hard not to get swept up by his enthusiastic prose, his ebullient descriptions of the places and people in the Bluegrass State. (Early in the book, for example, he describes a drugstore porch "where old warriors told ghost stories and old ghosts told war stories.")
It's a relentlessly fun novel, the literary equivalent of a country-punk album that grabs you and refuses to let go. Wilkes has a perfect ear for the dialect of Kentucky, and his writing is so bright, you can almost see every abandoned shack, every kudzu-covered tree. Sure, it's bizarre, and at points almost gleefully obscene, but it's undeniably one of the smartest, most original Southern Gothic novels to come along in years.
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