Music

J.D. Wilkes: Musician-visual artist-filmmaker-author

J.D. Wilkes
J.D. Wilkes

As with any musical strain, there are long, twisted roots winding beneath the rhythms of what is currently called Americana, or alternative-country, or country rock. These roots fan out, taking form as bluegrass, blues, rockabilly, folk and other similar-but-different sounds that eventually sprout into other, more accessible branches like rock 'n' roll and country.

Kentuckian J.D. Wilkes, 45, frontman of wild-eyed rockers the Legendary Shack Shakers, has made a life of clawing through these roots, getting that dark soil beneath his nails and wallowing in the sounds that emerge.

Supersuckers

Opening act: J.D. Wilkes

8 p.m. Friday, Maxine’s, 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs

Admission: $15

(501) 321-0909

maxineslive.com

That will be Wilkes, looking like a hillbilly preacher version of David Byrne, opening for the equally rambunctious trio Supersuckers on Friday at Maxine's in Hot Springs.

"It's a drive I have. I want to learn," he says earlier this month from Nashville, Tenn., where he was performing at a showcase with members of BR-549 and Jason and the Scorchers. "I'm not content to just jam at a gig. I want to dig to the roots of what I'm performing. Where did this come from? I'm curious about it."

The multi-hyphenate Wilkes -- he's a musician-visual artist-filmmaker-author -- is on the road in support of his coming solo record Fire Dream.

Set to hit the streets and streaming sites Feb. 16 on Fat Possum, Fire Dream follows his 2015 solo debut, Cattle in the Cane, an album of traditional banjo music, although the singer considers the new album his actual debut.

"We didn't promote [Cattle ...]. It was just on this little label that didn't even invest in that kind of stuff," he says. "This is the first, real solo record."

Recorded at Delta-Sonic Sound in Memphis with producers Bruce Watson and former Squirrel Nut Zipper Jimbo Matthus, Fire Dream sounds like Tom Waits, Nick Cave and Screamin' Jay Hawkins backed by gypsies at a tent revival.

"Bruce is not a fan of the Shack Shakers, but he likes what I do extracurricularly," says the Paducah, Ky.-based Wilkes.

He's talking in part about his work recording and documenting people making authentic, Kentucky hillbilly music. It's a pursuit that resulted in a book, Barn Dances and Jamborees Across Kentucky. (His well-received novel, The Vine That Ate the South, was published last year.)

"He was a fan of the cultural stuff I was doing on the side," Wilkes says. "He came to Paducah and we hung out for a couple of days and we hit it off."

Also on the album are Matt Patton of the Drive-By Truckers and Dexateens. The horn section from Memphis soul outfit the Bo-Keys also contributed (check them out, especially, on "Down in the Hidey Hole").

"It was the most fun I've ever had recording," he says.

Friday's show, which will include a few Shack Shakers backing him up, will be mostly unplugged, Wilkes says.

"We'll play our songs, but it will be with an emphasis on the songs, maybe not as bombastic as a regular Shack Shakers show."

Wilkes, who has worked as a session player for Merle Haggard and contributed to the soundtrack for HBO's True Blood, had a somewhat peripatetic childhood. Born in Texas, he moved with his family first to Kentucky, then to Louisiana and then back to the Bluegrass State.

Music and visual art were constants.

"I grew up singing in church and singing show tunes and Disney tunes and folk tunes next to my mom at the piano," he says. "In Louisiana, my mom started going to the Southern Baptist church so I've got all those old hymns in my blood. And down there I found out about zydeco and couldn't keep from dancing. I couldn't get that stuff out of my system."

Wilkes was also working his way through his father's records, which included stuff like Muddy Waters and Lightnin' Hopkins.

"I basically inherited his record collection," he says. "I really lucked out. If it hadn't been for that, I may have never considered picking this up as a line of work."

Wilkes taught himself harmonica, learning jump blues and rockabilly tunes. He moved on to bass, guitar and keyboard and eventually started playing in bands.

"The bug bit me pretty hard," he said.

The Shack Shakers got started in 1998. He formed J.D. Wilkes and The Dirt Daubers in 2009.

Beyond all this music, though, Wilkes is an accomplished visual artist. His strip, Head Cheese, ran weekly in the Nashville RAGE (Metromix); he has illustrated many of his record sleeves and drew the album and a short graphic novel for The Yawpers' 2017 record, Boy in a Well. He also produced a comic for singer-songwriter Shooter Jennings a̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶'̶s̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶w̶o̶r̶k̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶c̶o̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶F̶i̶r̶e̶ ̶D̶r̶e̶a̶m̶s̶.*

"I was an art major in college and I've always drawn cartoons," he says. "That's my first love, drawing."

Weekend on 01/18/2018

*CORRECTION: Gabi de la Merced created the cover art for J.D. Wilkes’ Fire Dreams album. Information provided by Wilke’s publicity firm and reported in an earlier version of this story was incorrect.

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