Wink Keziah - Guitar & Vocals....
Arda Bagcioglu - Lead Guitar & Vocals....
Dennis Davis - Lead Guitar & Vocals....
George Covetski - Bass Guitar....
Jason Donaldson - Drums
Wink Keziah
The Biography
“Sometimes in life you just need a new beginning,” says singer-songwriter Wink Keziah describing exactly where he is in both his life and his career right now.
For Keziah, who can’t do anything halfway, that new beginning involves a brand new album, Hard Times, set for release in late summer on the independent Great South Records, a move halfway across the country and some different directions in his music. “Hard times bring new beginnings,” Keziah notes.
After a life entirely spent based in his hometown of Charlotte, N.C., Keziah has packed up his wife, his life, and his hound dog, Jesse, and moved to the thriving music center of Austin, Texas, a move he wanted to make for a long time, but that had been hindered by the responsibilities of family and personal obligations.
Hard Times marks a new direction for Keziah musically as well. It’s his first solo record without longtime band, Delux Motel, the first project recorded in Los Angeles and perhaps more significantly, Keziah’s exploration of wider avenues in his songwriting, with a conscious shift from a honky-tonk heavy vibe to one that is more balanced between the raucous and the spiritual.
“Even though I’m rough and tumble around the edges, I have a very firm foundation in my faith and what I believe,” he says.
Keziah penned all 11 songs on Hard Times that range from the spirituality of “Sweet Jesus” and “The Hands of God” to the autobiographical “Chain Link Fence” to the rollicking ode to redneck romance “Honky-Tonk Rendezvous.” The album’s mid-tempo opener “Sometimes You Win” is a testament to Keziah’s relentlessly positive outlook. It is a gentle reminder that while “things are tough sometimes, you’re gonna win sometimes, too.”
While the songs on Hard Times were all written before the move, the strong Texas influence is apparent through the entire album, particularly on the track “San Antonio” with other Lone Star references interspersed throughout.
The album also has strong California influences. Keziah’s decision to record it in Los Angeles proved to be professionally and creatively fulfilling with the contributions of a stellar list of musicians who have toured and recorded with Steve Earle, Dwight Yoakam, Lucinda Williams, Waylon Jennings, and the Rolling Stones.
Mark Stuart of the Austin-based band, Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash, produced the CD and lends his vocals to the rough-edged, confessional duet “Sweet Jesus.”
Keziah has found a musical soul mate in Stuart, calling his friend and producer “a visionary with an incredible set of ears. He has an uncanny way of hearing the bigger picture.”
The new album’s title, Hard Times, refers partly to the economy and partly to the state of the music industry. But for Keziah, it’s an apt description of his life.
He’s been permanently shaped by a turbulent, hardscrabble childhood. When he sings, “I met my Daddy through a chain link fence” on the song of the same name, he means it quite literally. In fact, the singer’s first memories of his father, “a bootlegger and a hustler,” are of visits to prison where the senior Keziah was doing time for shooting Wink’s maternal grandfather.
As a child Keziah found solace in music and picked up his first guitar at age five. He played in bands throughout his school years and earned a partial art scholarship for college. Unable to fund the rest of his education costs, Keziah enrolled in cosmetology school, hoping to eventually earn enough money in that field to attend art school. But his life soon took a different turn. He opened his own salon and became hugely successful in the cosmetology field. One salon became three, and Keziah found himself overseeing 49 employees, while still continuing to tour and make music.
After a second divorce and a decision to turn down a major-label record deal, he took five years off from playing music to try to live a “normal” life. But like the songs in his head, music just wouldn’t leave him alone. It was his current wife who pushed him to reconnect with his passion for music.
“Hard times make changes. The good thing is they give you the strength or the momentum to get on with a new adventure in your life,” Keziah says. “I know it’s going to be tough for the next couple of years. It’s going to take a lot of hard work.”
But hard work has never concerned Keziah who has toured extensively for years. In 2008, he was on the road a total of 200 days and he will continue to tour behind Hard Times.
“People are probably going to identify with the honky-tonkers, because that’s what they’ve been most used to hearing from me,” Keziah says of the project. “But with this record, they’re going to get a taste of a different side of Wink. Hopefully it’ll be a side that they’ll embrace.”
Hi Wink.. Thanks for taking the time to listen! I love your music, you've got some great songs!! My favorite songs are "You're talkin'bout me" and "A hot woman a cold beer", I like the blues feeling in the songs!! I hope you have a great weekend!! Have fun, Josh
Today I like to inform you, that you can read and watch interviews with your favorit country stars in Enlgish, German and French at http://www.CountryHome.de/Interviews .
Warm regards
Christian
Editor & Journalist for Country Music Christian Lamitschka An der Pfingstweide 28 61118 Bad Vilbel Germany Phone: ++49 6101 544613 Mobil: ++49 171 6903352 Ch.Lamitschka@t-online.de Info@CountryMusic-Magazin.de www.MySpace.com/ChristianLamitschka
