Van Wilks - Texas Jukin' (2002)

In Austin, Texas, a city known for it’s great guitarists Van Wilks has long been lauded as one of the city’s master players.

His talents as a guitarist and band leader have won him consistent critical praise and a string of honors that was capped when he was voted by Austin music fans into the Austin Chronicle’s "Texas Music Hall of Fame" alongside the state’s most legendary musical talents.

In his third decade as a veteran of the world-famous Austin music scene, Van Wilks "continues to make some of the city’s hottest guitar rock.", says the Austin Chronicle, creating music that brings his blues roots to the cutting edge with funk, hard-rock and melodic undertones. His compelling, hard-edged, bluesy rock prompted England’s tastemaking "Kerrang!" to name Van Wilks’ Mercury Records release "Bombay Tears" as "one of my all time faves," declaring it "a masterpiece."

His band, also known as Van Wilks, has topped music polls by the Austin Sun (Band of the Year), the Austin Chronicle (Best Hard-Rock Band four years in a row) and KLBJ-FM(Best Austin Band). Austin’s Mayor has proclaimed November 6 as "Van Wilks Day" and the Texas Legislature presented him with the Texas flag and a plaque honoring his musical contributions to the State. The French magazine "Guitarist" has placed Van’s records in the editor’s top picks two years running.

Declared "a perfect cross between Jimi Hendrix and Van Halen" by the Austin-American Statesman, Van Wilks has toured nationally and internationally with such acts as ZZ Top (whose Billy Gibbons is one of Van’s biggest supporters) and torn the roof off nightclubs and concert halls from Lubbock, Texas , the Virgin Islands, Moscow, Paris, Madrid, and countless points all over Europe. As the Houston Chronicle noted of one show: "By the end of the night we were all so delirious we wouldn’t let them go until they came out for several post-closing-time encores.