THINGS TO KNOW: The guitarist, a former member of X and Lone Justice, is the son of the late Terry Gilkyson, a Walt Disney composer who wrote "The Jungle Book's" "Bare Necessities," and brother of folk singer-songwriter Eliza Gilkyson.
ALBUM: "Goodbye Guitar"
LABEL: Rolling Sea/Redeye
RELEASE DATE: Feb. 21, 2006
PRODUCERS: Charlie McGovern, Don Heffington
TRACKS: "Mojave High," "Wilton Bridge," "Man About Town," "Old Cracked Looking Glass," "My Eyes," "Worthless," "Goodbye Guitar," "Since the Well Ran Dry," "Juanita," "Gypsies in My Backyard," "Donut and a Dream"
HEAR HERE
ALBUM DISCOGRAPHY: "Sparko" (Askew, 2000); "Goodbye Guitar" (Rolling Sea/Redeye, 2006).
TOUR DATES HERE
WEB SITE: www.tonygilkyson.com
PAUSE & PLAY: Is there a track on this album in particular that you're especially
proud of?
GILKYSON: "'Goodbye Guitar.' It's just Don and myself. I put electric guitar and banjo on later. I can live with the vocal and I like the sentiment of the song."
PAUSE & PLAY: How do you think your songwriting has progressed since your first album,
"Sparko"?
GILKYSON: "I don't know. These days I'm more grateful for inspiration. I'm probably less inclined to care if it doesn't pass the contemporary song-of-the-month test."
PAUSE & PLAY: You played a lot of guitar on the "Walk the Line" soundtrack. How did that come about?
GILKYSON: "I've known T-Bone (Burnett) for a long while. I've always liked his music. I introduced myself to him in Tesuque, N.M., some time in the late '70s when he was playing with the Alpha Band. Some of the guys from that group played on Delbert (McClinton) and Glen's (Clark) first record. T-Bone produced it. That was a groundbreaking record to me, a mixture of R&B, rock, gospel and country. Nobody had done that. I'm a T-Bone fan. He has historical perspective, he doesn't put on airs, he's as human as the rest of us. I like how he enjoys musicians making mistakes. He doesn't seem to like flashy guitar. He lets you interpret, though with 'Walk the Line' you couldn't stray much."
PAUSE & PLAY: What did your father, Terry, think about your punk-rock days?
GILKYSON: "Not much."
PAUSE & PLAY: What do you get the most satisfaction from: writing, producing or playing? Or is it a combination?
GILKYSON: "Writing. Producing is so honest-to-god stressful sometimes that it takes a while for me to decompress and be objective. Playing guitar is a part of day-to-day existence. I take it for granted."
PAUSE & PLAY: Out-of-left-field question: You have played with Alice Cooper. Why, for the love of you-know-who, isn't he in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?
GILKYSON: "I'm sure he doesn't lay awake at night worrying about it."
PAUSE & PLAY: What's the first record you ever bought?
GILKYSON: "Either the 'Lonely Bull' by Herb Alpert or 'Walk on the Wild Side' by Elmer Bernstein. That's 'Walk on the Wild Side' from the movie, not Lou Reed. The flip side was 'Walk on the Wild Side Jazz' and still sounds great to me. I love Elmer Bernstein."
PAUSE & PLAY: What's the first concert you ever went to?
GILKYSON: "I went to a lot of concerts as a kid because of my father so I can't remember the first. Josh White, Reverend Gary Davis, The Pair Extraordinaire, The Greenwood County Singers with C. Carson Parks and his brother Van Dyke. It's all a blur. The first major concert might have been
the Kinks or the Rolling Stones."
PAUSE & PLAY: What's the worst job you've ever had?
GILKYSON: "I'm assuming you mean worst musical job. Probably playing guitar on a cable show with a live band that featured TV stars with their pets. The bandleader wanted some heavily gentrified guitar. I was miserable but so goes the story, needed the money. It didn't last long."
