Album Notes

“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.

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.