Artist:	Walt Wilkins
Album:	Diamonds In The Sun
Year:	2007
Label:	Palo Duro Records
Order-#:	PDR-1501

© September 2007 / Bruno Michel

From the first sounds of his new album Diamonds In The Sun you can tell that Walt Wilkins spends almost every second night on stage - and is doing that since three decades. Great and compact Texas sound is what you get here.

Twelve songs, whereof eight written or co-written by Wilkins, provide a representative cross section of this songwriter's current abilities. And Wilkins remains a realistic person knowing that You Can't Outdrink The Truth - even though a visit to a bar maybe sound like a solution to many guys having problems in a relationship. A great story is told in Diamonds In The Sun.

In Just Like Hank, Wilkins feels probably as lonesome and desperate as the legendary star felt in the 50's. And also fans of the blues are getting their treat with Red River Blues. Out of the four songs not written by Wilkins, I want to highlight two. One is Honky Tonk Road, written by Ray Stephenson and Bob DiPiero and the other is the Davis Raines track Big Shiny Cars, a song which already made it as the titletrack of the 2006 album from the band Pinmonkey.

Overall it is a peaceful, "quiet" album with ballads and stories from people's lives. Wilkins can be seamlessly mentionned with great Texan songwriters, such as Billy Joe Shaver or Guy Clark.

Info at www.palodurorecords.com