Last spring, I asked Chapel Hill, North Carolina singer-songwriter extraordinaire, Wes Collins, to record a mini-gig session for Americana UK. Since you can view it below by pressing the reclining red triangle, he obviously came through. It did take some time to a) record and send the link and b) to post. This is why later in 2025, Wes sent an email, saying: “Great to hear from you, my friend. I’m sorry to have dropped the ball. The ball then rolled behind the refrigerator and then the refrigerator blew up!” I downloaded the video to a flash drive and pocketed it while I poured a cup of coffee. That very afternoon, I did a load of laundry, including the jeans worn that day. Much later, I found the flash drive in a used dryer sheet behind the washer/dryer. Appliances have not been this mini-gigs’ friend, but I am happy to report that the video is absolutely free from any static electricity.
In the meantime, Collins has run a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund his fourth album and perhaps even some promotion, which will theoretically send a signal to America and the rest of the civilised world that his music needs to be heard and preferably purchased. CDs will be available. Yes!
Collins recorded his third album Jabberwockies at Chris Rosser’s Hollow Reed Arts Studio in Asheville, North Carolina, with special contributions by Ordinary Elephant and Jaimee Harris, who said of him: “Wes has that magical musical sensibility that makes me hit ‘repeat’ on his songs.” Plans are to make this record the same way in the same studio he made the other three. Well, almost the same. “Here’s what’s different,” he said, and you can imagine his inner child doing somersaults. “Some of these songs are rawer than what I’m used to sharing, but they are stubborn.”
Collins used to be a librarian, and those in the profession are notoriously reticent and timorous cataloguers. As he once said: “You may need to dig deep to uncover a talent once buried in library stacks.” Happily, he has shed those traits, assuming they ever defined him, and has become an engaging performer and storyteller. You really need to see one (or more) of his gigs, although for those in the UK that won’t be until 2027.
As to why Collins didn’t start writing songs and making albums until middle-age: “I tried to make a living in my 20s playing covers but took a retail job because I liked eating every day and sleeping under a roof. I became the stay-at-home parent when our second child came along. When our kids got old enough, I went after my library science degree. That’s about when I started writing songs, but at the time I barely had the nerve to play them in front of people myself, much less recruit anyone else to play them with me. But I’m somewhat seasoned now, and I have a band to beat all bands (FJ Ventre, Scott Dameron and Barry Gray).”
Wes recorded this video in his sunroom with Scott Dameron’s iPhone and a nice Bluetooth microphone. The guitar he is playing is a Martin HD-28V. “I bought it used in 2006 after dithering for several years. One minute with this guitar and I knew we were going to be good friends.”
For his upcoming album, Collins has been doing a lot of co-writing, but the three songs in the mini-gig are all his. You can buy physical media on CD and flash drive on his website, and while there check out the interesting earworm blog. Bandcamp is another option. His notes on the songs in the video follows.
- Under My Fingers: This one hid from me for a long time. It started out being about an argument but ended up closer to wondering how any of us communicate at all.
- Cocoon: I was inspired by Jaimee Harris’s “Fake,” which takes the listener to a dark place and leaves them there. I wondered if I could pull that off.
- The Next One: This is a pep-talk to myself and anyone else who struggle with that emptied-out feeling that sometimes comes with finishing something you’ve been working on for a while.
