Mystiqueros Love Beer And Chicken

Deep in the heart of downtown Austin, Wilkins stood center stage at a blues bar telling the story of how he and band mate Marcus Eldridge tried to take the traditional route for country singers through Nashville, but couldn’t make it work. Fortunately for those in attendance on Tuesday night, they were led to Antones for the CD release party of Wilkins’ sixth album, Diamonds in the Sun.

Earlier in the night The Mystiqueros entered brandishing brightly lit candles that they placed at the front edge of the stage. Wilkins strapped on his guitar, but barely grazed the strings as he opened with a spine-tingling interpretation of “Going to New Orleans”. The band surrounded Wilkins in a semi-circle, joining in on harmony at different times throughout. Afterwards, the band dispersed to their respective instruments while Walt dedicated the song to Walter Hyatt and Buck Jones, saying the band would carry the song with them wherever they went.

Wilkins introduced the next song as his current single, claiming that it’s already #22 on the Texas Music Charts and one of the most added songs to radio across the nation according to the Americana charts. When I first heard “Trains I Missed” online it was easily one of the best songs I had listened to in quite some time, but it pales in comparison to hearing the richness of each sound when The Mystiqueros perform it live.

The band, with the exception of Marcus Eldridge, mirrors Wilkins with shoulder length hair and a disheveled, salt of the earth appearance. Ray Rodriguez sat in the back on drums while Marcus Eldridge, Bill Small, and John Greenberg stood to each side of Wilkins. Each of the front men have released their own solo albums at one time or another which makes the band exceptionally versatile and allows them to share vocal duties.

In between songs Wilkins thanked his wife for letting him be in a band like he was 17 again. Another time he mentioned his long hair and said that without it he’d probably look like a grandpa despite only being 46 years of age.

Midway through the night I wandered over to the merchandise booth to pick up a new album thinking I was being clever to get one before the show was over. Unfortunately, I wasn’t as smart as I thought, they were already sold out…at the CD release party. One can only hope that that’s a sign of good things to come for Walt Wilkins & The Mystiqueros.