J.D. Wilkes

J.D. Wilkes is an American visual artist, musician, author, filmmaker, and Kentucky Colonel. He is also an avid purveyor of traditional American music and an accomplished musician. But he is perhaps best known as the charismatic frontman for the Legendary Shack Shakers, a band that has been described as a “dynamite group” by author/fan Stephen King, and whose music has been featured on the Grammy-nominated soundtrack for HBO’s TrueBlood. Wilkes is the author of Barn Dances and Jamborees Across Kentucky, an exploration of his state's rich folk music heritage.
Find out more here: jdwilkes.com
Facebook: @ColJDWilkes
Instagram: @jdwilkes

Available from Two Dollar Radio

The Vine that Ate the South
"It's a relentlessly fun novel, the literary equivalent of a country-punk album that grabs you and refuses to let go. Wilkes has a perfect ear for the dialect of Kentucky, and his writing is so bright, you can almost see every abandoned shack, every kudzu-covered tree. Sure, it's bizarre, and at points almost gleefully obscene, but it's undeniably one of the smartest, most original Southern Gothic novels to come along in years." —NPR

Interviews
Listen:
WKMS NPR Station speaks with J.D. Wilkes about his new book | 4/14/2017
On Sounds Good, Tracy Ross speaks with J.D. Wilkes about his new book, The Vine That Ate The South, its origins and inspirations, and what he wanted it to be.

Read:
Deep South Magazine interviews J.D. Wilkes | 3/17/2017
Mandy Shunnarah reviews the new book by Legendary Shack Shakers frontman J.D. Wilkes and asks him about the Southern legends and folk demons that served as inspiration for this novel The Vine That Ate the South.

An interview with J.D. Wilkes | 4/25/2016
We talk with J.D. Wilkes about The Vine That Ate the South, Southern culture, and the intersection between music and fiction writing.

Interview with: J.D. Wilkes of Legendary Shack Shakers | 7/28/2016
Find out what other irons J.D. Wilkes has in the fire.

Watch:
Th' Legendary Shack Shakers - Shake Your Hips (2012):