It takes an exceptional talent to find your calling in life. Ryan Wilcox and The Sunday Shakes have discovered their unique sound in being completely original. Ryan Wilcox, Ricky Harris, and Josh Banks are the well-known band members. Saturday, Jan 30th, at Coffee and Cocktails, Wilcox and his band shared their sound with Mineral Wells to celebrate band member Ricky Harris’s Birthday.
Ryan Wilcox has always had a love for music. For Wilcox, it became second nature, almost as simple as breathing. His favorite toys growing up were always instruments. He got his first guitar from his grandfather when he was seven years old. He became serious about music when he was twelve years old. It was also around this time that he started to write his music. He followed his dream into adulthood by making himself a professional musician at the age of twenty-one. Growing up, some of the icons that influenced Wilcox were ZZ Top and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
The band gets together regularly to work on their music, but they are not going for a specific sound or genre. It makes them happy just to be themselves. Wilcox notes, “None of us try to be anything. We get together and start playing music and whatever comes-comes. Whatever comes out is what we play, and we mesh pretty well. We all have a wide variety of music that we listen to; every bit of it comes out.”
The band plays all original songs, and their lyrics have made the biggest impact on their success. It really seems to connect with people. Wilcox says what makes them unique is, “My style of playing the general dark and morose nature of the song’s lyrics.”
Drawing a crowd is a big part of being a successful musician, but Wilcox’s stage presents become very natural. “I feel more comfortable on stage in front of a bunch of people” … “That is where I feel like I’m supposed to be.” … “ confidence on stage is key.”
Adapting to the new Covid-19 restrictions has made things more challenging for the band, but it has not prevented them from continuing their craft. “To get through all of this limited capacity type stuff that we are dealing with right now. Last week we tracked five new songs, and we’re gonna start releasing some new singles. We have four full-length studio albums out already and one live album. We plan on releasing another live album that we recorded this year. This year we are just going to start pushing out some more music.”
Currently, the band is signed with Rift Records and has close to 2 million streams for their hit songs Mexican Wind and Lovers and Thieves. They are played regularly on The Ranch radio station. The group also has another band with Kolton Moore, and they have close to 10 million streams with that band.
Wilcox was born and raised in Mineral Wells, as well as all the members of the band. He moved around to several other places, such as Arizona and Fort Worth, but home is where he wanted to be. He enjoys being close to his family, loved ones, and the community here in Mineral Wells. This town is also centrally located to all the places he enjoys performing, for instance, Austin, Fort Worth, Stephenville, and Oklahoma. He is especially enthusiastic about all the work being done to downtown Mineral Wells and is doing all he can to assist the community.
“And now they’ve been trying to revitalize the downtown area. We try to play in town, more. I run the open mic night, up here on Monday nights, trying to cultivate a music scene…” … “I try to play benefits usually anything involving the police department or like first responders and stuff, I’ll donate time.”
The Band is very proud to be apart of the community of Mineral Wells. They look forward to growing their music here in their hometown.
Writer | I graduated from Weatherford College with an Associates in Art, focusing on history, creative writings, sociology, and humanities. Experience in child development, client care, and runs local Spoken Word Poetry group for young teens.
