Dustin Perkins — In the beginning

Printed in the Sherman Herald Democrat, 5/7/10, and on My Space following that.

By Mary Jane Farmer

Dustin Perkins got his first taste of the stage at the age of 15, when his mother drove him to T-Bones for an open mic session. Since then, music has been his passion and that passion has become his goal.

Perkins is releasing his first professionally-recorded CD this weekend, with a shindig that includes some of his best buddy bands, Spur 503, Oliver White, Linzi Barthold, and 2 Bar Town.

Members of Spur 503 will be playing behind Dustin on stage. “I’ve kind of always been the little brother for that band. It was the first one to let me open for them, and they have booked me several times and kept me busy. I’m so thankful they are in my life,” Dustin said about Spur 503.

The CD features one cover song, a Tonic tune, among the myriad of original songs that showcase Perkins’ versatility and background of influences to include a little bit of the blues, pop, Texas-but-not-mainstream-pop country, and some that defy genre classification.

After that first open mic session that hooked Perkins, he entered, through his Bells High School, an FFA talent competition. “It was for all Texas schools. I won the district and advanced to area, then to state. That whole morning before the show, I was as nervous as someone can be. I couldn’t think right or play my songs right (practicing) backstage,” he said.

“I stepped out on stage, knowing there were 8,000 people out there, I was still scared. Then I realized the lights were so bright I could only see the first three rows, and so it seemed about like the open mics at T-Bones. I got beat out by a girl, Alina Tatum, way better than me. I didn’t mess up, just got kicked. But that was when I decided I wanted to do music. I got a feel for a live performance.”

NOTE:  Since this writing in May 2010, Dustin has met the woman of his dreams, Jacy, and married her.) Dustin has been planning this CD release party similarly to the wedding he might have helped planned had he and his fiancee not broken up last year.  “When I was engaged, I was ready to settle down and have kids. I shut down (musically) during those years. I didn’t write for two years, didn’t play much. Then, when we broke up in the fall, I got back into it,” Perkins said, adding that the relationship and the breakup gave him material for several songs. “It was almost instantly, after we split up. In a month period, I wrote four songs, just like that,” he said as he snapped his fingers. “And I think four of the best I’ve ever written.”

The life experience is what several of his musical influences had talked to him about regarding his songwriting, Perkins explained. “I wrote a couple of songs at 15, but mostly covered other people’s songs. Jon (Christopher Davis) and Houston (Marchman) told me, ‘You just gotta live a little bit, man; you’re young!’”

At the age of 16 or 17, he continued to say, you don’t have the experience and you try to write something that’s not really there. “Those past eight years don’t seem that along ago, either,” Dustin said, “but I’ve grown during those years.”

It was an on-purpose thing, a plan, that he hung around and sat on stage with regional favorites, Marchman and Davis, and Zane Williams and Shawn Fussell. “They were a lot better than me,” he said. “It made me mad that they were, but it made me go home and write and try to be as good as they are. I have tried to surround myself with people like that, and I feel like my writing has come so far. You pick up something off everybody you play with. Shawn Fussell, just sitting down with him, he was a big inspiration.”

Dustin also began taking guitar lessons following the dissolution of his engagement. Here, he mentioned blues picker Jason Elmore as having been another inspiration.

“Vocally, I’ve changed from since I was 15. That would be natural, but I don’t see it much. People say my voice is stronger and clearer and more powerful now,” Dustin said. He forgot to mention the raspiness in it, almost guttural, which adds another dimension to such songs as his “Greener Pasture,” a Texas country marketable song which could also go pop. “Take That Advice” cautions against the advisability of falling for a musician, and “Whiskey and Me” has a depth of emotion to it well beyond Perkins’ 23 years.

Now that the CD is recorded and will soon be released, what is next for the young, aspiring musician? He’s looking into that, saying, “I need to get management. I know that. Picking the right one (management company) … well, I’ve heard too many horror stories about people who have paid all this money and (management) didn’t do anything for them.”

He has learned already that the music business is about 90 percent business and 10 percent music. “It doesn’t scare me, but I do have a lot to learn. The good thing is, I have a lot of guys, musicians, here to help me. Even the other night, John David (Kent) was talking to me and was really anxious to hear my stuff. He got my number and gave me his and said if I ever need anything to give him a call.” Fussell is another person he’s listening to and learning from, he said.

Then, there are record labels. So far, he’s sent the CD to several independent label companies, but has not had any responses. Distribution is important, Dustin said, and that, like management, needs to be through the right company.

Building his fan base is important too, Dustin said. At his gigs, he never sits down after a show. “I constantly make sure I say ‘Hi’ to everyone who comes in to watcher, whether I know them or not. I want to get out and mingle.” He said there are musicians who don’t believe in that approach, rather believing that they should create a mystery around themselves, always leaving the audience wanting more, but so far he hasn’t seen the strength in that philosophy.

Also on tap, but again being developed with wisdom, is the building of his own band.

The CD release party begins about 8:30 p.m. Saturday at T-Bones Bar & Grill in Denison, with most of the activities going on in the outdoor garden and from its outdoor stage.

“It’s going to be a big splash, it comes down to Saturday night now. A lot of people have never seen or heard me before, and I am eager to meet every one of them,” Dustin said.

“Performing … it’s a feeling you can’t replace, seeing the smiles and relaxation on people’s faces. I love entertaining. I have a lot of work to do, a whole whole bunch of work to do. I know that. I’ve spent the money to record the CD right, and after all these years, it is finally here, it’s exciting.”

Category: *- Features