Printed in the Sherman Herald Democrat, 7/16/10

By Mary Jane Farmer
Herald Democrat

Wade Kilgore

Only six years on the circuit, and Wade Kilgore is a voice to be heard. But, the modest Sherman man says only about himself that he is a blessed guy.
Kilgore is one of those guys who was born outside of the Lone Star State but got here as quickly as he could. He moved with his mother to Stephenville, the “cowboy capital of the world,” he said, when he was three years old and stayed there through college graduation. Then, he and his family moved to Sherman, which he titles “Red Dirt Region.”
His wife, Heather, gifted the college graduate a guitar. Now he plays that guitar, a Gibson acoustic, in the corners of venues such as Lupe’s World Famous Tamales, without a mic; The Office, with a mic; Shooter’s, with open mic; and Loose Wheels Texas, with a band, WyndKreek. And there’s no difference in his professionalism whether there’s tens or hundreds of people listening. The voice, the enthusiasm, the professionalism, and the charm are the same.
Kilgore said that when he started singing six years ago, he had to sing in a certain key. Now, there’s not a key he can’t sing in. He’s not even sure how many octaves he has, but the voice is all over the range.
He writes and travels to Nashville several times each year to pitch his songs. In 2006, he signed with a music publisher who recorded a full CD of his music, but that never got out of the can. The problem is, he said, that music folks in Music City want to work with those who live in Music City, and that’s something he’s not quite ready to do yet.
Kilgore has a good job in computer work, a job connecting directly to his college degree. And with two children, 12 and 13, family and responsibility for them are his priorities. It’s not in his stars to be living out of a pickup on Music Row.
Songwriting comes easy to him, unless he’s working on a song that doesn’t come easy. He said the songs that he’s been the most satisfied with, “if it gets to the point that I play them, those are the quick ones.” Those he spends a lot of time on just don’t usually turn out as well. “If I have to fight it, to force it, it never works out.”
Kilgore said, “In Nashville, they tell you should be writing 10 songs a month, but I don’t have that much to say.”
He also covers other people’s music, much of it out of Nashville, favoring those songs with something to say. “If I connect with the words, then I will probably learn and perform it.” A look at Kilgore’s song list, hanging from his amplifier, showed several two-column pages, his own listed alongside those he covers.
There have been a few times that Kilgore has written a song specifically for a purpose. He wrote a song for a new Ronald McDonald’s House in Dallas, acknowledging a saying describing it, “Love built a special place … this is the house that love built.” Then, a man asked Kilgore to put music to a poem he had written, to be used at the man’s upcoming wedding. Kilgore did, and recorded it professionally, and sent it to the groom.
The one he wrote for Heather, he said, defines his feelings for her, “I’ll never say never, I don’t know about forever, but I was wondering what you are doing for the rest of my life?”
Kilgore wrote one song for the older sister he didn’t know he had through his childhood years. He explained that when his parents divorced, it was painful for them, and he lived in Texas with his mother while his dad remained in Tennessee. When he turned 18, his mother told him he had an older sister. “So, I met her and we became really close, and now she’s my family. There’s a special bond we have.” He wrote for her, “Angel of Mine,” a way of telling her how she’s changed his life.
“I’m happy doing what I’m doing,” Kilgore said, adding, though, that he would love to have a song to put on the radio.”
“‘Everyday Angel’ (a Radney Foster song) is probably my favorite of all times,” Kilgore said. A line in that song well describes Wade Kilgore: “What you do means a whole lot more than anything you have to say.”
Wade Kilgore’s future local performances will be listed in Music Scene Calendars.