Meet Zane Williams | Singer-songwriter and founding member of the band The Wilder Blue

We had the good fortune of connecting with Zane Williams and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Zane, what’s one piece of conventional advice that you disagree with?
I think it’s generally assumed that to be successful in music you have to have a manager, a booking agent, a record deal, and a big name producer. That you (or your label) have to spend a lot of money on social media ads, music videos, photo shoots, radio promotion, and traveling to gigs that don’t pay but offer a lot of “exposure”.

An alternative if you’re talented and willing to work hard is to make music on a small budget you can afford, use the free exposure of social media, retain ownership of your stuff, cut out the middlemen and connect directly to your fans, and build a stable career over time.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I have seven solo albums as Zane Williams, and my songs have been covered by folks like Pat Green, Cody Johnson, Kevin Fowler, and Jason Michael Carroll. In 2020 I formed a new band called “The Wilder Blue” and we now have two albums out. We tour nationally and get compared a lot to the Eagles and Alabama because of our five-part harmonies.

It has definitely been a long road getting to where I am now. I was never quite mainstream enough for Nashville (where I lived for 9 years) so I moved back to Texas in 2008 and put my first band together at the age of 32. After 8 or 9 years in the honkytonks and dancehalls I decided to try to put together a band featuring the best of the best musicians in the Texas music scene. The Wilder Blue is the band I’ve always wanted, and I feel lucky to be a part of such a talented group.

I guess the main lesson I’ve learned is that you can always get a gig if you’re the real deal. That is, if your music and your live show are truly amazing and really connect with people. The hard part of course is becoming the real deal, which involves toiling away for years with very little money coming in and no guarantee of success. The good news is, there’s a lot of fun to be had along the way.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’d love to bring them to one of the song-swap shows I do every first Tuesday of the month at the Local Yocal in McKinney. Great food, top notch drink selection, and a listening environment where you can hear all the lyrics and the stories behind the songs. Most of my friends have kids, so we’d probably use our Heard Museum membership to go hiking there or maybe head down to the Perot museum which is also included in the membership.
We might also do a little frisbee golfing at Town Lake followed by dinner on the patio at the Stix Icehouse.
For nostalgia’s sake we could also hit up Arcade92 in downtown McKinney and relive our childhoods playing Super Mario Bros. and Street Fighter.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Shout out to my wife who keeps the home fires burning and the home from burning down. Shoutout to my mom, who retired only to end up doing all of our bookkeeping. Shoutout to Rodney Smith, who let me park the bus at his place and ended up working on it all the time to keep us on the road. Shoutout to Shaun Reeder…he runs sound, books the shows, built the website, drives the bus, and you can’t have him.

Website: https://www.thewilderblue.com

Image Credits
Devan Garcia Cal and Aly