Ep. 50: Bart Weilburg

I was born in NYC in 1962 and we lived in that general area until my Dad passed away when I was 8 and we moved to Maine. I learned to play drums , piano and guitar over the next few years and got my first paying gig as a guitarist in a country band that got a residency at a country bar in Bangor, Maine. I was and am interested in almost all forms of music and played a little jazz and rock and roll but most of my time and attention back then was spent on country music.

 I moved to Boston in 1983 to join a country band there. It might sound funny to some people but there was actually a fairly big bar band scene of country cover bands all represented by the same booking agent, John Penny. During that time I got to play with musicians who played with Roy Buchanan, and they were: Russell Keys, Dave Broderick and Tom Hambridge. In 1986 I moved to Nashville.

I answered an add in a local paper “ rockabilly guitarist wanted”. I went over to audition, got hired and afterwards the bass player took me down to Layla’s on lower Broadway in Nashville to hear a “ real rockabilly band” as he put it. We did and as it turns out they were more hillbilly than rockabilly, as were many that year having been influenced by the band BR549. There was in fact a whole scene for this type of music revolving around 2 nightclubs, Layla’s Bluegrass Inn and Robert’s Western World.

 After about 4 years of that I met my wife on the John Eddie tour and decided to move to Oklahoma where she was from. Unfortunately all that work hadn’t made me very much money and Nashville was starting to become super expensive to live in, I figured I couldn’t ask her to move there with me and starve so I moved to Midwest City, Oklahoma.

 For a long time I just played in the local Oklahoma City music scene and occasionally brought people to Nashville to produce and record. I produced a bunch locally in Oklahoma too.

 One day I saw a post in FB saying them at Texas Alt Country artist Wayne Hancock was looking for a guitar player and I immediately called my friend who had his number. I’d been a fan of Wayne for years and had always anted to pay with him. My friend called him, Wayne called me, I went and auditioned and in October 2014 he hired me and that brings us to date. We have spent the last 7 years playing together and touring the states and some of the rest of the world. Due to Covid he is currently taking a break from touring . Which is in a way why I am doing a solo thing now and seeking other touring work.