Johnny Dilks & His Visitacion Valley Boys

Born in 1972 in San Mateo, California, Dilks developed an early passion for music and joined a punk rock band on guitar during his school years. An aunt’s gift of country records prompted him at first to consider selling the collection, yet he was convinced instead to retain it, listen closely, and build upon it. Among the performers he has cited with admiration—and in several cases as influences—are the country and soul vocalists Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bill Monroe, Otis Redding, Porter Wagoner, and Hank Williams, along with guitarists Oscar Aléman and Django Reinhardt. Only in his late teens did he set punk aside, having already begun performing with a rockabilly group. After studying guitar under Jim Campilongo he assembled his own western swing ensemble, the Rhythm Wranglers, which built a local audience in and around San Francisco. The group subsequently evolved into the Rhythm Rustlers and later the Visitacion Valley Boys; as the latter band’s lead singer and guitarist, Dilks drew particular notice. Unable to pursue music full time, he earned his living restoring antiques until 1997, when he and the band were engaged to accompany Charlie Louvin on a regional visit.

HighTone Records signed Dilks in 1999, and his first release, Acres Of Heartache, earned widespread acclaim while achieving solid sales. The Visitacion Valley Boys at that point included Brian Godchaux—fiddle and mandolin—who had played in Dilks’s earliest group, along with Paul Wooton on guitar, Billy Wilson on steel guitar, Brendan Ryan on bass, and Pat Campbell on drums. Through this work Dilks affirmed his knowledge of and regard for traditional country music during an era when commercial prospects appeared to demand the addition of pop and rock elements along with a surface sheen that obscured the genre’s roots.