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ARTIST BIOGRAPHY-SPOT OF BLUE

by Micah Issitt   

Rainmaker Promotions

 Gary Hankins has taken himself to
 the corners of the country before finally landing in Wichita Falls Texas,
 the home base from which he has launched his first album, Spot of Blue, a
 collection of songs that, like their creator, are made from the richness
 and variety of the world.

 Hankins was born in Wichita Falls Texas where his father spent forty years
 playing with a country western band. Everyone in Hankins' family was
 musical. He remembers sitting with his family while his father, mother,
 and uncle would sing country ballads set against the storied Texas
 landscape.

 Hankins moved to San Diego when he was still a baby and grew up near the
 sea, where his grandfather, a Portuguese fisherman, was still working on a
 tuna fleet near the bay. Hankins moved back and forth from Texas to
 California for the next few decades absorbing on one side, the country
 winds of the Texas grass land and on the other, the salt air and ocean
 culture of San Diego.

 On the coast, Hankins learned to love surfing, the freedom of the rolling
 sea and the musical independence of the ocean wind. Surfing his way from
 Mexico up the coast, Hankins visited and eventually moved to Hawaii where
 he spent several years surfing among the paradise shores. As if carried by
 the waves he eventually crossed the ocean again and, (by land) moved
 around the west living in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Las Vegas.

 Hankins' employment history has been as varied as his address: he designed
 web pages in Hawaii, worked at the family store in Texas, and in
 California he became an actor being featured in dozens of commercials and
 bit parts. Acting, chance, and romance carried him across the ocean again
 to the Czech Republic where he acted in a cult film and toured Europe,
 falling in love with the landscape of Prague and Paris.

 In Las Vegas, Hankins encountered the underside of humanity, working for a
 mortgage company he saw men drive into town in Bentleys and leave by bus.

 Eventually, while still living in California, a series of events would
 irreversibly change the direction of Hankins' life. It started with the
 tragic death of an old friend and the news that his father was growing
 ill. The musical blood in Hankins' veins was already stirring when he
 moved back to Texas to be near his father.

 Back in Wichita Falls, Hankins found himself inspired. Everywhere he
 looked, musical ideas filled his mind. A pasture of grazing cows, the wind
 flowing through the windows in his father's house. Although Hankins had
 always played and sang music, something in his life had snapped, and he
 knew that there was something inside him that needed to come out.
 Over the next year, Hankins began to write prolifically. The events,
 scenery, loves, and tragedies of his life were cohering into a new
 persona, a musical voice that Hankins begun to nurture.

 With a growing list of talented musicians, Hankins' music has reached new
 levels. His own varied history blended with the inspired performances of
 his band mates creates an inspired sound, something that mixes a palette
 of the American landscape and harnesses it into a beautiful and unique
 composition.

 Spot of Blue contains the freedom of the sea, the open air of Texas, the
 delicate colors of Hawaii, and the music is unlike anything else.
 Sometimes the music is haunting, other times forceful and laden with the
 triumphs and failures of a rich life. Hankins' vocals can capture the
 weary cynicism of Johnny Cash or the soft optimist of Jim Croce.

 Spot of Blue's debut "Livin' Life This Way," is sure to capture fans from
 across the musical spectrum. With his first album recorded, Hankins
 believes he has found a calling worth the time. He already has another
 album planned for the beginning of next year and new songs continue to
 emerge in his consciousness, waiting to receive life from his band.

 "It's all about visualization," he says. "I want people to hear the music
 and create their own visualization, their own ideas about it." Hankins'
 music is full of imagination and it is not hard to imagine that while
 listening, we might be drawn into the curving spray of the California
 coast or thrust into the shadows of a lonely foothill. Spot of Blue has
 the power and honesty to inspire, but the rest is up to you.