Wilkins sings at Plaza Saturday night

Playing at the Plaza Texas singer-songwriter Walt Wilkins peforms Saturday at the Plaza Theatre in downtown Wharton. Advance tickets, priced at $20, are now on sale. The show starts at 8 p.m.

San Antonio-born Walt Wilkins has been called a genius, more than once, and a writer the caliber of John Steinbeck and his voice as comfortable as a pair of old blue jeans, and he is, and has, all of that

He'll perform at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Plaza Theatre in downtown Whartom.

Advanced tickets, priced at $20, are now on sale.

His creating of story-songs, hard-edged vocals to sing them a plantive guitar have made him a fixture of the Texas music scene (and Nashville before that).

He's put his magical touch on recordings by new and veteran artists; too many to count.

Wilkins is on the Palo Duro record label and has released three projects.

They include "Rivertown," "Mustang Island," "Hopeville" and "Walt Wilkins & The Mystiqueros."

Few singers take control of an audience the way Walt Wilkins does, with just words and an acoustic guitar.

The Austin native, who spent ten years in Nashville as a journeyman songwriter whose work was recorded by the likes of Perfect Stranger, Ricky Skaggs, Ty Herndon and Kenny Rogers, is also a producer whose credits include up-and-comers like Brandon Rhyder and Autumn Bouakadakis. A couple of years ago he moved back to Austin because he wanted to raise his son back home in Texas, and because Texas is where his audience as a solo performer is.

"From the time I was a kid I wrote poetry," Wilkins says. "I started learning guitar when I was about 14 and knew I was going to write songs.

I wrote some songs for my high school band. I didn't even want to go to college, I just wanted to play guitar.

"But I kind of took the unbrave way out and went to college."

And then he spent some time in seminary.

"I really don't know why, I just went," he says. "It just seemed interesting to me.

It was not the place for me at all, but it was an interesting time and I wouldn't trade it."

Wilkins' name is mentioned in the lyrics to Pat Green's 2001 hit "Carry On," an indication of the long and close association between the two.

While he was in seminary Wilkins wrote "Songs about Texas," which later became Green's first major hit.

"Pat's done a lot for me," Wilkins continues. "There's no way to undo what he's done. I mean, how many people get their names in songs?"