Boy Named Banjo

Stephen Wilson Jr. is a singer/songwriter from rural Southern Indiana. Wilson was raised by a single father who was a boxer and had him boxing from age seven through adulthood as an Indiana State Golden Gloves finalist. Wilson, a self-taught guitarist moved to Nashville to pursue a degree in Microbiology at MTSU. There, he started indie rock band AutoVaughn after finishing his degree. They toured for over five years and Wilson co-wrote songs as lead guitarist until his creative focus turned more to songwriting and singing. After the band, Wilson relied back on his education where he worked for several years as an R&D scientist at Mars until signing a publishing deal with BMG Nashville in Aug 2016. He is currently building his catalogue and has had songs cut by Caitlyn Smith and Old Dominion, ‪Tim McGraw, ‪Trace Adkins, Chase Bryant, ‪Mackenzie Porter, ‪Kameron Marlow, Sixpence None the Richer and ‪Leigh Nash.
 
Stephen released his first single “The Devil” and a cinematic video for the song in Sept. 2019 with follow-up, "Year To Be Young 1994" which is currently featured on Spotify's Country Rocks editorial playlist, Apple Music's 5th Gear editorial playlist and was in full rotation at Nashville's Triple A station, Lightning 100 last year. Wilson recently released single and award-winning video for "Holler From The Holler” and most recently,  follow-up single “billy".
 
Wilson almost always plays a late-70’s gut-string acoustic and some of his main influences are ‪Willie Nelson, ‪Kurt Cobain, ‪John Mellencamp, ‪Bruce Springsteen, The National, ‪Glen Campbell and ‪Randy Travis.

Raucous and boisterous, poised with lyrical clarity and intention, and sewn together with a band that could melt your face off and leave you punch drunk and stumbling wondering what the hell happened is the best description that could get you somewhere near the sound of Ryan Sobb and The Dead Mall. There are few songwriters with the wit and porch-sat wisdom that Sobb delivers. Paired with his badass rock trio The Dead Mall (Preston Cochran on bass guitar, Alex Rodriguez on drums) the band deliver a record and sound that are equal parts rowdy and reflective. 
 

The Dead Mall have their debut record due out this fall. The record was produced, in part with the band, by Scottie Prudhoe (Lucy Dacus, Darrin Bradbury via Anti Records) at Trace Horse Studios in Nashville, and was mastered by Preston Cochran (Passion Fruit Boys, The Minks) . Art direction and design was put together by Maxwell Sebastian. Keep an eye out for more and check out the full album here.