While he’s played his share of honkytonks, Jinks is far removed from the ubiquitous Texas/Red Dirt artists normally listed on C&W marquees. His songs harken back to the outlaw sound of Waylon Jennings, sung in an honest, whiskey-wracked baritone.
While still unquestionably country, Jinks’ music has developed into a more personal, singer-songwriter style. “The first record I did was very Nashville,” he said. “I didn’t know what else to do. I’d just come off the metal scene, and I didn’t know what country scenes were — I just started covering songs I liked, and that had a pretty big Nashville feel to it.”
Jinks typically writes alone, though he has collaborated with Hippie Wallace, and on Jinks’ fourth album, 30, he partnered with Sam Anderson (Quaker City Night Hawks, EPIC RUINS) for a track.
His second album moved away from pop-country gloss, and by Less Wise, he became comfortable with a stripped-down live-record vibe, using his road band to flesh out a suite of more authentic songs. “I wanted that record to be more ‘what you see is what you get,'” he said.
As a songwriter, Jinks has always drawn from personal experience, but with 30, he tried to write better “story songs.” His drive to advance his songwriting is informed by the skills of his peers. “It’s tough,” he said, “because I want you to feel like you’ve lived a song in order to believe it, but I’ll also look at guys like Jason Eady –– he can write a song that’s so good you don’t know where he came from, but you don’t care because it sounds real. I just want to be a better storyteller.”