Chris Wilson's is a classic story of the fiercely independent artist who has persisted through many years, gradually building respect for his talent and style to a point where he was most sought after by the likes of Paul Kelly, Chris Bailey, and the legendary X. This level of respect has continued to develop over a decade, but now to a point where his song writing, interpretation of roots styles and the pure magic and excitement of his harmonica playing are almost without peer in Australia. With his band Crown of Thorns, Wilson has released eight recordings since 1986, culminating in the surprisingly successful (given its soul/blues bent) duet album 'Short Cool Ones' with Diesel in 1996. He has been described as "one of Australia's most important talents" and his new release 'The Long Weekend' a 22 song set of Wilson originals will reaffirm these accolades, and establish him as one of the most distinctive solo artists in the country.

Through this period, Wilson has balanced a school teaching career with his musical pursuits which has allowed him the financial freedom to focus on the music he wanted to produce. In recent years family responsibilities have made it harder to pursue two careers, and as a result he has opted for his first love, music.

"It's been a necessity mainly, especially in the last couple of years - I'm on leave at the moment, I've always had the two careers, except when I took long service leave. When I first started I was making independent records and the only way I could pay for them independently was through having another job. We were sinking all the money from the band into recording and touring; it all came out of the one pile, so I'd have the job because it was taking all the money into music. Then it sort of gave me a certain amount of freedom to play any sort of music I wanted and I also felt I didn't want to be at that stage where I was doing nothing else but music. I was getting a lot of experience in teaching and now I've got a family so I've got to try and support them. I tried to see how much I could do with the music, I'd been a teacher for 20 years and I just decided in the last six months that I'd give it a go rather than die wondering."

"It is hard at times to keep the two up especially as you get older. I've got just one kid but we want to have others and I've only been married for about three years - not that long."

Chris Wilson's commercial success is arriving at a time where 40 looms, and whilst the adage of life begins at 40 rings true to people who have reached that milestone, Australia has not always been kind to our musicians who are perceived to be long in the tooth.

"I'd always wondered what life would be like for me when I reached 40" muses Chris. "In the past Australians have discarded some of our best talent when they reach a certain age and I could name them but I thought they had a raw deal. Some of our best songwriters and musicians have been treated like that and it 's a real loss."

We would have to hope we never lose the unique talent which sees Chris Wilson make the harmonica scream as it does. Chris recounts his experience with the harmonica.

"My mate was a guitar player when I was in high school and he had an harmonica in the bottom of his draw with a double row of holes - I just put some sticky tape over one roll of holes and played that one for ages and I just jammed with him. So I just fiddled around and bought a 10 hole diatonic which cost me $6, which now costs substantially more and I thought all my birthdays had come out at once. I can still remember it. I got it out of the box and it was wrapped in wax paper and it had a little bit of paper with how to play "When The Saints Go Marching In" and all that sort of stuff - I was so excited and I just used to play it all the time. I used to listen to records and pinch anything good and play it and that was how it started."

It was with my back turned in 1986 that I first heard Chris Wilson blow a harmonica. I remember thinking, who's that guitar player? He admits that the lines he plays are much more guitar lines than horn lines.

"I couldn't say I copied any guitarist but when I hear back what I've done it usually reminds me more of somebody copying a guitar than trying to emulate a saxophone. That's just my style. When you would've heard me back then - I would have been playing through my small Marshall Amp with a Dean Markley pre amp and so it was a compressed sound like a raw sound. My house was like an amp grave yard with distortion boxes and pedals but now I've come to the conclusion you just use a medium sized amp with an Astatic mic. Once you learn how to work the mic so to speak you get a much more open and airy sound. I use an Astatic - Hohner make a similar one called a Blues Blaster, but the specs are slightly different but then they're very similar. The Astatic is like a crystal mic, it's a high impedance mic, it's more prone to feeding back but it's got a lot of balls. I'm using a Fender Blues Deluxe, its a great all purpose amp. The problem for harp players is it's hard to get an all purpose amp that you can use when you play small or large gigs. The one I've got is a little ripper because I've used it on every stage and I've never run it over ball - it always cuts through - I quite like it. It's got a drive channel in it but I've never used it at all. I run the volume on 3 or 4, I run treble, middle and bass on 6-7, presence on 3, I sometimes use the switch which boosts the highs, but that's about it. One tip that I would say is if you're playing through an amp, practice without the amp at home and that would stand you in good stead. A lot of people think that the amp will do the work for them but its a very physical thing playing the harmonica - believe it or not! It's just like a sax - excepts it's breathing in and out you know? You've got to practice it at home just to get the breathing together otherwise you get no tone. Just practice playing without your mic and your amp and when you get on your mike and amp it sounds ten times better."

"I use Hohners and Lee Oscars - usually special tunings in Hohners and just a major standard scale in Lee Oscars. There's a different harp for every key, and different tunings. I'll pick up my C in harmonica which mostly means I'm blowing in which I use a lot for country style and folk and then there's second position which you use for blues a lot and if the band is playing G, I'll pick up my C Harmonica, or if the band's playing in A, I'll pick up my D Harmonica. If the band's playing in E, I'll pick up my A Harmonica and the effect it has is that you tend to be drawing notes more."

"When you're drawing more, it's easier to bend notes when you're drawing and it gives a much more vocal quality. And then there's third position which is the one below, and that's if the band's in A, I'll play in G which is more like a more minor scale. And then they reckon there is a fourth position which I don't know about . It's all quite complex really. Chris Wilson writes on the guitar and plays a bit of saxophone, and admits to having limited ability on these, but other musicians seem to interpret his writing very well." I guess I'm really lucky to have had great musicians to play with. Like Stewart Fraser, Angus Burchall, Chris Rogers my bass player amongst many others." He is particularly enthused when he talks about his bass player, Chris Rogers, who has been with him since the first Crown of Thorns. "He just knows how to lock into a groove and he's quite melodic too. He thinks up really interesting bass lines. There's so much humour in his playing and you can't say that a lot about bass players. I just think he's the best."

Wilson's new release was recorded in the home of producer Doug Roberts. With a band comprised of Chris Rogers, with Stewart Fraser on guitar, Angus Burchall on drums and percussion and Keyboardist, Jex Saarelaht, the emphasis was on spontaneity and capturing the moment.

"Our rehearsal space was in a kitchen, with the organs spread out all over the place, it was like in a split level house. The organs are here but the Leslies are in the bedroom over there and the amps are in the passage way, but everyone's sitting in the one room except for me, I'm doing vocals in the next room and they're all sitting there looking at each other so they're all in the one room but their amps are off in other rooms. Everything was live - well not everything, however it was as much as humanly possible. Everything that could be played live was done live. I did the vocals later so it wouldn't bleed into the microphones into the next room.We recorded to a couple of DATs and mastered it through valves to warm it up a bit."

Chris Wilson has a deep respect for his musical forebears, and uses his musical knowledge of blues and country music to create a style uniquely his and uniquely Australian. His songs reflect Australian life and personalities, spirituality as well as documenting our musical history.

"I think songs can be part of a political debate I don't think they drive that debate, I think they reflect it. You're entitled to put your opinion into songs. I remember people talking about that in Mojo. He was talking about songs aren't as important as they were because once upon a time if an event happened, say like when the Titanic went down, there'd be five or six different songs about it and they'd all have a different perspective. But now you've got so many different media avenues, song s don't cater for that any more with the news as they once did. reckon a good song can make people think about an issue, it may not change their mind but it might bring their own thoughts to the surface."

"When Australian bands play blues stuff there's an Australian flavour added to it, I don't know how to define it but to me it's got its own flavour. There's two sides to it, there's the music and there's the lyrics. I think bands like The Dingoes were a huge influence. They'd sing about Australian life and I think they really hit the nail on the head at that time. They really got it right."

"I'm just sort of trying to find a way of mixing all my favourite styles into one. I love country music and blues and I'm not strictly a blues musician. A lot of people review it as a blues record and it's not meant to be that way - it's a Chris Wilson record. But what I'm trying to ultimately do musically is get a mixture of those things - that's my aim and not dilute them but pick the bits and try and make them into one and then get that on record and play it live."

"Four or five years ago I was playing with a lot of really young bands and they were into Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix - it was like they went through their parents record collection and it was really weird because we were suddenly discussing the same sort of influences. I think it's a natural progression - you know. I hope my son goes through my records some day and appreciates it. You know that was what was great about doing the Diesel record because I really appreciated being part of a lineage of blues bands in Australia, like Chain, Carson, The Paramount Trio and the Backsliders, so I was rapt to be a part of that on record. When we did the gigs there were oldies and youngies in the audience. There were oldies checking us out to see if we were legitimate and there were youngies who came on account of Diesel, so it was fantastic. I remember when we were playing in Sydney, I had my harps near the fold back and before we'd played a note they'd souvenired the lot you know these youngies and I was saying, "Look I can't play the gig if you don't give them back." They gave them all back but you know it was like how often does that happen with your equipment getting souvenired at a blues gig?" he laughs

Outside of music Chris cites family as his greatest pleasure, with his main aim being to be still playing when he's an old man

"It's a great source of adventure. If your life is hard it certainly helps you. For those people who are playing and are finding it difficult, don't quit. There are really talented people who gave up. When you're getting somewhere towards where you want to go, the endurance is the important part."