Deacon (music)

Deacon
Birth name	Ryan David Winkle
Born	September 18, 1977
Origin	Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States
Genres	Pop/Rock Soul Experimental rock Indie rock Glam Rock Funk/Pop
Instruments	vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass, drums, saxophone, mandolin
Years active	1999—Present
Labels	Independent
Website	www.deaconmusic.com

Deacon (born Ryan David Winkle in 1977) is an American "Written, Arranged, Produced and Performed By" singer songwriter from Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is a multi-instrumentalist and plays strictly by ear. Deacon plays the guitar and bass flipped over like Jimi Hendrix except, he does not flip the strings. Also plays saxophone/woodwinds, piano and drums. Most notably, he is a singer. Winkle's songs usually pour out vocal harmonies and a wall of sound production. He has written and recorded over 700 songs since 1999.

Solo albums

• Can You Hear Me (1999)
• The Ego and The Patience (2000)
• Fried To Funk (2000)
• Life and Love Volume One (2001)
• The Chilled Insane (2003)
• Midnight Soul Exchange EP (2008)
• Pirate Radio (2009)

Group Albums

Band - Dumb Angel

• Lo Fi American Dream (2003)
• Punk Rock For Breakfast (2003)
• Glamour For Sale I (2004)
• Self Titled (2004)
• Glamour For Sale II (2005)
• 5-31-66 (2006)
• The Scene (2006)

Band - Humpback Jack

• Nugrape Rat
• The Red Eye

Band - 80th Action

• EP (2009)

Band - Deacon and ChromeDome

• Deacon and ChromeDome (2009)

Compilation albums

1. Deacon Presents The Singles Vol. One (2006)- featuring Deacon, Dumb Angel, Walker, Def Trigger, Peter Reis, Chrome Dome
2. Deacon Presents The Singles Vol. Two (2007) - featuring Deacon, Dumb Angel, Vomiton Command and Chrome Dome

Albums Contributed To

• Humpback Jack - Nugrape Rat (2006) - Guitars, Background Vocals, Co-writing
• Humpback Jack - All albums
• Southern Lush (2007) - Producing, Engineering, Background Vocals
• Wooden Stares - A Story As Sad As Its Told (2006) - Co-Production, Co-Engineering, Background Vocals, Co-Writing
• Def Trigger - Pass It On (2007) - Production,Engineering,Writing,Vocals
• Dumb Angel - All albums
• Michael McDonald - SoulSpeak (2008) Background Vocals On "Walk On By"
• 80th Action EP (2008)

Album information

Deacon released his first local album, Can You Hear Me, in 1999. This album featured "She Takes Me Higher" and a Beatles cover entitled "She's Leaving Home". With no band, Deacon continued his home recordings and followed Can You Hear Me with The Ego and The Patience in 2000. This was a double disc concept album that consisted of twenty songs and four hidden tracks that included Fayetteville bar favorites "Highway" and "What I Need". This album also included the first songs written with Jeff Smothers (Dumb Angel). During these recordings, Deacon found musicians and began playing live in Fayetteville, AR. Also in 2000, Deacon recorded yet another local album called Fried To Funk which showed the beginnings of Winkle's pop/funk side and included "Friends of Mine" and "Time Does Tell". Fried to Funk's last song included the first collaboration with hip hop artist Chrome Dome. After these albums were released, Deacon received interest from Universal Records.^{[citation needed]}

While in contact with Universal, Deacon recorded the album Life and Love Volume One and locally released this rock album in late 2001. Songs include "Frayed Soul", "Ballad of Jealous James" and "Since Then". This album also had tracks written with Jeff Smothers (Dumb Angel) and showed growing songwriting abilities coming from the two Tulsa natives.

In 2002, Deacon began recording critically acclaimed album The Chilled Insane. Production and engineering quality jumped to professional sound and the writing started to tighten up. This album included popular songs "Break Me Down" and "Memory Card". This album also included "Hey (Love Song 101)" and "King of '78", both written with Grammy nominated guitarist Ilya Toshinsky. While recording The Chilled Insane, Deacon and Jeff Smothers decided to form the band Dumb Angel and recorded two EPs entitled Lo-Fi American Dream and Punk Rock For Breakfast. Both EPs and solo record were released simultaneously in 2003 on cdbaby.com and in Fayetteville music stores.

Between 2003 and 2006, Deacon recorded five Dumb Angel albums with Jeff Smothers. The first full length album was called Glamour For Sale I. During the last sessions of Glamour For Sale I, the writing team started recording vintage 60's songs to go with a movie concept placed in 1966. In 2004, a self titled album was made consisting of Pet Sounds/Phil Spector quality. It was a radical turn and has grown to be a favorite among the underground scene in the southwest.^{[citation needed]} This album is usually referred to as the "orange album" due to its solid orange color. In 2005, Dumb Angel's Glamour For Sale II was recorded with great reviews. Request for Dumb Angel to play live became outspoken.

After the Glamour For Sale albums came a supposed live album entitled 5-31-66. Dumb Angel said to have recorded this at the Whisky a Go Go in 1966 with a number of session musicians known in L.A. To this day, Winkle and Smothers have never given any other story whatsoever. In reality, the album was made for a movie/book called The Dumb Angel Chronicles. This project is supposedly still being written.^{[citation needed]}

After the 60's albums were done, Winkle and Smothers began recording sessions for a new rock album in 2006. After five sessions labeled "15 Minutes of Fame", Dumb Angel began working on a new album called The Scene. With many outtakes, this album was carefully put together. Although many DA fans have this record, The Scene has not been released yet.

In October 2006, Deacon moved to Nashville to finish up his worldwide album debut entitled Pirate Radio. In 2007, Deacon and Peter Reis formed the band Vomiton Command. After playing a few shows as a trio with drummer Kiel Tyler and writing over 60 songs in 2007, Deacon started looking for additional band members and started writing hard rock songs with Kiel Tyler. By April 2008, Six Mile Stare was formed with Kiel Tyler (drums), Peter Reis (guitar), Daniel Demonico (guitar), Dylan Morrison (bass) and Deacon (lead singer). After a brief run with this hard rock band, Deacon joined supergroup 80th Action contributing writing, bass and background vocals.

Deacon's new full album Pirate Radio was released in 2009. Deacon has said this album represents him more than any other album he has done. The album features 23 new songs with special guests including Michael McDonald, Shannon Forrest, Jay-Z, Chrome Dome, Peter Reis, Jimmy Chamberlin, Walker, David Gilmour and many others.^{[citation needed]}

External links

• Homepage
• Biography at MacIDOL
• Reviews of Albums at CD Baby:
  • Can You Hear Me (1999)
  • Fried to Funk (2000)
  • The Ego and the Patience (2000)
  • Live and Love, Volume 1 (2002)
  • The Chilled Insane (2003)

Persondata
Name	Deacon
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Date of birth	September 18, 1977
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