Earl Pickens spent his teenage years bashing electric guitars and screaming at the top of his lungs. He played in several Long Island punk rock bands until one summer night Willie Nelson came around to set him straight. Willie chose to visit Earl in the form of his hit song "Wake Me When It's Over". "Well I'm getting tired now. ...show more

Earl Pickens spent his teenage years bashing electric guitars and screaming at the top of his lungs. He played in several Long Island punk rock bands until one summer night Willie Nelson came around to set him straight. Willie chose to visit Earl in the form of his hit song "Wake Me When It's Over". "Well I'm getting tired now.

I gotta get some sleep now. I guess I've been worried much too long. So don't wake me 'til it's over and the need for you is gone." -Willie Nelson It was an epiphany. The results were immediate.

That night Earl wrote "She Left Me With Nothing But Time," his first country song. Some time and a few dozen songs later, Earl drifted into "The Fort" at Sidewalk Cafe in New York City's East Village. He fell in with the collective consciousness of musicians known as Anti-Folk, and sharpened his songwriting and performing skills on the scene in the late 90's. The Anti-Folk movement began in the East Village in the late 80's and centered around raw-edged but folk-inspired singer-songwriters such as Cindy Lee Berryhill, Lach, and Roger Manning. ...show less