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Fort Worth-based songwriter and musician Jack Barksdale is headlining the Fort Worth Report’s fifth birthday party at Tulips FTW on April 20.
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Barksdale, 18, will be joined on stage by three other musicians who will provide violin, organ and bass accompaniment. Multi-styled violinist Armond Vance, also from Fort Worth, will perform the opening act.
Tulips FTW owner Jason Suder has been featuring Barksdale since the venue opened five years ago and calls him a prodigy.
“We are on the sidelines of greatness watching Jack,” Suder said. “It’s an honor every time he’s on that stage.”
We’re celebrating five years of serving Tarrant County trusted, local news with a members-only party on April 20. Donate to become a member and receive an invitation.
Barksdale started playing guitar at 4 after he received a toy guitar for Christmas and soon began to take lessons. As he gained proficiency, he started copying songs by Johnny Cash, one of his favorite artists.
By 7, he was writing lyrics set to his original guitar compositions. Now, he’s amassed a recording catalog that includes two full-length studio albums, three extended play albums, a live album and 13 stand-alone singles. His lyrics feature complex, thought-provoking themes.
His performance debut resulted from a chance suggestion and a brave decision, he said. While Barksdale and his parents were visiting Luckenbach, he posed for a picture with his guitar. A passerby suggested he join a “picker circle” under a nearby tree where other guitar players were taking turns sharing songs.
He joined them and learned of another picker circle that met at a venue called The Greenwood Saloon, close to his hometown of Granbury and where he ended up playing his first real show at 9 years old.
Barksdale cites classic Texas songwriters Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt as influences, as well as blues legend Lead Belly. But he admits he has difficulty classifying his own music.
“I always have a hard time figuring out what genre I am, because I just mix up all my favorite kinds of music,” he says.
His latest album “Voices” was released in 2025. Barksdale says that some songs on the album draw from personal experiences, while others come from him stepping into another character’s mind to imagine the world through their eyes.
“I never put anything in a song that I don’t believe, or that I think is false or misleading,” Barksdale said. “I always try the best I can to come from some kernel of truth or sincerity.”
Barksdale continues to write and record, and he has recently released two new singles.
“The Wealthy Man’s Debt” explores themes of wealth inequality and the consolidation of power among the privileged few. “Song for the Sad State of This Art Form” is a commentary on the art of songwriting in the face of commercial pressures inherent in the music business.
He is currently working to release additional singles, and another album is likely to follow.
Recent performances include the Luck Reunion at Willie Nelson’s Luck Ranch near Austin on March 19 and a March 28 gig opening for Georgia-based Jonah Kagen at Antone’s in Austin.
At the end of May he’ll be playing at The Bluebird Café in Nashville, Tennessee, and a tour is being planned for later this year.
Doug Wilhelm is a member of the Fort Worth Report Documenters crew and a freelance writer.
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