Kevin Higgins spent the first half of his life in West Texas.  Vestiges of the people and terrain live on through his latest collection of songs, Find Your Shine, a  retrospective of sorts.

"Simply put, (Find Your Shine) is one of the most astounding introductions to a “new” singer-songwriter since Sam Baker’s Mercy. (Higgins has) a sly lyrical and melodic wit akin to John Prine or Guy Clark at their most winsome." (Richard Skanse)

"Texas does it again...all the best singer songwriters come from Texas – everyone knows that.  Some may argue against this fact but it’s true; the dissenters are wrong. Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett, Butch Hancock, Joe Ely, Nanci Griffith, Willie Nelson. The names go on, and now there’s one more to add to the list...Kevin Higgins."  (Americana-uk.com)

Collecting six Texas Music Awards (2005-2010), including "Song of the Year" for the title cut on Find Your Shine, having his song “Company Time” placed in the politically provocative film A Day Without A Mexican and EMI Records soundtrack, Higgins has been hailed as “quite possibly the next great Texas songwriter" (RockzillaWorld.net), “(he's) among the greatest songwriters alive today” (Walt Wilkins) and noted Grammy-winning producer and musician Barry Beckett observed how “Kevin sings from the soul...his songs speak the truth.”  A New Folk Finalist and 2001 Kerrville Folk Festival Main Stage performer, Kevin Higgins  truly does posses a unique ability to weave the "old and familiar" with a natural sense of transcendence. 

Higgins writes, "Early on, I had dreams of becoming a recording star, but I got distracted by life. I came from working class roots, smack dab in the middle of a cultural wasteland called El Paso. I was told that I had no business dabbling in pipe dreams. Even so, I bought my first guitar with money  earned from running carnival rides and grooming horses. I got good enough to play in country and rock cover bands in high school. After graduation I was handed the harsh reality that I could either go to work, join the military or take on a student loan and go to college. My only true interest then, (as now), was writing and performing music, but since I lacked any formal training and had no desire to teach, I opted out of Music 101. I tried making a living playing in cover bands, but that just left me feeling cheap and intoxicated. So, I begrudgingly entered the working class and thus began my saga...

"I have lived on the streets and I have worked in luxury hotels. I have run drugs across the border and I've chauffeured dignitaries. I have battled my addictions and managed nightclubs. I have faded to black and watched as my name rolled by on the credits. I have been beaten down by the status quo and hammered nails in the hot Texas sun. I have had my heart ravaged and I have lavished in love. I have left my footprints across America and barely scratched the surface. I have paid my dues and chalked it all up as experience. All told, I have probably held over 30 different job descriptions from Texas to California.

"But, at the end of every working day, I saved a little of myself for my music.

"I never quit writing, vowing that someday, when my debts had all been whittled away and my soul was once again my own, I would go after that dream of mine. It just so happens it took longer than I expected. Kind of like Roy Hobbs in The Natural or Mac Sledge in Tender Mercies. It's the same story.  Once it's in you, it never dies. Once we come to realize exactly what it is we were put here to do, there can be no denying the source of the inspiration.

"I hope my music reflects that spirit.  It ain't always pretty, but you can't hide anything from the truth."

This engaging singer-songwriter has found a firm foothold on the enduring landscape that is "Texas Music."  Higgins and wife/musical partner Barbara Malteze perform throughout the United States as a duo, (as well as all over Texas with their popular rock band, The Cosmic Dust Devils).