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Nominated Best singer/songwriter 2006 LA Music Awards. (Americana) Raised in San Diego, California. Five generations later, Gary has taken his name to the corners of the country before finally landing in Wichita Falls, Texas the home base from which he has launched his first album, Spot of Blue, a collection of songs that, like their creator, are made from the richness and variety of the world. Hankins was born in Wichita Falls Texas where his father spent forty years playing with a country western band. Everyone in Hankins' family was musical. He remembers sitting with his family while his father, mother, and uncle would sing country ballads set against the storied Texas landscape. Hankins moved to San Diego when he was still a baby and grew up near the sea, where his grandfather, a Portuguese fisherman, was still working on a tuna fleet near the bay. Hankins moved back and forth from Texas to California for the next few decades absorbing on one side, the country winds of the Texas grassland and on the other, the salt air and ocean culture of San Diego. On the coast, Hankins learned to love surfing, the freedom of the rolling sea and the musical independence of the ocean wind. Surfing his way from Mexico up the coast, Hankins visited and eventually moved to Hawaii where he spent several years surfing among the paradise shores. As if carried by the waves he eventually crossed the ocean again and, (by land) moved around the west living in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Las Vegas. Hankins' employment history has been as varied as his address: he designed web pages in Hawaii, worked at the family store in Texas, and in California he became an actor being featured in dozens of commercials and bit parts. Acting, chance, and romance carried him across the ocean again to the Czech Republic where he acted in a cult film and toured Europe, falling in love with the landscape of Prague and Paris. In Las Vegas, Hankins encountered the underside of humanity, working for a mortgage company he saw men drive into town in Bentleys and leave by bus. Eventually, while still living in California, a series of events would irreversibly change the direction of Hankins' life. It started with the tragic death of an old friend and the news that his father was growing ill. The musical blood in Hankins' veins was already stirring when he moved back to Texas to be near his father. Back in Wichita Falls, Hankins found himself inspired. Everywhere he looked, musical ideas filled his mind. A pasture of grazing cows, the wind flowing through the windows in his father's house. Although Hankins had always played and sang music, something in his life had snapped, and he knew that there was something inside him that needed to come out. Over the next year, Hankins began to write prolifically. The events, scenery, loves, and tragedies of his life were cohering into a new persona, a musical voice that Hankins begun to nurture. Hankins located a studio in the area and began recording his music. At first he was recording solo pieces and multi-tracking his instruments until he met Bart Rose, a brilliant producer who heard and loved Hankins' unique compositions. Working together, Hankins and Rose began to rework the music, adding complexity and flavor to the milieu. One thing led to another and Hankins’ was introduced and befriended other musicians such as the brilliant Tommy Nash (lead guitar) who backed up the Dixie Chicks for their first 4 years and also tours and gigs with Jerry Jeff Walker. Doug Edward Polhamus, a talented and focused composer with many film projects to his credits on strings and piano. Scott and Jeff Miles on drums and bass piece-by-piece Spot of Blue came together. With a growing list of talented musicians, Hankins' music has reached new levels. Hankins’ own varied history blended with the inspired performances of his band mates creates an inspired sound, something that mixes a palette of the American landscape and harnesses it into a beautiful and unique composition. Spot of Blue contains the freedom of the sea; the open air of Texas, the delicate colors of Hawaii, and the music is unlike anything else. Sometimes the music is haunting, other times forceful and laden with the triumphs and failures of a rich life. Hankins' vocals can capture the weary cynicism of Johnny Cash or the soft optimist of Jim Croce. Spot of Blue's debut "Livin' Life This Way," is sure to capture fans from across the musical spectrum. With his first album recorded, Hankins believes he has found a calling worth the time. He already has another album planned for the beginning of next year and new songs continue to emerge in his consciousness, waiting to receive life from his band. "It's all about visualization," he says. "I want people to hear the music and create their own visualization, their own ideas about it." Hankins' music is full of imagination and it is not hard to imagine that while listening, we might be drawn into the curving spray of the California coast or thrust into the shadows of a lonely foothill. Spot of Blue has the power and honesty to inspire, but the rest is up to you.