Friday August 6, 2010

It all started with a vacuum cleaner.
Steve Wilkinson, patriarch songwriter of The Wilkinsons, the
family-friendly Ontario-based contemporary country music trio that
includes his daughter Amanda and son Tyler, recalls the day he wrote “26 Cents,” the song that would change their lives forever.

Back in the day when music was still the household’s pipe dream -- and struggling to make ends meet after an unexpected downsizing at a nuclear power plant and a shortage of work as a carpenter in
Belleville, Ontario -- Steve took menial jobs in order to feed his
family, which also includes his wife Chris and young daughter Kiaya. “Things weren’t great up here,” Steve says, recalling a time when the family frequented food banks and barely had 26 cents to rub together. “I was working as much as I could. I cleaned a restaurant for $25 three hours work in the morning. Truth be told, that’s where ‘26 Cents’ was written.

Visit them online at http://www.wilkinsonsonline.net