James Calvin Wilsey (born 1957 in Logansport Indiana) is an American musician. He played bass with San Francisco punk band The Avengers but become better known as lead guitarist with Stockton crooner Chris Isaak and his band Silvertone, and featured in Isaak's solo albums Silvertone, Chris Isaak, Heart Shaped World, and San Francisco Days.
It was Wilsey's 1960s Stratocaster, and in particular Wilsey's use of reverb, delay and gentle tremolo, which gave the distinctive 1950s Honky Tonk/1960s Surf sound to Isaak classics such as Wicked Game (the simple two-note riff that opens which, in his own words, "crystallizes Wilsey’s approach") and Blue Hotel. As of 2004[update] he lived in the Los Angeles area. In 2008 Wilsey, having apparently dropped the moniker "Calvin", released a solo album of guitar instrumentals titled El Dorado which pays homage to musical influences such as Duane Eddy, The Shadows, Billy Strange, James Burton and Link Wray[1]
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