His interest in folk music developed whilst at Bangor University, where he learned fingerpicking in the style of Nick Drake, Bert Jansch, and Martin Carthy.
He played weekly gigs at the Greek Taverna in Upper Bangor, where he often received a pint of beer, a packet of cigarettes, and a plate of potatoes for his performances.
Explaining his love for traditional music, Wilks told The Guardian, "Most people have an affair or buy a sports car for their midlife crisis.
[3] fRoots magazine called his second album, Midlife (2018) a "delight",[8] and his third, Up the Cut (2021) was described by Jude Rogers in The Guardian as being an exploration of "the fascinating history of Birmingham street balladry, a thriving 19th-century industry.
[11] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Wilks formed the briefly-lived quartet, Slow Jane, with Katherine Priddy, inviting Jon Nice and Lukas Drinkwater to take part.
Together they recorded covers of three Nick Drake songs and released them, along with videos, as a way to pass the time and entertain other people stuck in lockdown.
The two collaborated once again in late 2020 on a recording of the broadside ballad, "Mary Ashford's Tragedy", which Wilks researched, arranged and composed a tune for before inviting Priddy to provide the vocals.
In May 2024, Wilks successfully relaunched the Whitchurch Folk Festival, a long-dormant event that originally ran from the late 1970s to the mid 1990s.