David Patrick Wilcox (born March 9, 1958) is an American folk musician and singer-songwriter guitarist. He has been active in the music business since the late 1970s.
Career Wilcox was born in Mentor, Ohio, and attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, in 1976, where he began learning guitar. He later transferred to Warren Wilson College in North Carolina in 1981 and graduated in 1985. Wilcox appeared regularly at a Black Mountain, North Carolina, nightclub called McDibbs.
His debut album The Nightshift Watchman was released in 1987 on Jerry Read Smith's label, Song of the Woods, and was reissued in 1996. He began touring regularly. After performing at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, he signed with A&M Records in 1989. He made several albums with this label. His albums were described by one Rolling Stone critic as "unjustly neglected". After his contract with A&M expired in 1994, Wilcox continued to write songs, tour and release albums. In 1994, he performed at Carnegie Hall with thirty other singer-songwriters in a showcase event. Wilcox also appeared on the cover of Acoustic Guitar, which described him as James Taylor combined with the "husky breathiness more reminiscent of the late Nick Drake" and said he was the "best known of the brilliant crop of singer-songwriters to emerge in the late 1980s." He was based in Asheville, North Carolina in the 1990s, in Washington, D.C., and Maryland in 1999–2000, and again in Asheville in 2009.
In the next decade, Wilcox continued releasing albums, including Into the Mystery in 2003. He has been a guest artist at guitar workshops. His lyrics are sometimes of the "probing meaning-of-life" type, as well as "thought-provoking".
Wilcox plays acoustic guitars made by Olson Guitars. His fingerstyle playing, which is similar to Nick Drake and Joni Mitchell, extensively uses open tuning, often in combination with customized capos with notches cut out to allow lower strings to ring open. He has been featured in Performing Songwriter magazine on five occasions.
About his approach to music:
His 2005 album Out Beyond Ideas was a joint project with his wife Nance Pettit, described as a significant diversion from prior work, featuring sacred poetry set to music from different religious traditions, including Saint Francis of Assisi, Jalaludin Rumi, Shams-ud-din Muhammad Hafiz, Rabia al Basri, Yehuda Halevi, Solomon Ibn Gabirol, Uvavnuk, and Kabir.
During 2005 Wilcox traveled the country with his wife and teen-aged son in an Airstream trailer attached to a bio-diesel truck. He named one of his albums Airstream. His album Vista was released in April 2006.
In 2008 Wilcox was honored with a silver award along with Bob Dylan, in Acoustic Guitars singer-songwriter category.
His Open Hand, produced by Seattle-based guitarist and producer Dan Phelps, was released in March 2009. Wilcox and Phelps were joined by longtime Tori Amos bassist Jon Evans and drummer James McAlister.
Wilcox is sometimes confused with Canadian rock and blues guitarist David Wilcox.
Although his albums have had diverse arrangements, Wilcox generally performs as a soloist. He has released 16 albums.
Wilcox performed a benefit concert in Westfield, New Jersey for Coffee With Conscience in late spring of 2008.
He recently played a duet with James Landfair, a critically acclaimed folk musician based out of Little Rock, Arkansas, of Buddy Mondlock's song "The Kid." It was published on YouTube on February 21, 2013.
He won top honors in the 23rd Annual USA Songwriting Competition (2018) with his song "We Make The Way By Walking". He also won First Prize in the Folk category in the competition.
He has received criticism and accusations of bigotry, racism and xenophobia from those who do not appreciate the intent of his 2010 song "We Call It Freedom" which is written ironically to appear to support torture of prisoners in the war on terrorism.
In 2019 he covered "Why We Build The Wall" from Hadestown.
Critical reception A New York Times music critic wrote Wilcox has a "handful of sterling folk-pop songs, a genial voice and enough guitar virtuosity to make even his lesser material sound convincing." Another described him as a prolific songwriter and folk artist. Another wrote that he "sings with a mellow fluency that suggests a hybrid of Mr. Taylor and Kenny Rankin, but he has better enunciation than either." Critics describe his voice as having a "warm, expressive" quality with an "engaging vocal style" and a "warm, baritone vocal tone."
His music has been described as "deeply philosophical" and "insightful". One music critic wrote he was an "influential acoustic guitarist... the PBS darling of contemporary singer-songwriter folk." Another critic wrote that an "eager, unapologetic sincerity flows from the heart of David Wilcox's acoustic music," and elaborated that "Wilcox uses extended metaphors and beautifully detailed imagery in lyrics that are far more compassionate and philosophic than self-absorbed... Indeed, as steeped in romance as most popular music is, it rarely speaks directly to issues of loneliness, intimacy and commitment – let alone mortality and inner fortitude. Wilcox does this with sensitivity, analytic zeal and subtle emotional force."
Many critics compare his style to James Taylor as well as Joni Mitchell and John Gorka. A Rolling Stone critic suggested Wilcox's best album was How Did You Find Me Here, which was released in 1989.
One critic sensed Wilcox had a "boyish sensitivity" with "something to say about love, relationships and life" which is sung with "insight, humor and moments of profundity." However, the critic felt Wilcox needs to "get some excitement into his music and voice... His even-keel, generic style of singing, playing and music-writing isn't enough to keep the focus of the modern short attention span" and his songs lack "musical distinctiveness." Wilcox is a "poet/storyteller first, a songwriter/player second".
Discography + Music by David Wilcox Album Year Label Billboard 200 (sales chart) Folk Radio (airplay chart) Notes ReferencesMy Good Friends2023Self-Released The View From The Edge2018 Self-Released blaze2014 What Are Records? Mixtape, 1979–19822011 Self-Released download only album Live at Eddie's Attic2011 Self-Released download only album Reverie2010 What Are Records?No. 30Richard Gillmann, Top Folk Albums, Songs, Artists and Labels of January 2011 , compiled from playlists submitted to Folk DJ-L (accessed March 19, 2011) Open Hand2009 What Are Records?No. 3Richard Gillmann, Top Folk Albums, Songs, Artists and Labels of May 2009 , compiled from playlists submitted to Folk DJ-L (accessed March 19, 2011) Airstream2008 What Are Records?No. 20Richard Gillmann, Top Folk Albums, Songs, Artists and Labels of March 2008 , compiled from playlists submitted to Folk DJ-L (accessed March 19, 2011) Vista2006 What Are Records?No. 14Richard Gillmann, Top Folk Albums, Songs, Artists and Labels of June 2006 , compiled from playlists submitted to Folk DJ-L (accessed March 19, 2011) Out Beyond Ideas2005 What Are Records?No. 28 with wife Nancy PettitRichard Gillmann, Top Folk Albums, Songs, Artists and Labels of September 2005 , compiled from playlists submitted to Folk DJ-L (accessed March 19, 2011) Into the Mystery2003 What Are Records?No. 18Richard Gillmann, Top Folk Albums, Songs, Artists and Labels of May 2003 , compiled from playlists submitted to Folk DJ-L (accessed March 19, 2011) Live Songs and Stories2002 What Are Records? The Very Best of David Wilcox2001 A&M What You Whispered2000 VanguardNo. 53Richard Gillmann, Top Folk Albums, Songs, Artists and Labels of October 2000 , compiled from playlists submitted to Folk DJ-L (accessed March 19, 2011) Underneath1999 VanguardNo. 13Richard Gillmann, Top Folk Albums, Songs, Artists and Labels of April 1999 , compiled from playlists submitted to Folk DJ-L (accessed March 19, 2011) Turning Point1997 Koch, reissued on What Are Records?n/a recorded in log cabin behind his home East Asheville Hardware1996 Fresh Baked/Koch, reissued on What Are Records?n/a Big Horizon1994 A&M No. 165n/a Home Again1991 A&Mn/a Mostly Live: An Authorized Bootleg1991 A&Mn/a How Did You Find Me Here1989 A&Mn/a sold over 100,000 copies by word of mouth Nightshift Watchman1987 Song of the Wood (1996 reissue by Fresh Baked/Koch)n/a
References
External links Official website