September 1, 2025 • 43 mins
Asheville-based Singer/Songwriter David Wilcox joins me to discuss his new album, “The Way I Tell The Story,” the inspiration behind the deep #lyrics + meaning behind many of the project’s songs. David is joined by major talent including Al Carty (Rob Thomas, Christina Aguilera), Bashiri Johnson (Michael Jackson, Sting, Madonna), Bill Berg (drummer on Bob Dylan’s “Blood on the Tracks”) + others.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey there, thanks for joining me here today on this
beautiful Labor Day of twenty twenty five. It is so
great to see you. Summer is really still in full swing,
but in a lot of places it's not. It's pretty
much over in their minds. So go figure. School has
been back in session for many people here, especially in
the Southeast, they've been back for a few weeks now,
(00:23):
and probably in some other places too, they just started.
We didn't usually go back to school until after the
Labor Day. Today. AnyWho, I have a great guest on
here today. His name is David Wilcox. He is a wonderful,
very talented musician, has so many great songs out there.
(00:44):
He has been recording for well over thirty six years,
has many excellent albums. He has a great new one
out and we talk about that project and how it
all came together, and his life in Asheville, North Carolina,
just a beautiful part of the world. I highly recommend
visiting Nashville. Thank you so much for joining me, and
(01:08):
hope to see you on the other side of this thing.
Take care, Hi, good morning, How are you doing good?
How are you good? Hanging in there, It's a little
bit cooler here in the southeastern United States, so it
feels a little bit better. It's been a brutal summer
actually spring as well here in twenty twenty five. So
(01:30):
where are you at this morning?
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Ashville? I love Ashville.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
You're all doing okay after all of what Helena has
done up there.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Yeah, there are parts that will never come back, but
there are parts that are fine so far. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Good, that's good here. It's just such a lovely place.
It's a great getaway for those of us here in Atlanta.
It's just really yeah, it's yeah, not a bad drive
up the road. I just very inspiring there.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I'm looking forward to coming to Atlanta. There's a thing
in November, i think, just before Thanksgiving, and I'm going
to have an extra day to sort of just walk
around see the town.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
He and there's some interesting sites. If you get a
chance to see the Civil Rights Museum, it's really nice,
incredibly nice, some good attractions you could do all in
the day. And then the MLK Center over there as well,
really good stuff. And then obviously downtown Decatur nearby east
of town is beautiful, and seeing the John Lewis statue
(02:39):
is really nice. Indicator.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Oh, Ok.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Yeah, it's right in downtown Decatur. They put up a
really nice statue of John Lewis. It's beautiful, really nice.
But so much going on here as well. And wow,
you got a great new release out.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
It's true. I've listened to a lot of music over
the years. Some of my favorite singer songwriters. I follow
them album after album, and every once in a while
somebody comes out with one and I think, wow, they
must have been through some shit. This is a great record.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Yeah, you know, write what you know, right, that's so
you know it.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Comes out so now it's my turn exactly.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Exactly, And the title of it is the personal part
of all of us too. Where exactly does that come
from in your own personal history?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
The way I tell the story is, you know, it's
a fascinating thing. The events of our life. They are
what they are telling a better story about. It doesn't
change the past, but it definitely changes the meaning of
the past, and that's a big deal. You can take
a sort of a circular story and turn it into
(03:53):
a story that has an arc, you know.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Yeah, yeah, you don't deny your history. You're not divorcing
at per se. You know, you want to look forward,
but you know, honor the history, but just don't wallow
in the history in the past. Yeah, and we really
feel that way. Sometimes. You made a great video along
with that as well.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah, it's very very just, you know, beautiful, self self
aware kind of track and it really does unpack a
lot of half truths. Yeah, it's very very nice.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Thanks.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Yeah, and you know, you know, you have seem to
have a lot of influence with like James Taylor and
people like that. Have you followed a lot of James Taylor.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
The people that influenced me most coming up were Nick Drake,
John Martin, Joni Mitchell, and other interesting little sidelines that
are harder to pick up. But Tony Rice, A lot
(05:03):
of the a lot of the most inspiring people were
not really famous, but just sometimes local musicians that I
got to know because they showed a way to make
it possible to have music be not just a commodity
(05:24):
for the professionals to do, but a language of discovering
how to communicate between my own mind and my own heart.
And for me, that's the sustainable goal. That's why I
come to writing these days. So I sort of sing
(05:45):
myself sane song by song.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
How does the inspiration come to you? Being obviously in
the Asheville area Western North Carolina is pretty inspiring in
and of itself. What motivates you to you? And when
you do come up with lyrics melody? How does that
process come together for you? Do immediately go write it down?
Crack out the android of the iPhone.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
There's a lot of little voice messages on my phone,
whether their ideas or little bits of poetry or little
bits of melody, and I compile those pretty meticulously. I
take good notes and usually the things that want to
(06:33):
become songs are conversations that stick with me with friends
and things that I want to remember that the songs.
The writing helps me discern a truth that I'm approaching,
and the performing kind of holds me accountable to remember
(06:53):
the best of what I have felt my life can be.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Yeah, yeah, And when you perform, is it's tough for
you to remember lyrics? How does that come about? Or
a lot of people are using the old teleprompter these days.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
I find that I love playing new songs. I love
playing the songs that are just a day or two old.
So yeah, I can sometimes have a lyric in front
of me, But I love the focus that comes when
I'm performing and I'm the song pretty much takes care
(07:33):
of itself. So my focus is thinking about the subtext,
thinking about the story that the song came from, and
the sort of origin of the emotion, and I go
to that in my mind as I'm singing.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, And it must be such a special skill set
to do that while you're performing. It is multitasking, so
it must take you, know you're in many amount of
hours to practice and to really get it down. Did
you start doing this at a pretty young age? How
you learn music and were you self taught as well.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
I didn't start playing guitar till I was eighteen, and
I started writing pretty bad songs when I was twenty,
and by the time I was thirty I had some
good ones.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Yeah, And just how do you feel that you have
gotten good at that? It was just just do more
and more and more, get your ten thousand hours in.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
I think the way that I got good at it
was not assuming that the sound of my voice was
good enough reason to sing. The way I got good
at it was thinking about the gift of other people's
attention being something I don't take for granted, and I
(09:04):
have to have an idea that I think the song
can deliver that would make their lives better.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
And you know you've done your job if somebody can
come to see you and you give them however along
the show is, Yeah, you've definitely done your job. And
also with the projects that you have. What number album
is this now for you?
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Twenty something? I don't know. There are some that are
digital only, so depending on whether you count those or not,
it's twenty three or twenty five something like that.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Yeah, so that's quite an output because it's really what
would you consider the beginning of your recording career? Is
it the late eighties now?
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Yeah? Uh huh. First record was eighty seven.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Yeah, and you were originally on A and M records.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
There were three records on A and M, yeah, two
through number four, and that was a great ride. It
was really fun. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure. And you know you went
through the whole process of dealing with A and R people, touring, promoting.
I'm sure that that's that model has kind of changed
pretty much in these days. It feels like, you know, yes,
everybody can do this and you can control it. But
(10:28):
that's also the thing everybody can can do this and
self record and release and do all this other stuff,
so that that's probably the challenge of it all as
far as that goes.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Yeah, well I love that I can write a new
song and put it out that day. That's really fun.
I love doing that.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Yeah. Yeah, much different than those you know then you
know the old analog and the tape and you know
all that that process. But you know that I had
advantages too, and what we have now have advantages and disadvantages.
It's just's all trade offs.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
So how long did this project take from writing and
then you recorded it up there in that area or
somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Yeah. I recorded it at Echo Mountain, a lovely studio
in Asheville, and there were a lot of songs to
choose from it. It was really a fun process. When I
was first talking to my friend Michael, the producer, he said, well,
just send me the songs that are sort of top
of the list. And I sent him a nice list
(11:35):
of songs and he said, what is this. I said, well,
that's the songs that you asked. He said, Dave, this
is fifty songs. I said, yeah, well they're good, and
he said, do another sort send me twelve. I said, no,
that's impossible. I'm about twenty. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Yeah, it's picking your favorite children, I'm sure. Yeah, quite
a process. And then you know, basically sequencing of course,
as I would recommend anybody listening to this new release,
it's a great flow, you know, you know, basically that
powerful opener and a great closer and great stuff in between.
(12:20):
So that's did that take a while with you and
your producer, Michael.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
I do love obsessing over the sequence, and it is
fascinating thinking of the story, thinking how the songs sort
of flow into each other and inform each other. It's
just now that I'm beginning to see some of the
fascinating commonalities. There are themes that show up in several
(12:47):
songs that I didn't realize we're so common. Like, for example,
in the song The Beautiful, there's this idea of the
frame around the painting being sort of like the way
a little boat holds back the ocean. So that song
is about making sure that you have your emotional buoyancy
(13:10):
and you don't sink in the sea of sorrow. So
the way I tell the story uses an image of
the frame around the painting, but that same idea also
shows up in the song Roses, which is about a
guy tending a rose garden in the middle of a
war zone. And both of those songs are about tending
(13:31):
your heart, making sure that you can still be useful
because you're not just depressed, and so making sure that
you have some way to sustain your emotional buoyancy. And
the song Shimmer is the same idea, except that's about
(13:54):
the kind of lover's aura. You know, you see a
couple that have that sort of self contained world. And
this song uses the image of walking out on the
on the rocks in the middle of a river and
having I describe it as you know, the world's going by,
(14:14):
you know, all the events that that you know, But
in this image of where we stand and where we kiss,
we are kind of we can get above it and
not get swept away. We don't get carried down the river.
(14:36):
And so in that song there's this line about, you know,
this is where we meet, even curbside at the airport.
We step into the river when we meet, and so
wait a minute, there's no river at the airport. So
what I'm talking about is that that lover's safety. That yeah,
(14:57):
and the song I Made It Rain that has the
same kind of fascinating place where it's talking about this
humble craft that I love, but it describes it parallel
with also describing someone who walks up on a hill,
crafts some homemade wings, flies above the clouds and makes
(15:23):
it rain. Now that's impossible. But when I describe the
other story in the song, which is the writing and
the playing of music, it's just as unlikely because in
that song, I'm saying there's some kind of emotional alchemy,
(15:44):
you know, I make new beauty from old pain, and
that is just as miraculous to me. So it's pretty
fun that there's this overall theme of how do we
survive have tough times? And in my opinion, you know,
times get tough, music gets good, and this is the
(16:07):
stuff that sustains me. These are the songs I need
to hear.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
It's like your therapy. This is where you work it
out and so many of us. What you discover is
so many can relate to that, so you're doing good
as well. It's like group therapy actually just through art. Yeah,
I love this that lyric and I Made It Rain.
I found the lift where the air is cold and thin. Yeah,
(16:32):
it's just that that really stood out, and and a
lot of those type of songs you love shimmer, very
nice piano on there. You have a good cast of characters.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
On this album.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Are who is doing piano on that?
Speaker 2 (16:48):
I don't even know.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
You got some good people here, and I was noting
some of them here as well, some people who had
worked with some notable folks there as well.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Yeah, Bill Berg, who did drums on Bob Dylan's Blood
on the Tracks.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
He's such a wonderful human and you know, just the
ability to really serve the song. And it was so
fun recording with him in that big room at Echo Mountain,
hearing the ambient sound of those drums, and yeah, it's
(17:28):
so satisfying when the songs get lifted up by all
these great players.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Yeah, it's a great bass for a song, for the
building blocks of it. It's the foundation and you could
really feel it in that And yeah, this is no
machine can really replace somebody like Bill Berg. It's just
it's incredible, especially when you listen to it to a
lot of the work on this album and you go
back to something like Blood on the Tracks, it's just
(17:56):
just totally amazing. Yeah, absolutely, I'm sure very inspirational. How
did you get so many of these people together? Was
this Michael some.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Michael Michael Selvern?
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Yes, was he able to call all these all this
wonderful talent to help you out here?
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Well, he knows all these people, and so it's it's
lovely because when he calls them up, it's uh, uh
you're not starting cold.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Yeah, that's good. Good to have the connections. It just
may enriches the project so much more throughout. How long
did this project take to record?
Speaker 2 (18:32):
I would say, uh, the the initial thing was recorded
in the studio, uh, and then send out tracks to
friends all over the country, get back all those ideas,
sort of sort out which ones are going to work,
and you know, over the mix and all that. It
(18:53):
was probably you know, years in the making. But the
the fun part was you sed to had that initial
all together in the studio. Drums, bass, electric guitar, The
foundations of the song had that spontaneity and that that
real kind of listening to each other.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Your opening track is incredibly powerful as well. I love
the line I can alter the way the neurons fire. Yes,
just really really brilliant stuff. This kind of poetry. Did
you really get into poetry? Did you do a lot
of reading growing up?
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Most poetry escapes me. I have to really work at poetry,
and my poetry tends to be more story oriented, you know,
And so I like to stick with one sort of
(19:56):
metaphor and and really play it out. And so, yeah,
it's the kind of poetry that kind of uses a
lot of different metaphors altogether, you know, I tend to
(20:18):
It takes me a long time when I'm sort of
trying to feel my way into that, and I'm getting
better at it. It's fascinating how after all this time,
I feel like I've kind of know what I'm doing.
But it makes me smile when I think of all
the years when I was kind of wandering through the forest,
(20:40):
no map, you know, just kind of bumping into things.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yeah, do you find like you could be your own
big self credit and constantly scratchings out? Okay, this line
is better, this lines better? Is it really tough to
come to that final product when you finally have all
your lyrics down?
Speaker 2 (21:00):
I love revising. I think writing is rewriting, and I
love spending a lot of time on the tiny little words,
spending a lot of time, you know, sort of testing
and feeling into how else it could be and experimenting,
(21:20):
letting myself rewrite something that I think is good enough
just in case I can come up with something better.
And I love that process because I think if I
had the ability to miraculously, you know, write something out
first draft that was a keeper, I would miss the
(21:41):
best thing that the song is trying to offer me.
The process of writing. For me, that process of staying
in the unknowing and keep asking the questions. That's where
the song works on me. And it's fine for me
to work on the song, but what I really get
out of it is where that subtle discernment gradually gathers
(22:07):
a wisdom that's kind of beyond what I am living now.
And it's a way of creating something that's actually a
beacon ahead of me what I'm headed toward. And I
love how music can do that. So I love to
take my time with the writing. And it's not that
(22:28):
I'm critical or I think the fascinating thing about the
writing process is there's so many drafts. There's so many
drafts that I think are the final draft, you know,
and I will print out the lyric, and then I'll
see one little word that has to change, and then
I'll realize, oh man, I need to print this again,
(22:50):
and then I wind up wasting a lot of paper,
because that happens fifty times. So I think it's lucky
that I enjoy that process of rewriting, and I think
that what I get out of it is not just
a better song, but I get more time spent listening
(23:12):
for what my heart's trying to tell me.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
M Yeah, it's a way of working things out. But yeah,
a lot of paper does go missing. So if we
see more spots there in Asheville, you know, more trees
have come down for all that paper. I'm sure. So
my own mind has great harmonica on there that I've
really noticed that it really adds to the layering of
your opening track. And just really again, another great line,
(23:38):
I like, I hack the alarm in my own mind. Yeah,
I mean, yeah, it's something I could totally relate to
as well, just like, yeah, I could beat this because
we do. We have the alarms in our own mind,
and some are better than others.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Yeah, that's actually not a harmonica, it's a melodica, a malona. Okay, yeah,
you know, the one the keyboard with the with the two.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Oh yeah, yeah, oh my gosh, Okay, here's the guy
who used to work on Stephen Colbert Show who used
that a lot, I believe. Yeah, that's really really neat.
Yeah sounds fantastic, but yeah, so many great tracks. The
next right thing feels another one with lyrics that you
could totally relate to as well. You can I feel
(24:26):
the anger with fear is just something that really draws
you in.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Yeah, really incredible track on there as well, and I
can't argue has really great piano on it as well.
Just who is singing with you and doing the backing
vocals on that? It's like an answer.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Yeah, it's.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Very very very soulful and very great tone.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Yeah. Yeah, I love that it gives voice to the
other their character in that sort of dramatic monologue.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Yeah, yeah, it just I love that call and response
kind of thing. It was that an idea that you
had come up with or or Michael had come up with?
Speaker 2 (25:14):
That was Michael's idea?
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Yeah yeah, it's very very clear, you know that way
that response goes. Yeah, yeah, it's fantastic. Are you getting
out there now touring in support of this album.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Yeah. I just came back from a festival in Connecticut
and it was a really fun weekend. I had a
great time. I flew early because you know, there's I
got there on Saturday, even though my gig was on Sunday.
And I arrived on Saturday and I met at the
(25:51):
gate by one of the festival runners and she shouts
over her shoulder, it's not him, And I said, who
you look looking for? She said, the main stage performer
is supposed to go on and he's not here yet.
I said, I can play, and she said would you.
I said yeah. So I played Saturday night and then
(26:13):
I played again on Sunday and I didn't repeat any songs,
which is kind of rubbing it in wow, But it
felt so good.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Yeah. What a gift the artist, and to be able
to just get in there and just do it. I'm
sure that you have to feel like ten feet tall
after something like that. That's good. It's a great accomplishment.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
It made me feel particularly good because I do have
this hobby of making my acoustic guitar sound incredibly full
on stage. It's it's a it's a technical fix. It's
a choir of pickups, more than a dozen transducers with
a little sub mixer on stage, and so I can
(26:58):
deliver one x l our output and just say set
it flat, no roll off, and it's gonna sound great
and it can't possibly feedback, and that's so rare. I've
even got a kick drum built into the guitar that
I can effortlessly play with my thumb. And so it's
(27:19):
such a great hobby that I find such satisfaction in
delivering a great guitar sound.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Yeah, it's fantastic. Do you travel with a lot of equipment?
How does that work for you when you're.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
I have one roller bag that's just the the stuff
that makes my guitar sound great. And then I have
my suitcase. So I'll check the suitcase when I first
check in, and then check the guitar at the gate
so I don't have to pay for it and roll
the bag on and it's everything I need.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Great. So you have been touring all this time as
you've been recording all these years now, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Yeah, And that's another thing I enjoy more now than
I ever have. It's a cool challenge to think of
the adversity as a teacher, sort of like the people
who run sprints in the sand at the beach, you know.
I mean, it's not the fastest way to get there,
but it definitely makes you strong. And I think, yes,
(28:30):
being on the road can make you crazy, but if
you think of it as sort of the weightlifting for
your sanity, it's you know, if you can stay sane
on the road, then by the time you get home,
you know, you feel like you've really got some got
some emotional autonomy, You've got some ability to sort of
(28:56):
really know how to center yourself and get clear on
what you what makes you happy.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
What do you do to prepare for a show? Do
you Is there like a before stage ritual or anything. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Yeah, there's a lot of voice warm ups. I love
getting my voice all dialed in, and there's.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Just a.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Picturing of what's possible. I music is a sacred thing
to me, and I know that there are songs that
have changed my life. So I dare to expect that
to happen for the audience. And it's an outrageous thing.
It got some audacity in there to imagine that, you know,
(29:46):
a song could really sort of mark your life as
before and after. But that has happened to me. I
have heard songs that have changed my life, so I
imagine in that and I take the song seriously. Not
that my songs are that great, but I do this weird,
(30:07):
sort of a keto move with my emotional resistance. I say, yeah,
if I was nervous, it's because I'm wondering if I
deserve to be up there in front of everybody. And
the answer to that question is no. But it's the
wrong question. The question is not what I deserve. The
(30:28):
question is what they deserve. They've come a long way
from perfectly comfortable living rooms to feel something, and right now,
if they're going to feel something, it's got to come
through me. So my job is to get out of
the way and sort of trick my resistance so that
(30:49):
I don't have to, you know, bog down their experience
with my wonderings of if I'm wor the So.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and you get you get that response.
It's nice you premiere songs that the audience wouldn't have
heard to test it out on them.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Yeah, I love it, Yeah, I've It happens a lot
that I will play a song that's a day or
two old. Yeah, I like it. And there's some songs
that get played once, you know, and never again. Yeah.
It's kind of fun that too, you know, because there
are it happens. There's there are people who request a
(31:35):
particular song that they heard years ago, and I'll say,
I don't think that's my song, and they say, oh, no, no,
I remember you sang it that one time. And I think, oh, well,
that song has returned to the circling winds.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
It is gone. I think you have to get on
the old phone there and see what's if it's in
your catalog. It's like, wait a minute, Yeah, I'm sure,
because you know, you produce so much and you write
so much for each project, and only so much get
on there as well. So I'm sure that's got to
be a huge challenge. You have a great closing track
(32:11):
on this. What's the inspiration on this? I Wish You Enough?
Speaker 2 (32:16):
I Wish You Enough is a song that I imagine
to be sending someone off with a wish for them
to have a great life. But a great life is
not necessarily an easy life. A great life can be
a life that has a lot of adversity stories to tell,
(32:39):
and so imagine like somebody dropping their kid off at
college or someone you know, parting a relationship, or but
this this wish for My favorite part of that song
(33:01):
is the bridge, because you know, I say in the bridge,
you know it hurts to feel the pain inside, but
the pain inside won't hurt you. There's freedom in accepting
what is true. And it's easy to metabolize the sorrow
into healing, and nothing kills like painkillers do. And this
(33:25):
outrageous thing about it's easy to metabolize the sorrow into healing.
Metabolize is a word that we would use talking about digestion.
And I'm saying old pain can be turned into compassion
and energy and vision. And I have experienced this and
(33:47):
I know how to do it, and it seems kind
of like obvious and easy at this point in my life.
But I know that if you'd told me that when
I was twenty, it would have been hard for me
to believe. And so I love that I come to
this song when I sing it, I come to it
with a gratitude of knowing that our hearts are made
(34:11):
to heal. And it is a lovely thing that if
we are not afraid, we venture in to some past experience.
And I call it Cardio spelunking. You know, you go
in with the world's best flashlight, which is music, and
(34:31):
you go into this deep dark cave when you wind
up realizing, oh, you know, it's just old pain. It
didn't kill you the first time, it's not going to
kill you now. But actually what it will do is
bring you to life, because it's such a great trade
to start with old pain and delve into it and
(34:52):
get curious, take it apart, find out what it's made of.
And it's made of beautiful things. It's made of yearning
and expectations and even faith. And so when we delve
into it and feel our hearts move with it, it
goes through these layers and winds up giving us energy.
(35:15):
And I love it. It's such a fun reframe of
what the adversity in our life is for.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
You were mentioning earlier about certain songs that really were
a life chang or what songs would you consider that
that you've heard.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Wow, I could go to the first one, all the
way back to when I was I don't know, maybe
nine or ten years old. Maybe it was before that,
but I heard a song that was sit down, old friend,
there's something in my heart I must tell you in
(35:57):
the end, at the very end, there's nothing but love.
And it was a song that I didn't know at
the time, but it was a song by somebody who
had really hit bottom. He had been, you know, a
rock and roller, and he had a kind of found
(36:21):
his after he came through the lowest point in his life.
He was telling the truth in his music. He was
not trying to, you know, like have a persona that
was slick and crafted. He was It was honesty. And
(36:45):
as a kid, I was listening to a grown up
shed the authority of his sort of role and just
speak truth. And that was a big deal for me
at the time, and putting life in absolute terms like
(37:05):
that in the end, at the very end, there is
nothing but love. And I've come back to that idea
over and over and tried to write my own songs
about that, like Deeper Still. But yeah, that was a
song that once I heard it, it changed the way
I could imagine what life was about. And I love that.
(37:29):
It's music that my heart is most open to h
And you know, there's a lot of friends when I
see them again, they'll say, hey, what are you reading?
And I always ask, what are you listening to you know,
what's the song that has has really moved you. I
love that music moves me, and I love that it
moves me in the direction I want to go.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Yeah. Yeah, Sometimes it just it's unexplainable. It could just
so resonate and you're like, wow, this is, you know,
emotional game changer in life. It's just really incredible. Yeah,
I'm very impressed. You've got some great people on here
that have worked with some huge names here as well.
(38:12):
Darryl Jones is one that really comes to mind, somebody
who had worked with the Rolling Stones, getting him involved
in al Cardi, Rob Thomas, Michael Bearden, who worked with
Lady Gaga, Madonna. So impressive people who are on this project.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
For sure, it's been so fun feeling the songs lifted
up by all their great inspiration. It's really it's an honor.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
Yeah, absolutely good project. And is it available in CD form?
You have it on vinyl as well?
Speaker 2 (38:47):
I don't think it's vinyl, but there's yeah, there's CDs,
and I'm looking forward to hearing back from people what
they get from it. I've already gotten voice messages from
friends that are saying, you know, I can hear you.
(39:08):
I can hear what you've been through and it helps
me love you more. I love those messages. It's really
you know, what I want from music is a life
that sings. I'm not after the songs, the feeling in
my life that the songs point me toward, you know
(39:30):
what I mean?
Speaker 1 (39:32):
Absolutely. Oh, and you have a lot of inspirations within
the music community. Katie Lang covered you as well. It's
had to be an absolute throw when you probably discovered
that that was fun. Yeah, that's very good. Do you
get notes from any of them over from time to time?
Speaker 2 (39:50):
There are fun gathering festivals and stuff like that when
I meet other singer songwriters again, because normally we're just
chasing around the country on our own, but it's really
fun to catch up with each other. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Yeah, and you know, these paths just cross it's a community.
But yeah, it's a huge community as well, so it's
got to be thrilling when you do get to cross
paths and get to see po like Tony Rice. It's
just a huge inspiration as well.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
Yeah. Sean Colvin is another one that comes to mind.
It's just another lovely, lovely person, great artist. Yeah, Yeah,
it's fantastic and we can get this wherever you get
your music. It's on your website as well.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
And Spotify and all the usuals.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
Yes, just David Wilcox dot com.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
That's true, Yes, excellent, you know.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
And for those who have been watching on YouTube, you've
got a great set up here. It's their story behind
all the instruments that are beautifully lining behind you there.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
Well, I was just rehearsing this morning. I was gonna
make a h an acoustic version of the sequence of
the album, so I'm sort of lining up all the
the best guitars for each song.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
Ah. Yeah, fantastic. As far as touring goes, be doing
the US, will you go overseas as well?
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Some but not much. I love playing in Italy and
I really enjoyed playing in Spain and New Zealand and Australia,
and I hope to do more of that. But it's
mostly just the travel that I love. And it's so
nice that I was a traveler first, and that's really
(41:43):
worth it to me, you know, if I if I
can go on some great adventure and you know, do
a bicycle trip in Italy and then come back with
a little cash in my pocket, that's totally worth it.
I love travel.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
Bike in Italy. That's just I love cycling. Yeah, that's fantastic.
Yeah yeah. And who could pass up the gelato and
actually real.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
Food day every day.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
Yeah yeah, very inspirational talk about that. But you got
the beautiful Western North Carolina mountains. Do you get out
and bike over there as well?
Speaker 2 (42:19):
I do? Yeah, it works out.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
The quads for sure. Yeah, Wes, it's just such a
Anybody who travels the US really needs to see Western
North Carolina. It's really open for business, a lot of
great restaurants and so many amazing artists from so many
different mediums. It's just really incredible, just you know, all
(42:46):
kinds of different stuff up there. It's it's just a
beautiful part of the country. I agree, absolutely well, it's
been so nice chatting with you this morning, and hope
to see you here in the Atlanta, Georgia area if
you get.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
That Eddie's just before Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
Of course. Eddie's Attic another wonderful place that gets mentioned
almost all the time here as well. So love downtown Decatur,
You'll love that John Lewis Statue's. They've done some really
nice stuff in downtown Decatur and they keep doing it.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
So yeah, fantastic, thanks for talking, thanks for getting the
word out.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
Yeah, absolutely, take care all right, So yeah take care Byvie.
Wasn't that amazing? He is just such a great talent,
good guy, incredibly gifted. Seems like he's really organized as well.
Seems like a good, smart, organized guy. Anyway. Thanks. If
you've gotten this far, I really congratulate you so thank
(43:49):
you so much for listening. And I've got some more
in the can here. Take care
Hey there, thanks for joining me here today on this
beautiful Labor Day of twenty twenty five. It is so
great to see you. Summer is really still in full swing,
but in a lot of places it's not. It's pretty
much over in their minds. So go figure. School has
been back in session for many people here, especially in
the Southeast, they've been back for a few weeks now,
(00:23):
and probably in some other places too, they just started.
We didn't usually go back to school until after the
Labor Day. Today. AnyWho, I have a great guest on
here today. His name is David Wilcox. He is a wonderful,
very talented musician, has so many great songs out there.
(00:44):
He has been recording for well over thirty six years,
has many excellent albums. He has a great new one
out and we talk about that project and how it
all came together, and his life in Asheville, North Carolina,
just a beautiful part of the world. I highly recommend
visiting Nashville. Thank you so much for joining me, and
(01:08):
hope to see you on the other side of this thing.
Take care, Hi, good morning, How are you doing good?
How are you good? Hanging in there, It's a little
bit cooler here in the southeastern United States, so it
feels a little bit better. It's been a brutal summer
actually spring as well here in twenty twenty five. So
(01:30):
where are you at this morning?
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Ashville? I love Ashville.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
You're all doing okay after all of what Helena has
done up there.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Yeah, there are parts that will never come back, but
there are parts that are fine so far. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Good, that's good here. It's just such a lovely place.
It's a great getaway for those of us here in Atlanta.
It's just really yeah, it's yeah, not a bad drive
up the road. I just very inspiring there.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I'm looking forward to coming to Atlanta. There's a thing
in November, i think, just before Thanksgiving, and I'm going
to have an extra day to sort of just walk
around see the town.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
He and there's some interesting sites. If you get a
chance to see the Civil Rights Museum, it's really nice,
incredibly nice, some good attractions you could do all in
the day. And then the MLK Center over there as well,
really good stuff. And then obviously downtown Decatur nearby east
of town is beautiful, and seeing the John Lewis statue
(02:39):
is really nice. Indicator.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Oh, Ok.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Yeah, it's right in downtown Decatur. They put up a
really nice statue of John Lewis. It's beautiful, really nice.
But so much going on here as well. And wow,
you got a great new release out.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
It's true. I've listened to a lot of music over
the years. Some of my favorite singer songwriters. I follow
them album after album, and every once in a while
somebody comes out with one and I think, wow, they
must have been through some shit. This is a great record.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Yeah, you know, write what you know, right, that's so
you know it.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Comes out so now it's my turn exactly.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Exactly, And the title of it is the personal part
of all of us too. Where exactly does that come
from in your own personal history?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
The way I tell the story is, you know, it's
a fascinating thing. The events of our life. They are
what they are telling a better story about. It doesn't
change the past, but it definitely changes the meaning of
the past, and that's a big deal. You can take
a sort of a circular story and turn it into
(03:53):
a story that has an arc, you know.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Yeah, yeah, you don't deny your history. You're not divorcing
at per se. You know, you want to look forward,
but you know, honor the history, but just don't wallow
in the history in the past. Yeah, and we really
feel that way. Sometimes. You made a great video along
with that as well.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah, it's very very just, you know, beautiful, self self
aware kind of track and it really does unpack a
lot of half truths. Yeah, it's very very nice.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Thanks.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Yeah, and you know, you know, you have seem to
have a lot of influence with like James Taylor and
people like that. Have you followed a lot of James Taylor.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
The people that influenced me most coming up were Nick Drake,
John Martin, Joni Mitchell, and other interesting little sidelines that
are harder to pick up. But Tony Rice, A lot
(05:03):
of the a lot of the most inspiring people were
not really famous, but just sometimes local musicians that I
got to know because they showed a way to make
it possible to have music be not just a commodity
(05:24):
for the professionals to do, but a language of discovering
how to communicate between my own mind and my own heart.
And for me, that's the sustainable goal. That's why I
come to writing these days. So I sort of sing
(05:45):
myself sane song by song.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
How does the inspiration come to you? Being obviously in
the Asheville area Western North Carolina is pretty inspiring in
and of itself. What motivates you to you? And when
you do come up with lyrics melody? How does that
process come together for you? Do immediately go write it down?
Crack out the android of the iPhone.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
There's a lot of little voice messages on my phone,
whether their ideas or little bits of poetry or little
bits of melody, and I compile those pretty meticulously. I
take good notes and usually the things that want to
(06:33):
become songs are conversations that stick with me with friends
and things that I want to remember that the songs.
The writing helps me discern a truth that I'm approaching,
and the performing kind of holds me accountable to remember
(06:53):
the best of what I have felt my life can be.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Yeah, yeah, And when you perform, is it's tough for
you to remember lyrics? How does that come about? Or
a lot of people are using the old teleprompter these days.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
I find that I love playing new songs. I love
playing the songs that are just a day or two old.
So yeah, I can sometimes have a lyric in front
of me, But I love the focus that comes when
I'm performing and I'm the song pretty much takes care
(07:33):
of itself. So my focus is thinking about the subtext,
thinking about the story that the song came from, and
the sort of origin of the emotion, and I go
to that in my mind as I'm singing.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, And it must be such a special skill set
to do that while you're performing. It is multitasking, so
it must take you, know you're in many amount of
hours to practice and to really get it down. Did
you start doing this at a pretty young age? How
you learn music and were you self taught as well.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
I didn't start playing guitar till I was eighteen, and
I started writing pretty bad songs when I was twenty,
and by the time I was thirty I had some
good ones.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Yeah, And just how do you feel that you have
gotten good at that? It was just just do more
and more and more, get your ten thousand hours in.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
I think the way that I got good at it
was not assuming that the sound of my voice was
good enough reason to sing. The way I got good
at it was thinking about the gift of other people's
attention being something I don't take for granted, and I
(09:04):
have to have an idea that I think the song
can deliver that would make their lives better.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
And you know you've done your job if somebody can
come to see you and you give them however along
the show is, Yeah, you've definitely done your job. And
also with the projects that you have. What number album
is this now for you?
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Twenty something? I don't know. There are some that are
digital only, so depending on whether you count those or not,
it's twenty three or twenty five something like that.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Yeah, so that's quite an output because it's really what
would you consider the beginning of your recording career? Is
it the late eighties now?
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Yeah? Uh huh. First record was eighty seven.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Yeah, and you were originally on A and M records.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
There were three records on A and M, yeah, two
through number four, and that was a great ride. It
was really fun. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure. And you know you went
through the whole process of dealing with A and R people, touring, promoting.
I'm sure that that's that model has kind of changed
pretty much in these days. It feels like, you know, yes,
everybody can do this and you can control it. But
(10:28):
that's also the thing everybody can can do this and
self record and release and do all this other stuff,
so that that's probably the challenge of it all as
far as that goes.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Yeah, well I love that I can write a new
song and put it out that day. That's really fun.
I love doing that.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Yeah. Yeah, much different than those you know then you
know the old analog and the tape and you know
all that that process. But you know that I had
advantages too, and what we have now have advantages and disadvantages.
It's just's all trade offs.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
So how long did this project take from writing and
then you recorded it up there in that area or
somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Yeah. I recorded it at Echo Mountain, a lovely studio
in Asheville, and there were a lot of songs to
choose from it. It was really a fun process. When I
was first talking to my friend Michael, the producer, he said, well,
just send me the songs that are sort of top
of the list. And I sent him a nice list
(11:35):
of songs and he said, what is this. I said, well,
that's the songs that you asked. He said, Dave, this
is fifty songs. I said, yeah, well they're good, and
he said, do another sort send me twelve. I said, no,
that's impossible. I'm about twenty. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Yeah, it's picking your favorite children, I'm sure. Yeah, quite
a process. And then you know, basically sequencing of course,
as I would recommend anybody listening to this new release,
it's a great flow, you know, you know, basically that
powerful opener and a great closer and great stuff in between.
(12:20):
So that's did that take a while with you and
your producer, Michael.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
I do love obsessing over the sequence, and it is
fascinating thinking of the story, thinking how the songs sort
of flow into each other and inform each other. It's
just now that I'm beginning to see some of the
fascinating commonalities. There are themes that show up in several
(12:47):
songs that I didn't realize we're so common. Like, for example,
in the song The Beautiful, there's this idea of the
frame around the painting being sort of like the way
a little boat holds back the ocean. So that song
is about making sure that you have your emotional buoyancy
(13:10):
and you don't sink in the sea of sorrow. So
the way I tell the story uses an image of
the frame around the painting, but that same idea also
shows up in the song Roses, which is about a
guy tending a rose garden in the middle of a
war zone. And both of those songs are about tending
(13:31):
your heart, making sure that you can still be useful
because you're not just depressed, and so making sure that
you have some way to sustain your emotional buoyancy. And
the song Shimmer is the same idea, except that's about
(13:54):
the kind of lover's aura. You know, you see a
couple that have that sort of self contained world. And
this song uses the image of walking out on the
on the rocks in the middle of a river and
having I describe it as you know, the world's going by,
(14:14):
you know, all the events that that you know, But
in this image of where we stand and where we kiss,
we are kind of we can get above it and
not get swept away. We don't get carried down the river.
(14:36):
And so in that song there's this line about, you know,
this is where we meet, even curbside at the airport.
We step into the river when we meet, and so
wait a minute, there's no river at the airport. So
what I'm talking about is that that lover's safety. That yeah,
(14:57):
and the song I Made It Rain that has the
same kind of fascinating place where it's talking about this
humble craft that I love, but it describes it parallel
with also describing someone who walks up on a hill,
crafts some homemade wings, flies above the clouds and makes
(15:23):
it rain. Now that's impossible. But when I describe the
other story in the song, which is the writing and
the playing of music, it's just as unlikely because in
that song, I'm saying there's some kind of emotional alchemy,
(15:44):
you know, I make new beauty from old pain, and
that is just as miraculous to me. So it's pretty
fun that there's this overall theme of how do we
survive have tough times? And in my opinion, you know,
times get tough, music gets good, and this is the
(16:07):
stuff that sustains me. These are the songs I need
to hear.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
It's like your therapy. This is where you work it
out and so many of us. What you discover is
so many can relate to that, so you're doing good
as well. It's like group therapy actually just through art. Yeah,
I love this that lyric and I Made It Rain.
I found the lift where the air is cold and thin. Yeah,
(16:32):
it's just that that really stood out, and and a
lot of those type of songs you love shimmer, very
nice piano on there. You have a good cast of characters.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
On this album.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Are who is doing piano on that?
Speaker 2 (16:48):
I don't even know.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
You got some good people here, and I was noting
some of them here as well, some people who had
worked with some notable folks there as well.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Yeah, Bill Berg, who did drums on Bob Dylan's Blood
on the Tracks.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
He's such a wonderful human and you know, just the
ability to really serve the song. And it was so
fun recording with him in that big room at Echo Mountain,
hearing the ambient sound of those drums, and yeah, it's
(17:28):
so satisfying when the songs get lifted up by all
these great players.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Yeah, it's a great bass for a song, for the
building blocks of it. It's the foundation and you could
really feel it in that And yeah, this is no
machine can really replace somebody like Bill Berg. It's just
it's incredible, especially when you listen to it to a
lot of the work on this album and you go
back to something like Blood on the Tracks, it's just
(17:56):
just totally amazing. Yeah, absolutely, I'm sure very inspirational. How
did you get so many of these people together? Was
this Michael some.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Michael Michael Selvern?
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Yes, was he able to call all these all this
wonderful talent to help you out here?
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Well, he knows all these people, and so it's it's
lovely because when he calls them up, it's uh, uh
you're not starting cold.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Yeah, that's good. Good to have the connections. It just
may enriches the project so much more throughout. How long
did this project take to record?
Speaker 2 (18:32):
I would say, uh, the the initial thing was recorded
in the studio, uh, and then send out tracks to
friends all over the country, get back all those ideas,
sort of sort out which ones are going to work,
and you know, over the mix and all that. It
(18:53):
was probably you know, years in the making. But the
the fun part was you sed to had that initial
all together in the studio. Drums, bass, electric guitar, The
foundations of the song had that spontaneity and that that
real kind of listening to each other.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Your opening track is incredibly powerful as well. I love
the line I can alter the way the neurons fire. Yes,
just really really brilliant stuff. This kind of poetry. Did
you really get into poetry? Did you do a lot
of reading growing up?
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Most poetry escapes me. I have to really work at poetry,
and my poetry tends to be more story oriented, you know,
And so I like to stick with one sort of
(19:56):
metaphor and and really play it out. And so, yeah,
it's the kind of poetry that kind of uses a
lot of different metaphors altogether, you know, I tend to
(20:18):
It takes me a long time when I'm sort of
trying to feel my way into that, and I'm getting
better at it. It's fascinating how after all this time,
I feel like I've kind of know what I'm doing.
But it makes me smile when I think of all
the years when I was kind of wandering through the forest,
(20:40):
no map, you know, just kind of bumping into things.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yeah, do you find like you could be your own
big self credit and constantly scratchings out? Okay, this line
is better, this lines better? Is it really tough to
come to that final product when you finally have all
your lyrics down?
Speaker 2 (21:00):
I love revising. I think writing is rewriting, and I
love spending a lot of time on the tiny little words,
spending a lot of time, you know, sort of testing
and feeling into how else it could be and experimenting,
(21:20):
letting myself rewrite something that I think is good enough
just in case I can come up with something better.
And I love that process because I think if I
had the ability to miraculously, you know, write something out
first draft that was a keeper, I would miss the
(21:41):
best thing that the song is trying to offer me.
The process of writing. For me, that process of staying
in the unknowing and keep asking the questions. That's where
the song works on me. And it's fine for me
to work on the song, but what I really get
out of it is where that subtle discernment gradually gathers
(22:07):
a wisdom that's kind of beyond what I am living now.
And it's a way of creating something that's actually a
beacon ahead of me what I'm headed toward. And I
love how music can do that. So I love to
take my time with the writing. And it's not that
(22:28):
I'm critical or I think the fascinating thing about the
writing process is there's so many drafts. There's so many
drafts that I think are the final draft, you know,
and I will print out the lyric, and then I'll
see one little word that has to change, and then
I'll realize, oh man, I need to print this again,
(22:50):
and then I wind up wasting a lot of paper,
because that happens fifty times. So I think it's lucky
that I enjoy that process of rewriting, and I think
that what I get out of it is not just
a better song, but I get more time spent listening
(23:12):
for what my heart's trying to tell me.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
M Yeah, it's a way of working things out. But yeah,
a lot of paper does go missing. So if we
see more spots there in Asheville, you know, more trees
have come down for all that paper. I'm sure. So
my own mind has great harmonica on there that I've
really noticed that it really adds to the layering of
your opening track. And just really again, another great line,
(23:38):
I like, I hack the alarm in my own mind. Yeah,
I mean, yeah, it's something I could totally relate to
as well, just like, yeah, I could beat this because
we do. We have the alarms in our own mind,
and some are better than others.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Yeah, that's actually not a harmonica, it's a melodica, a malona. Okay, yeah,
you know, the one the keyboard with the with the two.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Oh yeah, yeah, oh my gosh, Okay, here's the guy
who used to work on Stephen Colbert Show who used
that a lot, I believe. Yeah, that's really really neat.
Yeah sounds fantastic, but yeah, so many great tracks. The
next right thing feels another one with lyrics that you
could totally relate to as well. You can I feel
(24:26):
the anger with fear is just something that really draws
you in.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Yeah, really incredible track on there as well, and I
can't argue has really great piano on it as well.
Just who is singing with you and doing the backing
vocals on that? It's like an answer.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Yeah, it's.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Very very very soulful and very great tone.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Yeah. Yeah, I love that it gives voice to the
other their character in that sort of dramatic monologue.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Yeah, yeah, it just I love that call and response
kind of thing. It was that an idea that you
had come up with or or Michael had come up with?
Speaker 2 (25:14):
That was Michael's idea?
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Yeah yeah, it's very very clear, you know that way
that response goes. Yeah, yeah, it's fantastic. Are you getting
out there now touring in support of this album.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Yeah. I just came back from a festival in Connecticut
and it was a really fun weekend. I had a
great time. I flew early because you know, there's I
got there on Saturday, even though my gig was on Sunday.
And I arrived on Saturday and I met at the
(25:51):
gate by one of the festival runners and she shouts
over her shoulder, it's not him, And I said, who
you look looking for? She said, the main stage performer
is supposed to go on and he's not here yet.
I said, I can play, and she said would you.
I said yeah. So I played Saturday night and then
(26:13):
I played again on Sunday and I didn't repeat any songs,
which is kind of rubbing it in wow, But it
felt so good.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Yeah. What a gift the artist, and to be able
to just get in there and just do it. I'm
sure that you have to feel like ten feet tall
after something like that. That's good. It's a great accomplishment.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
It made me feel particularly good because I do have
this hobby of making my acoustic guitar sound incredibly full
on stage. It's it's a it's a technical fix. It's
a choir of pickups, more than a dozen transducers with
a little sub mixer on stage, and so I can
(26:58):
deliver one x l our output and just say set
it flat, no roll off, and it's gonna sound great
and it can't possibly feedback, and that's so rare. I've
even got a kick drum built into the guitar that
I can effortlessly play with my thumb. And so it's
(27:19):
such a great hobby that I find such satisfaction in
delivering a great guitar sound.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Yeah, it's fantastic. Do you travel with a lot of equipment?
How does that work for you when you're.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
I have one roller bag that's just the the stuff
that makes my guitar sound great. And then I have
my suitcase. So I'll check the suitcase when I first
check in, and then check the guitar at the gate
so I don't have to pay for it and roll
the bag on and it's everything I need.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Great. So you have been touring all this time as
you've been recording all these years now, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Yeah, And that's another thing I enjoy more now than
I ever have. It's a cool challenge to think of
the adversity as a teacher, sort of like the people
who run sprints in the sand at the beach, you know.
I mean, it's not the fastest way to get there,
but it definitely makes you strong. And I think, yes,
(28:30):
being on the road can make you crazy, but if
you think of it as sort of the weightlifting for
your sanity, it's you know, if you can stay sane
on the road, then by the time you get home,
you know, you feel like you've really got some got
some emotional autonomy, You've got some ability to sort of
(28:56):
really know how to center yourself and get clear on
what you what makes you happy.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
What do you do to prepare for a show? Do
you Is there like a before stage ritual or anything. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Yeah, there's a lot of voice warm ups. I love
getting my voice all dialed in, and there's.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Just a.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Picturing of what's possible. I music is a sacred thing
to me, and I know that there are songs that
have changed my life. So I dare to expect that
to happen for the audience. And it's an outrageous thing.
It got some audacity in there to imagine that, you know,
(29:46):
a song could really sort of mark your life as
before and after. But that has happened to me. I
have heard songs that have changed my life, so I
imagine in that and I take the song seriously. Not
that my songs are that great, but I do this weird,
(30:07):
sort of a keto move with my emotional resistance. I say, yeah,
if I was nervous, it's because I'm wondering if I
deserve to be up there in front of everybody. And
the answer to that question is no. But it's the
wrong question. The question is not what I deserve. The
(30:28):
question is what they deserve. They've come a long way
from perfectly comfortable living rooms to feel something, and right now,
if they're going to feel something, it's got to come
through me. So my job is to get out of
the way and sort of trick my resistance so that
(30:49):
I don't have to, you know, bog down their experience
with my wonderings of if I'm wor the So.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and you get you get that response.
It's nice you premiere songs that the audience wouldn't have
heard to test it out on them.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Yeah, I love it, Yeah, I've It happens a lot
that I will play a song that's a day or
two old. Yeah, I like it. And there's some songs
that get played once, you know, and never again. Yeah.
It's kind of fun that too, you know, because there
are it happens. There's there are people who request a
(31:35):
particular song that they heard years ago, and I'll say,
I don't think that's my song, and they say, oh, no, no,
I remember you sang it that one time. And I think, oh, well,
that song has returned to the circling winds.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
It is gone. I think you have to get on
the old phone there and see what's if it's in
your catalog. It's like, wait a minute, Yeah, I'm sure,
because you know, you produce so much and you write
so much for each project, and only so much get
on there as well. So I'm sure that's got to
be a huge challenge. You have a great closing track
(32:11):
on this. What's the inspiration on this? I Wish You Enough?
Speaker 2 (32:16):
I Wish You Enough is a song that I imagine
to be sending someone off with a wish for them
to have a great life. But a great life is
not necessarily an easy life. A great life can be
a life that has a lot of adversity stories to tell,
(32:39):
and so imagine like somebody dropping their kid off at
college or someone you know, parting a relationship, or but
this this wish for My favorite part of that song
(33:01):
is the bridge, because you know, I say in the bridge,
you know it hurts to feel the pain inside, but
the pain inside won't hurt you. There's freedom in accepting
what is true. And it's easy to metabolize the sorrow
into healing, and nothing kills like painkillers do. And this
(33:25):
outrageous thing about it's easy to metabolize the sorrow into healing.
Metabolize is a word that we would use talking about digestion.
And I'm saying old pain can be turned into compassion
and energy and vision. And I have experienced this and
(33:47):
I know how to do it, and it seems kind
of like obvious and easy at this point in my life.
But I know that if you'd told me that when
I was twenty, it would have been hard for me
to believe. And so I love that I come to
this song when I sing it, I come to it
with a gratitude of knowing that our hearts are made
(34:11):
to heal. And it is a lovely thing that if
we are not afraid, we venture in to some past experience.
And I call it Cardio spelunking. You know, you go
in with the world's best flashlight, which is music, and
(34:31):
you go into this deep dark cave when you wind
up realizing, oh, you know, it's just old pain. It
didn't kill you the first time, it's not going to
kill you now. But actually what it will do is
bring you to life, because it's such a great trade
to start with old pain and delve into it and
(34:52):
get curious, take it apart, find out what it's made of.
And it's made of beautiful things. It's made of yearning
and expectations and even faith. And so when we delve
into it and feel our hearts move with it, it
goes through these layers and winds up giving us energy.
(35:15):
And I love it. It's such a fun reframe of
what the adversity in our life is for.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
You were mentioning earlier about certain songs that really were
a life chang or what songs would you consider that
that you've heard.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Wow, I could go to the first one, all the
way back to when I was I don't know, maybe
nine or ten years old. Maybe it was before that,
but I heard a song that was sit down, old friend,
there's something in my heart I must tell you in
(35:57):
the end, at the very end, there's nothing but love.
And it was a song that I didn't know at
the time, but it was a song by somebody who
had really hit bottom. He had been, you know, a
rock and roller, and he had a kind of found
(36:21):
his after he came through the lowest point in his life.
He was telling the truth in his music. He was
not trying to, you know, like have a persona that
was slick and crafted. He was It was honesty. And
(36:45):
as a kid, I was listening to a grown up
shed the authority of his sort of role and just
speak truth. And that was a big deal for me
at the time, and putting life in absolute terms like
(37:05):
that in the end, at the very end, there is
nothing but love. And I've come back to that idea
over and over and tried to write my own songs
about that, like Deeper Still. But yeah, that was a
song that once I heard it, it changed the way
I could imagine what life was about. And I love that.
(37:29):
It's music that my heart is most open to h
And you know, there's a lot of friends when I
see them again, they'll say, hey, what are you reading?
And I always ask, what are you listening to you know,
what's the song that has has really moved you. I
love that music moves me, and I love that it
moves me in the direction I want to go.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Yeah. Yeah, Sometimes it just it's unexplainable. It could just
so resonate and you're like, wow, this is, you know,
emotional game changer in life. It's just really incredible. Yeah,
I'm very impressed. You've got some great people on here
that have worked with some huge names here as well.
(38:12):
Darryl Jones is one that really comes to mind, somebody
who had worked with the Rolling Stones, getting him involved
in al Cardi, Rob Thomas, Michael Bearden, who worked with
Lady Gaga, Madonna. So impressive people who are on this project.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
For sure, it's been so fun feeling the songs lifted
up by all their great inspiration. It's really it's an honor.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
Yeah, absolutely good project. And is it available in CD form?
You have it on vinyl as well?
Speaker 2 (38:47):
I don't think it's vinyl, but there's yeah, there's CDs,
and I'm looking forward to hearing back from people what
they get from it. I've already gotten voice messages from
friends that are saying, you know, I can hear you.
(39:08):
I can hear what you've been through and it helps
me love you more. I love those messages. It's really
you know, what I want from music is a life
that sings. I'm not after the songs, the feeling in
my life that the songs point me toward, you know
(39:30):
what I mean?
Speaker 1 (39:32):
Absolutely. Oh, and you have a lot of inspirations within
the music community. Katie Lang covered you as well. It's
had to be an absolute throw when you probably discovered
that that was fun. Yeah, that's very good. Do you
get notes from any of them over from time to time?
Speaker 2 (39:50):
There are fun gathering festivals and stuff like that when
I meet other singer songwriters again, because normally we're just
chasing around the country on our own, but it's really
fun to catch up with each other. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Yeah, and you know, these paths just cross it's a community.
But yeah, it's a huge community as well, so it's
got to be thrilling when you do get to cross
paths and get to see po like Tony Rice. It's
just a huge inspiration as well.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
Yeah. Sean Colvin is another one that comes to mind.
It's just another lovely, lovely person, great artist. Yeah, Yeah,
it's fantastic and we can get this wherever you get
your music. It's on your website as well.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
And Spotify and all the usuals.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
Yes, just David Wilcox dot com.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
That's true, Yes, excellent, you know.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
And for those who have been watching on YouTube, you've
got a great set up here. It's their story behind
all the instruments that are beautifully lining behind you there.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
Well, I was just rehearsing this morning. I was gonna
make a h an acoustic version of the sequence of
the album, so I'm sort of lining up all the
the best guitars for each song.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
Ah. Yeah, fantastic. As far as touring goes, be doing
the US, will you go overseas as well?
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Some but not much. I love playing in Italy and
I really enjoyed playing in Spain and New Zealand and Australia,
and I hope to do more of that. But it's
mostly just the travel that I love. And it's so
nice that I was a traveler first, and that's really
(41:43):
worth it to me, you know, if I if I
can go on some great adventure and you know, do
a bicycle trip in Italy and then come back with
a little cash in my pocket, that's totally worth it.
I love travel.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
Bike in Italy. That's just I love cycling. Yeah, that's fantastic.
Yeah yeah. And who could pass up the gelato and
actually real.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
Food day every day.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
Yeah yeah, very inspirational talk about that. But you got
the beautiful Western North Carolina mountains. Do you get out
and bike over there as well?
Speaker 2 (42:19):
I do? Yeah, it works out.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
The quads for sure. Yeah, Wes, it's just such a
Anybody who travels the US really needs to see Western
North Carolina. It's really open for business, a lot of
great restaurants and so many amazing artists from so many
different mediums. It's just really incredible, just you know, all
(42:46):
kinds of different stuff up there. It's it's just a
beautiful part of the country. I agree, absolutely well, it's
been so nice chatting with you this morning, and hope
to see you here in the Atlanta, Georgia area if
you get.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
That Eddie's just before Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
Of course. Eddie's Attic another wonderful place that gets mentioned
almost all the time here as well. So love downtown Decatur,
You'll love that John Lewis Statue's. They've done some really
nice stuff in downtown Decatur and they keep doing it.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
So yeah, fantastic, thanks for talking, thanks for getting the
word out.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
Yeah, absolutely, take care all right, So yeah take care Byvie.
Wasn't that amazing? He is just such a great talent,
good guy, incredibly gifted. Seems like he's really organized as well.
Seems like a good, smart, organized guy. Anyway. Thanks. If
you've gotten this far, I really congratulate you so thank
(43:49):
you so much for listening. And I've got some more
in the can here. Take care
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