David Wilcox
creating his own extraordinary acoustic path
“To me, acoustic music has always been about the audience being drawn in a little closer in a way that is for me revolutionary, vulnerable, powerful.”
When I first came to acoustic music, to me it felt like revolution. It felt like these were sort of tools that you could carry when you’re traveling light and living cheap. They are tools that are not dependent on the grid let alone the music industry. They’re tools that don’t require a venue. That you can play on the street. When I was playing on the street, I was making a living that was better than if I had had a minimum wage job which was my option back then. I thought, “You know, this is not going to hurt me. Most of all, it’s going to bring me life. Not just going to be living, it’s going to be a life.”
That the intent of music should not be a statement to everybody but a statement to someone. To me, the revolutionary part, a part that changes all that, is when it becomes person to person.
AL About performing on the road with your Rainsong graphite guitar
Unless you’re traveling with a semi, unless it’s going to go in a huge anvil case, [a vintage instrument ] is not appropriate technology. I mean, it might be fun to play those guitars, but it’s not like the audience is going to hear it any different. If you’re traveling sort of ground level like I am, it’s not realistic because you’re going to waste all your emotional energy worrying about the guitar. You really should be spending your emotional energy where it counts, on the audience.
AL When you’re home, you have a variety of guitars and maybe they’re all different paintbrushes and they all have their own special voices. Do you consider one your go-to, when you’re writing? DW No. I try a lot of different sounds and see where it wants to go. I play a little on each one. I, of course, try a lot of different tunings and a lot of different voicings. I write a lot on electric. I have really nice sounds that I can make, just complex interesting sounds. And a fantastic Matchless 30-watt combo amp that has no hiss, no hum. Really beautiful, righteous tube distortion. It can really take me a lot of different emotional places. So I will try everything and see what pulls my heart the most and where this particular song wants to go. AL How many guitars do you keep today? DW It’s a couple dozen, I would guess. There are guitars that are worthless for everything except the one thing they do well. I have this quirky little tenor banjo that has bar frets. It’s just plinky as can be. If you need a plinky thing, oh my god, it’s so good. There’s an octave mandolin. There’s the resonator guitar. The baritone guitar and this weird sort of creation that I made which is sort of halfway between a guitar and a baritone. Wow, it’s soulful, and it’s kind of dark. Then there’s this guitar which records so well up close, the mic really close, and it’s not boomy. I just got it. It’s an Everhart guitar. For recording, especially in regular tuning, especially close to a mic, it has an honesty and a plainness. It would be the perfect guitar to do straight-ahead, no-effects, clear concise sort of tones. Yeah. There’s lots of favorites for different reasons. I have this three-quarter size Stratocaster that I have tuned like a mandolin that has two extra drone strings on top. It is just bewildering. It is the quirkiest tone. It sounds like a Coodercaster. It has this bizarre voicing, because mandolin chords are playing on it, but it’s in E instead of G. It’s just hard to pin down. It’s like, “What is that?” It sounds like an electric guitar. It sounds like sort of an octave mandolin, but it also sounds sort of like that thing that David Lindley plays that was made out of a Wyman bass, a Bill Wyman bass. He has this eight-string concoction that he made out of that old Vox Bass. It’s another one of those like, “What is that?” It’s an electric instrument, but the tone of it is just bringing this whole other frame of reference. AL Do you remember your first acoustic guitar? DW I do. I bought it at a guitar store in the Loop in Chicago, in 1978, I would guess. It was a D-25C, a cherry-stained, carved-back Guild D-25. I still have it. My son plays it more now. It sounds like Nick Drake. It has that kind of spooky, dark, hollow thing. It’s cool.AL We asked David about the opportunity to engage him to craft a song.
I love playing for people who need music. I love playing for people who take music very seriously and expect a lot from it. If I sort of apply that to these custom songs, it’s not going to be a quick little jingle with somebody’s name stuck in it. I want to have the kind of interaction and emotional sort of juice to it that will make it really satisfying and memorable.
AL Are these songs exclusively private? Has anyone invited you to share their songs or are they meant for just them? DW There are a few people who have said that it’s okay for me to share. There are people who said, “This is just for me.” Both are fine with me. I’m happy to go either way.AL Does it take away some of your capacity to produce new and original work? Or does it sometimes spark other ideas for you, about you on your own path?
When I was first starting out years ago, people would ask the ridiculous question, “So, Dave, where do you want your music to be in 10 years?” I would think, “I want it to be right here in my heart. I want it to be my teacher. I want it to be my guide.” The main thing for me is how does my overall creative juice get affected by each thing that I do. These custom songs—man, it’s really cool—because, when you sing it, when I sing their song, I don’t sing it with my authority. I sing it with their authority. That hooks me up to a whole other source.
AL Who do you regard as acoustic heroes? DW I wouldn’t play the same if it weren’t for John Martyn, Nick Drake, and Joni Mitchell. I think those are the ones that shaped my playing the most. And Chuck Pyle. The right hand I definitely got from Chuck Pyle, but the left hand and the tunings – John Martyn. The whole kind of bravery of the lyric writing from Joni Mitchell. And Bob Franke. Bob Franke was huge in terms of that same emotional bravery in the lyrics. Yeah, I definitely wouldn’t be the same without Bob.AL If you had the opportunity to see only one acoustic show this year, who would it be?
You’re not taking out a psychic loan on the future hoping that doing what you hate will suddenly pay off and you’ll be able to do what you love. Because the interest on that loan is always crushing. This is a way to look at what you do in a way that may be different and a radical refrain. And you have to be in the company of people who are doing that to see that it does work long-term.
AL Do you think that the gathering and the fellowship of like-minded people is its own reward then? DW Yeah. There’s this song I have, “We Make the Way by Walking.” One of the verses talks about, “By then you were walking with me, and you asked if I knew the way. I made you laugh, when I said our paths might be a road someday.” This notion of we set out on our own, guided by these powerful yearnings to not compromise. Gradually we find our tribe, and that is reassuring. But the tribe can be found in all kinds of different ways. I mean, you can read poets who died 100 years ago that are walking right beside you and they’re walking the same path. And you can draw on their wisdom. I think that, for me, it is satisfying having that camaraderie, but I think it’s also not trying to prove it with numbers, not trying to justify it by saying, “Oh, now we’re a group,” but just kind of having time to appreciate all the different ways other people are doing the same thing. And to have time to see, in that, a whole different way of seeing sort of the success of our endeavor.The world doesn’t need more songs. The world doesn’t need more songwriters. But the world does need people who are brave with their hearts. If people happen to be cracked open to song as the place their heart feels most deeply, then song might be the way they do that, but the song is not the goal. And so a tribe of songwriters isn’t just defining songwriting as a path, it’s just defining, I think, the fact that each of these people set off where there was no path and were brave with their hearts.
Videos
-
Change of Anger
David Wilcox -
View from the Edge
David Wilcox -
Start with the Ending
David Wilcox
One thought on “Start with the Ending”
Leave a Reply
PEGACPBA71V1 EX300 700-501 400-101 70-246 1Y0-201 , 220-902 , 200-120 70-534 M70-101 100-105 , CCA-500 640-911 700-501 1z0-808 70-980 , 1Y0-201 3002 300-070 74-678 c2010-657 70-462 642-999 2V0-620 1Y0-201 1Z0-144 , 70-347 300-135 100-101 70-410 , 640-911 300-070 , N10-006 1z0-434 SSCP 70-413 70-532 70-413 1Z0-144 350-050 , ITILFND 70-488 200-101 70-461 MB2-704 70-347 350-001 , 70-270 EX200 70-346 70-483 200-120 700-501 PR000041 70-480 000-105 100-105 , 70-532 70-487 LX0-104 PMP c2010-652 , JN0-360 PMP 2V0-621D 350-030 70-480 ITILFND 70-413
I'm with you on the Rainsong graphite guitar! I have owned the jumbo model for over 4 years and when I take it to recording
studios the engineers are very impressed with its' sound.! Play on brother