David Wilcox (was audio only - added video through Spotify)

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

The folk singer and songwriter David Wilcox has been a quiet force for almost four decades. His music came to me, like most people, by word of mouth. His major label debut came in 1989 and included the song Eye of the Hurricane.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

The tank is full, the switch is on, night is warm, cops are gone, rocket bike is all her own. Let's call a hurricane. She told me once it's quite a ride. It's shaped, so there's this place inside where if you're moving, you can hide safe within the rain.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

She wants to run away. The New York Times called Wilcox's music a kind of open-hearted therapy. Rolling Stone hailed his soulful insight.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

She writes, I am a hurricane.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

More than 20 albums later, David Wilcox, now 68 years old, is back on the road for his latest album, The Way I Tell the Story. It's a challenging story. David's wife Nance died late last year of Parkinson's disease. And he talks and sings openly about his music, channeling his own resilience. Last weekend I met up with him at a tour stop outside Washington, D.C. David Wilcox. Appreciate you taking the time. Thank you much. This is fun. I appreciate reading in some of the literature with this new album. That you help and your songs help make the personal feel universal. Can you talk about the title track, the way I tell the story?

SPEAKER_01 1:40

Sure. I listen to a lot of singer-songwriters, and every once in a while, one of them will come out with a really great record, and I'll think to myself, man, they must have been through some crap. So as I was mixing this record, I realized, oh yeah, it's my turn. And you know, my wife Nan's passed. I'm very sorry. I am feeling a lot of stuff, and I'm very grateful that I have this music in my life because music can metabolize sorrow. And I mean turn it into something useful.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

And funny your lyrics, I mean they make me laugh. Can you play a little bit of it?

SPEAKER_01 2:26

Sure. I was the lone survivor when we landed in the field, the full disaster never was revealed. The hurt got covered over and never really healed. The scars are on the inside, the evidence was sealed. But the way I tell the story, I just brushed off the dirt. I landed in a haystack, barely tore my shirt. If I'm the only witness, well, I tell you what I'll do. I'll make a hero's journey of the stuff that I've been through. I saw the blaze turn around and ran before it blew. You can't say I crashed and burned, but I can say I flew.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

Ah, I can say I flew. That is, you can tell the story the way you want, but as you say, the scars are still on the inside. Yeah? I mean both are true. That's the point.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Yeah, I love it. Yeah. Um, I I have always felt this great gratitude about the way music came into my life. I think the reason why I can find some truth in the process of writing is just because it's such a time-lapse process. I can spend three days trying to find three minutes worth of speech. And uh when I sing it in that amount of time, it does seem wise, but just because of the aggregate of all the time spent, you know, and trying everything.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

There is one song I wanted to ask you about. It's it's not from this new album, but you've received a lot of accolades for We Make the Way by Walking. It's about leaving a place, knowing you can't go back, and as I was listening to that, it's interesting where music teaches you. It took me to my parents' childhood, they're born in China running for more. Is there a specific context for you for this song?

SPEAKER_01 5:01

The song for me started with just walking that pilgrimage in Spain, and that phrase is from that pilgrimage. We make the way by walking. But there's a lot of different angles that show up for me. Sometimes when I sing that song, it's about finding your way to who you want to be and how your life wants to ring true. And again, when I sing that song now, I'm thinking about Nance's death and how my life suddenly is very different. I I love how a song can come at me fresh. We make the way by walking. We make the way by walking. We left the well-worn circle, we left the city lights. Came up here where the air is clear and the stars are bright at night. Maybe there's a distant valley, maybe it's a ways away. We're all here on the new frontier. Cause we knew we could not stay. We knew we could not stay. By walking, I climbed a little bit higher. Some things you cannot unsee. I walked a little bit further, and the walking set me free. I made you laugh when I said our path might be a road someday. Might be a road someday. Whenever I sing that verse, I think to myself about the times that I have felt most alive, set a whole different precedent. And it's as if once my heart feels that good, then oh man, that sets a decision in front of me. Because then I have to spend the rest of my life either trying to forget that that's possible, or spend the rest of my life trying to remember that that's possible.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Oh, thank you. Just beautiful hearing you. Um you have a song in this new album. It's a song that sounds like it's a garage sale, and then it's the items that make up a life, that make up a partnership, that make up a relationship. Uh, the song is the next right thing. And I wonder if I can read a couple lines of lyrics and actually to take it from there. It's from the start. I found the box with your climbing gear. I feel the life that you left in here when your hand was on this rope, you led the climb. Can you talk about that?

SPEAKER_01 8:17

Nance was always an adventurer. And she had all this cool adventure gear. And when she could not use it, as her Parkinson's developed, the uh the necessity was to honor those memories and find good homes for all this stuff. And so it was a giveaway garage sale. It was like, are you gonna use it? Just take it. I found the box with your climbing gear. I feel the life that you left in here when your hand was on this rope, you led the climb. Now here's your fins and your snorkel mask. Your eyes are bright when you wore this last. But the morning that we dove was your last time. Back then your muscles were strong and lean. You showed no symptoms of anything. But we were working for time to play, so we've put away for another day. I feel anger with the fear. I don't know the next right thing. Each brain memory that's here fights with what the future brings. I don't know the next right thing. I don't know the next right thing.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

Well, thanks for joining me for a little bit on the road here in the DC area. David Wilcox, thank you once again. My pleasure, thank you much. Folk singer David Wilcox of Asheville, North Carolina. His latest album is The Way I Tell the Story. Oh, and this coda. More than three decades ago, the woman who would become my wife gave me a mixed tape. Ha! Cassette tape. And on it was the first David Wilcox song I ever heard, Rusty Old American Dream. And last weekend with me, he was nice enough to play that tune.

SPEAKER_01 10:35

Roar into life once again. I am the Telpin Road Locomotor. You can polish my chrome so clean. We can fly up into the sunset together. A rusty old American dream, still running, a rusty old American dream.