I have always loved
David Wilcox - Its "Folk Music" I guess, if you feel you need to label it, but for me it was always simply Truthful and sometimes wise. His is an excellent musician, but his live performances are where he really shines, because he is a poet and storyteller as well. He will typically tell a little story about the song while he is tuning the guitar ( all of his songs are custom tunings and he re-tunes before each song..) and, at least when he was younger, you could just feel his joy of being on-stage and performing (Now he is older, I am older, and it felt a bit forced. Maybe not. Maybe I am just cynical.) The truthfulness of the songs pretty much comes from the fact that he writes them for him as a sort of therapy.
Last time I saw him (10 years ago?) , David was smart enough not to crap where he eats,but you got that sense he was a lefty ( and a Christian) from one song or another. But as the politics worsened, and the left became more unhinged during Bush II, more and more artists started to mouth off, so much so , I just stopped going to concerts. I didn't buy any Wilcox albums - because I wanted to keep liking him. Then MichelleO discovered that David Wilcox was in town and got me tickets for my Birthday. She was a bit disappointed by my reaction to the gift..thinking she had scored a home-run. I was excited, but I was also trepidatious. You see, I really Like David's stuff. I really like watching him perform. I was very afraid that he too would decide to use his bully pulpit to go off.
The first half of the show was excellent - everything that I had hoped for. In a couple of the new songs ( new to me anyway) David's expressed his worries for his son (and his son's generation) - even admitted that fighting each other over gasoline was a possibility. (David's gone prepper? Maybe. He is just alluding to it, but you know how it is, you ears perk up at talk of zombie hoards)
But during the second half there was a section where I began to worry he would go off the rails and its just not fun. You steel yourself for those next words, so you don't jump up and throw something at the stupid monkey on stage. He is starting his intro and talking about spending a weekend off-grid and looking at a PV system.. and You are thinking "Here it comes..." , and then the concern is Peak Oil. His is careful not to indicate if its his concern or the concern of his buddy with the off-grid homestead. The song is
Oil Talking to Ya" - and that is as close he came to going into a rant-- actually just singing the song. Over all its pretty benign, but the jitters it gave me made it hard to enjoy the second half of the show. The "Cracks of Grief" lyric I heard the first time as "Cracks of Greed" - Because that is what my brain expected. So no, thankfully David didn't cross the line. He sang about stuff that was important to him, which is WHY you go to see him really - because its honest and "truthsome" as Mal would say . So the song was out there and presented as a "think about it" moment and not the Holier than thou condemnation most liberals would throw on you. Really it was Dave's way of telling himself there are alternatives to the oil if it does "peak" - Dumb Song to sing in Northern Colorado however. I can throw stones from my house and hit 4 producing wells. But okay, I don't agree with everything he says. Didn't expect to.
So overall, it was a good experience, and any discomfort was brought on by my own fears and experiences at other concerts. Dave shut up and Sang.
Granted some of the songs from the past ten years I missed are of the "war is always bad, Gitmo is evil, dissent is patriotic, Christians want to impose theocracy " crap, so yeah, there were probably some shows I am glad I missed, but I wasn't there so I can't say. . David is pretty damn introspective ( its basically how he makes his living) and I suspect he has noticed the hypocrisy by now. Or maybe not, because lefties can do amazing hings with compartmentalization. . I don't mind him expressing his opinion, as long as he doesn't get arrogant and preachy and expect his audience to cheer him on. And really the songs where he does praise God and express his gratefulness are really good.
Its a mixed bag.
