Midland, Texas, September 1989 It was the kind of day when mother nature feels especially generous - it happens once or twice in a year. - I remember it was 73 degrees under a crystal clear sky and a cool, dry breeze evaporated the perspiration from under my baseball cap. I was grooming a flowerbed on one of the better corner lots in the affluent part of Midland, Texas. It was only 10:00am, but I was already sore, and playing hooky crossed my mind for about the 5th time that morning. I got up to stretch my legs and drain a cup of water from the big yellow cooler on the tailgate, wary of my boss and what he would think to see me running out of steam this early in the day. He startled me when he hopped out of the driver's side and sputtered, red-faced, having spilled water all over myself. He had a walkman in his hand and a huge smile on his face. "Listen to this," he said, "if you don't have an eargasm, I'll eat my hat". [Yes, you heard him right] The admonition was unnecessary, `cause I would have l stened anyway. If he was wrong, I would enjoy watching him gnaw on his Panama Jack and besides, I was in no hurry to prune the pyrocanthas. Knowing him, I thought it might be James Taylor's new release, so I put on the headphones, and punched PLAY.

The song started with a fast, bluesy alternating bass line. As it progressed, he watched my face for a reaction, fairly busting at the seams with laughter, and the words hadn't even started yet! He just grinned at me, "Wait'll he starts singing.." I was really enjoying the intro - it was a perfect blues groove, but that was before I HEARD THIS VOICE:

...There were still three more days till payday, but I wrote a hot check for the album.

David Wilcox is a singer/songwriter and transplanted buckeye residing in Asheville, North Carolina, and to his chagrin, is most often compared with the likes of James Taylor. Possessed of a vocal texture like `soft warm flannel', his recorded works of the last ten years have been promoted almost entirely by word of mouth from his fiercely loyal fan base. For some unfathomable reason, his works are not yet famous, so to list them here would carry little meaning. Suffice it to say that of the six albums released to date, I can't name three cuts within that I don't like. In a world where albums can be purchased on the merits of a single cut, this is a rare thing, indeed!

As a longtime fan of Mr. Wilcox's, I was nearly manic at the prospect of interviewing him for Empire:ZINE. Of course his manager, Tom Simonson, assured me all would go well.

You never seem to miss an opportunity to share credit with various guitar manufacturers. I'm pretty sure you didn't start out with an Olson, so what was your first guitar?

Wilcox: You're right - My first guitar was a Guild, but actually, I was borrowing guitars. When I first started to play, I was in college, so I would comb the dorms for guitars. For the first year, I just borrowed, and that's how I developed a more refined taste for good guitars.

Where is your first guitar?

Wilcox: It's hanging up in the cabin.

I spotted a site that your manager put up about a guitar that had been stolen from you, also in "the Farthest Shore" you mention another guitar that had burned up in a fire - so that's two guitars that are gone - when you lose such a personal item, how does that affect your songwriting?

Wilcox: I have come to a kind of a peace with the fact that each guitar has a particular voice -a particular kind of inspiration. There are some riffs and some musical voicings that sound really great on one guitar, but another guitar won't bring out the magic. So I've learned to become less attached.

How do you think guitar thieves should be punished?

Wilcox: (laughs real hard) I think that the Karma aspect of music is so real. Whatever you're sending out in your music is going to attract that kind of persona and surround your life with that kind of energy. You've got to be careful about what kind of energy you send out in your music.

There's a huge resurgence in the number and quality of fingerstyle folk guitar players. I think you're among the oldest of the new generation. How much do you think you've influenced that trend as it has come around?

Wilcox: You know, its interesting but that kind of question is just not my business...

You don't hear yourself in other new guitar players?

Wilcox: I don't think about it. The interesting thing about me and trends is that its not my language - I just don't hear it. Music is more important than a trend. The people who market music market it the same way they market soda pop. And a soft drink isn't going to change your life but music can. For them, it's all about a certain demographic.

A reader asks for whom did you write "Frozen in the Snow?"

Wilcox: It's printed somewhere on the album sleeve, but It's about my cousin - the story is about an ideology on very fragile ground. What's powerful about that song, is the verse that doesn't appear on the record. I heard Peter Paul and Mary sing that song and they said "that song needs another verse" and I asked "why" and they said "Well, you talk about in that song how sad it is that these flowers come up in the spring and what happens then when their innocence and enthusiasm is not guided by caution and experience. The winter storm comes and kills them." and I said "What's missing?" and she said. "The flowers that come up first are perennials." I was looking at how sad is to have your faith in something so tenuous and she meant that it's about a bigger cycle, not just the one generation.

When the concept of a song presents itself, does it flow out naturally, or do you go through extensive re-writes?

Wilcox: When a song does appear as a concept, it takes longer to write and they're harder to write and they're not as good, but if it comes out as an emotion, it comes out 90 percent the first day. I think songs carry emotion better than they carry ideas. Cleverness is a really good tool to use so that the listener has confidence in you, but it can also wag the dog.

Your work involves a mix of road and studio settings. Which do you prefer? Do you have a favorite live venue that you never turn down?

Wilcox: There are lots of different favorites for different reasons: there are rock 'n' roll clubs that have great energy and there are concert halls where the sound is so good, and there are places where there is really an emotional focus with the audience, and there are some that are big and glorious; so for different reasons there are different ones, and you have to bone up on your Stanislavsky to play them all.

If you keeled over on stage and suddenly died, where would you want people to send their memorial contributions? Do you support a specific cause/charity?

Wilcox: Probably my family.

What percentage of what you write ends up on stage and how much do you keep for yourself and your family?

Wilcox: It's about 1/2 and 1/2. Forty percent winds up on a record, though.

Do you finish every song you start?

Wilcox: If a song gets "over the top", where it can delivers emotion from reading it off the page ,it will usually get finished. There are a lot of songs that don't make it over the top. Even if it doesn't get finished, it gets recycled. A bridge, or a lyric from a song I abandoned 5 years ago can suddenly become useful as a bridge for another song.

Do you keep those in a "hook book"?

Wilcox: No they're just in my head. I have to trust that they'll come around when I need them.

Are you aware of the other David Wilcox?

Wilcox: Actually, there are two more...

How do you reconcile the identity conflict? Do people come to your shows and expect to see somebody else and vice versa?

Wilcox: It happens about once every two years. Usually, they'll say, "Gee, you're a lot younger than I thought you'd be. How come you didn't play (some song I've never heard of )?".

A reader from Painesville, Ohio asks "If you had your pick of artists, whom would you want to tour with?"

Wilcox: That's close to where I grew up! I really love the tour I've done with Richard Thompson.

At some of your shows, I read about bubble blowing and wild dancing - do these antics annoy you, or not?

Wilcox: The more the better!

There are many comparisons between you and James Taylor. Does it ever become a pain in the ass?

Wilcox: Well, its a great place to start - especially with people who are new to this kind of music, or only know a few guitar players.

What was the first song you ever wrote and do you still play it?

Wilcox: Let's see [long pause] Common As The Rain.

That was your first?!?!?! I love that song!

Wilcox: I never planned to do this as a career, the only thing that got me into it was that it felt right in my heart.

Is that why you like to teach workshops?

Wilcox: No, but I like it because in a workshop it reminds me of what I'm striving for. It kicks my butt to practice what I preach.

One author wrote that your voice has the quality of "soft warm flannel". Have you ever been tempted to write a song of that title?

Wilcox: No, but for that title, I would concentrate on scrumptious bed experiences.

I would like to thank you again for being kind enough to make time to talk to the readers of Empire:ZINE.

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