In a time of economic uncertainty, you’d think music would be superfluous. But for songwriter David Wilcox, music has been a lifesaver.
“Music’s not just entertainment,” he says, “people expect it to wake up places in their hearts.”
Wilcox doesn’t say that lightly. He’s been turning out his own brand of thoughtful acoustic music since the mid 1980’s, and has heard thousands of stories backing up his claim.
“Nance and I were out for a walk one day when a man came up to us and shared how my music had literally saved his life. He was in a pretty desperate place, sitting there in his truck with his gun, ready to off himself when “How Did You Find Me Here” came on the radio.” That song is the title track of Wilcox’s 1989 A&M Records release, which launched his career and marked his gently spiritual message as different from the pop music of the day. That trend has continued.
The songwriter’s fifteenth release, “Open Hand” comes out on Colorado-based label What Are Records? April 7th. The album was recorded live on two-inch sixteen-track analog tape at Ferndale California’s Sonic Temple in just seven days. “The whole building is an instrument that makes music,” David said.
The twelve tracks are classic Wilcox – smooth and easy on the ears, but full of the stuff he affectionately calls “cardio-spelunking.”
The title cut was written specifically for the album, something Wilcox had done only once before, with “How Did You Find Me Here.” “The song ‘Open Hand,’” he said, “was written about a deathly ill friend of mine. He said he’d never felt so alive, said that now he was holding on to life with an open hand.”
“The best joy that we can feel is not the joy we can buy or wrestle to the ground,” said the songwriter. “It’s the joy that perches when we are still and open enough to not frighten it off.”
The album’s first track is the timely “We Have a Dream Again.” In an age of global uncertainty, David Wilcox brings joy and hope back to the table.
