Artist description WHAT YOU WHISPERED DAVID WILCOX "I have a newfound love for simplicity. I've always loved working complex characters and accurate emotions into songs, but now as my writing has gotten better, I love refining that complexity into songs that are simple enough to grab you the first time you hear them."- David Wilcox June, 2000Soulful, poetic and engagingly philosophical, David Wilcox has repeatedly demonstrated a knack for sculpting timeless songs from the mundane clay of everyday life. As the New York Daily News recently observed, David can "turn a smart phrase and match it to a melody compelling enough to give sensitive singer-songwriters back their good name." In a similarly effusive feature, the Los Angeles Times praised David's "comforting, James Taylor-like voice" and songs that "probe scenarios with volatile emotion."So it comes as no surprise that David's new Vanguard Records album veritably pulsates with authentic emotionalism, keen insight and engaging musicianship. Featuring 12 original compositions, What You Whispered is a steady-rocking celebration of all the things that matter - from romance, marriage and dreams, to seldom examined delights like guitars and tattoos. Far removed from the cartoon-sensibilities of much contemporary pop, What You Whispered is a hickory-hued masterpiece rendered with confident, mature strokes.The result is an album that feels so present and intimate, listeners would swear it was recorded on David's front porch. As it stands, those listeners wouldn't be far from wrong - What You Whispered was created at David's Maryland home. Towards their goal of capturing the most honest performances possible, David and co-producer Jim Infantino combined their recording equipment and instrument collections, creating an impressive home studio.Within days, David's house was transformed into a serpentine tangle of guitar cords and microphone cables. The casual setting helped foster the creativity and spontaneity that makes What You Whispered such a pleasure. A tenor banjo that was sitting around the house made its way onto the album's second track, "This Tattoo." On the poignant "The Whisper of the Wheels," David placed a vocal mic inside an upright bass, creating a ghostly effect that underscores the song's mysterious lyric."Recording this record was a great experience," David says. "We had a lot of freedom, since the studio clock wasn't ticking dollars. Every time a song wasn't working, we'd try something else. After a while I became fearless, because no one was watching or second-guessing my moves."With room to move and time to play, What You Whispered morphed into a powerful recording. On the gorgeous "In The Broken Places," David sings of injuries both physical and emotional, in the process illustrating how our wounds and trials strengthen us. Blurring the distinctions between folk and funk, "Rule Number One" finds David offering good-humored advice on modern courtship. "This Tattoo" examines the benefits of indelible promises made when young.David's philosophical penchant takes a comic turn on the buoyant pop track, "Start With The Ending." Inspired by an Easter sermon, the song asserts that romance would be better experienced in reverse, with shattered expectations and forgiveness yielding to romance and youthful passion. "We fool ourselves because we want to avoid heartbreak, so just face the heartbreak first, and get it out of the way," David says with a laugh. "Forgiveness for not being perfect is a much better starting point than illusion. It's over, so now you can afford to be honest. That's a great place to begin."What You Whispered is the latest chapter in an illustrious recording career spanning nearly 15 years.

Music Style Folk/AAA

Artist History Born and raised near Cleveland, David refined his harp-like guitar sound while attending Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina. He made his recording debut in 1987 with the acclaimed disc, The Nightshift Watchman.That auspicious premiere was followed by a spate of well-received recordings. With its almost playful exuberance and experimentalism, What You Whispered is a brilliant addition to the David Wilcox catalog. It's the recording many disenfranchised music lovers have asked for - an album that celebrates pleasures big and small, and stirs long-dormant musical emotions. "I want to feel like I'm singing the soundtrack to your life," David says. "The world doesn't really need another song if it's just more notes in fashion. For me, music is a means to dare people to feel more alive. Music is a way to stir up emotion and wake up hearts. It's got to be true. Music is sacred ground for me."

Group Members David Wilcox ----- and sometimes some guest artists.

Instruments Mainly Voice and Guitar

Albums David's catalog includes three albums for A&M, How Did You Find Me Here (1989), Home Again (1991), and Big Horizon (1994). He also recorded two albums for the Fresh Baked/Koch Records label, including the live disc East Asheville Hardware (1996) and Turning Point (1997). In 1999, David made his Vanguard Records debut with the release of Underneath.

Press Reviews DAILY NEWS - Sunday, March 7, 1999 WILCOX GETS IN YOUR FACE Folkie's "Underneath" album tries to bring compassion into fashion Sensitive singer-songwriters went wildly out of fashion by the late '70s. After a seven-year boom - beginning with the popular peak of Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne and Carole King - the earnest, confessional song form become demonized for allegedly fouling the air with mewling melodies and self-involved lyrics. No wonder it gave way to far more raucous and ironic forms like punk, metal and New Wave.When acoustic singers made a comeback in the late '80s, they were celebrated less for their personal revelations than for their political sloganeering. The new folk stars made their names by climbing onto the soapbox to rant about child abuse (Suzanne Vega), illiteracy (10,000 Maniacs), homelessness (Tracy Chapman), abused immigrants (Indigo Girls) - everything but the individual beauty and torment of their own experience.Thankfully, there's now a swelling wave of singer-songwriters attuned tot he literacy, candor and wit of the best genre stars. Artists like Dar Williams, Lucy Kaplansky and David Wilcox can turn a smart phrase and match it to a melody compelling enough to give sensitive singer-songwriters back their good name. All this while remaining earnest to a fault.Wilcox long ago built a career on delivering precise lyrics with an unashamed sincerity. He's been recording albums for 10 years now, gaining the most recognition for a cover version of his song "My Old Addiction, " which made it onto k.d. lang's salute to cigarettes, "Drag." He cut his latest album for Vanguard, the label that started the whole folk revival of the late '50s and early 60s. No wonder he kicks it off with an acknowledgement of folk's current dilemma: "I know that compassion is all out of fashion/and anger is all the rage/grow up and give in to that cynical spin/that you see on every page."Wilcox sings these lines a cappella, giving them a kind of in-your-face clarity. It doesn't hurt that he owns a tone as pure as James Taylor's, or that his enunciations are as mournful as Jackson Browne's.Like both those singers, Wilcox could do with more humor. When he does try to integrate some, he turns self-serving, as in "Sex and Music," where he compares any pop career more successful than his to a cheap, one-night stand.Adopting that kind of superior perch often plagues the folk-inclined. But with Wilcox' command of language and purity of heart, at least his superiority has some basis in fact.

Location Asheville, NC - USA

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