David Wilcox isn’t just a singer-songwriter; he is a storyteller, and whether it’s over minimalist acoustic guitar or folk-inflected country, the narrative maintains the spotlight. Wilcox doesn’t just sing; he has an unmistakable smoothness that gives songwriters room to roam. At times, the guitar feels propulsive but not rushed, punctuated but not sharp, expansive but not over-the-top. He knows how to suss out the happy medium in every song choice without careening towards what’s generic. Even moves that feel like timeless singer-songwriter folk tricks sound bespoke, indicative of albums carefully balanced between poetic and familiarity.
“The Way I Tell the Story” (Freshly Baked Records, August 2025) is his latest album, and it is a masterclass in feeling things deeply, quietly devastating, filled with cleanly delivered lines that land exactly where you live. Wilcox lives in Asheville, North Carolina, but grew up in Mentor, Ohio. His first paying gig was in 1987, and by my count, has twenty-two albums under his belt.
In a New York Times article (1998), Wilcox espoused a musical philosophy: “Music is about all the different kinds of feelings we can have – we can be scared, we can be angry, we can be hopeful, we can be sad. We can be all these things and have company in it. Music is sacred ground, and it shouldn’t be reduced to that kind of simplified demographic target-marketing.”
In this exclusive AUK mini-gig, freshly baked at the Wilcox home, he offers three songs, including the title cut from the recent release, all performed with the warm, open plaintiveness that has characterised his music over four decades, recorded or live. For more from Wilcox, check out his website, Instagram and Facebook.
1- My Own Mind: Learning to turn off the anxiety as if it were some annoying car alarm.
2- The Way I Tell the Story: You can change the meaning of the events in your past.
3- I Made It Rain: Comparing the emotional alchemy of a songwriting to a rainmaker. This is a co-write with Adam Levy, who wrote the guitar part.
