David Wilcox at Club Cafe

Rarely do you get to experience a concert from on stage, looking out at the audience. Apparently, arriving late can have its advantages. The last available place to sit in Club Café, a small lounge/bar in Pittsburgh’s Southside, was a speaker just off of stage left. It made for an awkward crick in the neck for the two hours of stories and songs with David Wilcox…but oh, it was so worth it.

Wilcox is not only a great musician, making his acoustic guitar keep the rhythm while sustaining intricate picking, but his ability to tell stories makes him unique. In fact, most of the audience was there because they knew Wilcox’s work (another advantage of seeing the crowd sing along to some of his more famous songs). Wilcox’s songs focus on human relationships, mostly the intensity of love, the pain of heartache, and the comedy of human mortality. Wilcox moved seamlessly from the laugh inducing “Reaper Sweepstakes” to the tearful “Deeper Still” (”In this life, the love you give becomes the only lasting treasure/And what you lose will be what you win/A well that echoes down too deep to measure”) to narrating the philosophical in “Inside of My Head” (”I’ve got to empty out the inside of my head/This could be a room with such a view,/but its covered up with junk/Blocking off the place the light gets through”). Wilcox claims his best song is “Three Brothers” from his latest album, which explores the religious conflict in the Middle East in a subtle and beautiful way.

The well-told stories interspersed throughout the set helped explain the inspirations to the songs, making the music take on heighten meaning. Wilcox is pretty honest about his faith and how it helps him see both the funny and serious sides of life, brokenness and spirituality; pointing out that our love for one another is a mired and grace-filled reflection of God’s love for us.

His latest album is called Vista. Wilcox was quick to point out came out before the latest version of Windows.

–gpv