Some people call him a bad apple

Published in The Cottage Times, August 2008

Eavesdropping is where he gets his best material, he says. Where he hears people conversing about bearcats, rattlesnakin’ daddies and bad apples is anyone’s guess, but the singer who’s been plucking guitar strings since childhood compares himself to Shakespeare when explaining the inspiration behind his funky, hard-to-resist-singing-along-to songs.

“Eavesdropping is a great way to find material. I think Shakespeare probably did a lot of it,” says the artist. “If you think of those scenes with the Johns Falls Taverns scenes where he’s blathering on and drinking, it sounds like he’s heard it somewhere - a lot of those great things people say.”

A name that has become almost synonymous with the Kee to Bala is David Wilcox. Performing at the local venue since the beginning of his career, the audience has watched this Canadian rocker’s style evolve from the sex, drugs and rock’n’roll days of Layin’ Pipe, Hypnotizing Boogie and Riverboat Fantasy to his latest, more stylized CD release, Boy in the Boat.

This year he will be returning again on August 30 to wind up the audience with a mixture of his old and new material, performing in a show many concert-goers would not miss for the world.

“I’ve never had a bad gig there. Some I’ve enjoyed more than others, but I’ve just had a lot of happy memories, a lot of fun and a lot of feeling really inspired,” says Wilcox. “I used to come to Muskoka when I was about 13 or 14 years old and Louis Armstrong played there, and I remember people brought boats up and listened to the music outside. It’s very inspiring for me, as a musician, to play in that same atmosphere and that same venue.”

Performing in Muskoka since the 70s, Wilcox got his first big break at the age of 21 when he was asked to play with Ian and Sylvia on the nationally broadcasted Ian Tyson Show. There, he performed alongside greats such as Anne Murray, American country artists like Charlie Rich, Gerry Reed, Bobby Bear and Ray Price. Later, Wilcox went through a tumultuous period in his life, though still creating and performing, before arriving where he is today, though he credits his time on the show as being where he got his “real education.”

“I think everybody starts out copying. I believe no artist comes out of a vacuum, so I think my pieces have become more integrated,” says Wilcox. “It keeps getting deeper, and it keeps evolving all the time there’s always a new ingredient to try or some new way to play something.”

Over the years, Wilcox has built himself a wildly successful career. He’s released 12 discs, the latest released last October, won several awards, performed across the country and gathered a huge fan base. Throughout Muskoka, his songs are heard continuously on the radio, the lyrics ingrained in many memories of summers gone by.

“It makes me very grateful. I never have anticipated I’d have a career of this duration and to this degree of success,” he says. “I’m very grateful for that and it makes me very happy.”

True to himself, Wilcox doesn’t aspire to be like any other rocker. He prefers to blaze his own path and follow his own beat, though he admits to admiring the music of Sinead o’Connor, and finds himself listening to a fair amount of John Mayer records these days. Yet unlike many artists vying for top spot in the competitive music industry of today, Wilcox isn’t too worried.

“I try not to compete, which may sound strange,” he says. “I try to follow my own star, my own inspiration, and just keep learning all the time. I’ve played the guitar a long time, and I still feel like a baby on it. There’s always more to learn.”

He says to expect some surprises at his upcoming concert at the Kee, though he will be playing the usual favourites the audience waits al year to hear.

“We put out a CD last year called the Boy in the Boat, appropriate for the Kee, and so there will be some of the tunes from the new CD,” he says. “Just a mixture - and some new surprises to keep us on our toes.”