Webb Wilder

THE ECLECTIC WEBB WILDER

The Rockin’ Iconoclast Returns with a Brand-New Album and the Same Old Habits

BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH I started making records that wasn’t the thing they wanted F OR HIS ELEVENTH ALBUM, ROOTS ROCK stalwart Webb Wilder continues to examine rock and roll’s favorite subjects under a big ol’ magnifying glass. Night Without Love, released by Atlanta-based Landslide Records, is a sprawling soundscape of love, loss, longing and levity that finds the good-natured troubadour in fine form. The tracks are a mixture of co-writes with members of his own band (“Illusion Of You,” “Ache and Flake”), Muscle you to do anymore. That was the era where they wanted you to have one certain sound. There’s a lot to be said for being one of those artists that have an instantly identifiable sound or an indelible trademark. Johnny Cash always managed to sound like Johnny Cash. Same with ZZ Top or The Ramones - they could still do different things within their framework. I like to think I was that guy, too. I think I always sound like me. Shoals songwriting legend Dan Penn (“Sweetheart Deal”) and a choice selection of covers, including contributions from his old pal R.S. Field (“Night Without Love”) and an obscure nugget from British pub rockers The Inmates (“Tell Me What’s Wrong.”) For that same reason. You sound like you because you’re eclectic. I like to quote that Ian Hunter album title, You’re Never Alone with a Schizophrenic, you know? INsite recently spoke with Wilder by phone from his home in Nashville. As usual, you’re all over the map of styles and topics. The old rock’n’roll staple “HiHeel Sneakers” is a fun finale for a really enjoyable listening experience. You know, sequencing - they say in the modern world people don’t pay much attention to that kind of thing with Spotify and downloads and all that. They say radio programmers aren’t gonna finish the whole album anyway but people like you and me, we do! With albums like mine, it’s always kinda hard to get the sequencing right because it really is all over the place. ONCE YOU’VE DONE A SONG LIKE “HUMAN CANNONBALL,” THE QUESTION IS - WILL THEY LISTEN WHILE YOU TRY TO TURN IT AROUND AND CONTEMPLATE LIFE AND STUFF? I THINK IF YOU DO IT RIGHT, THEY WILL! For this album, the cover and some of the song titles suggest it’s a concept piece about love. Was that your original intent? A few years ago - was it five? When you get to my age, if you think it’s been one year, it’s been three. Whenever it was, after a show one night, me and a group of friends were just hanging around. We were talking about my old friend [and frequent collaborator] R.S. Field. I said, ‘I’ll tell ya one thing, he’s got this one song that I really feel like I’m gonna record for my next album.’ So I felt like I’d just made a promise to do it. That’s when the title track came in. We used to do it in an old band I was in called The Drapes. A good record should be an ‘album’ of different ideas and sounds. Well that’s what I’ve always thought. There was a band you may have heard of, called The Beatles. They did that. I’m a broken record about it because it means a lot to me. I was in the fourth grade when they took the world by storm and I was already a budding musical snob. Their records were eclectic. They’d do a Chuck Berry song, a showtune and then an original and somehow they’d manage to incorporate When did the comic book imagery come into play? To me, it kinda sounded like the title of one of those comic books that I never knew much about. When I was a kid and I’d buy comics, I used to see these romance-kinda comic books in the rack. I never paid much attention to them because I thought they were probably more geared for girls. But I thought with that title, to use imagery like that would be the perfect album cover. all these different kinds of influences. Flournoy Holmes did a great job on the art. So you took that Beatle mindset and started making your own records. Yeah, but I wasn’t anywhere near as adorable. By the time He’s a world-class artist. He did my Doo Dad album cover but he also did the Allman’s Eat A Peach and so many great ones. He’s an old friend of Michael Rothchild, the guy who owns the label. He got my concept and just ran with it. I’m knocked out by it - even all the little gag stuff and funny ads he put on the back.

Your Facebook CD release show proved that once again you’re using technology to your advantage. It’s out of necessity! It’s really been a learning curve - or a learning curveball. I still do a weekly radio show but back at the dawn of satellite radio, I was contacted about doing a show to anchor the Americana programming. Now this was before satellite radio was a thing so basically I got hired by XM before they ever went on the air. Time passed and WMOT was going to an all-Americana format, so radio called again. When this pandemic thing happened, I had to learn how to record it from home. So I just did the CD release show in the same spot, in my basement.

Releasing an album in the middle of a pandemic obviously presents a number of challenges. Is there ever a good time to release a record anymore? I mean, I think about my mother and father. They went through the depression and World War II. As time goes on, I think about how unbelievably heavy that was. They were denied a lot of culture and pretty much denied a childhood. Then we come along as these post-warprosperity baby-boomers. In my case, as an old child - a dreamer and spoiled brat. I never thought we’d see these Biblical, horrible things. But my mother used to say, ‘Hard times can come again.’ Now here we are. No matter what happens, there’ll be some ugly scars from it. I finally started growing up just a few years ago and now I’m growing old! But for this one, all these were written before the pandemic and they’ve been around a while. There’s a kind of a little backstory to every song on the record. I have one on there called “The Big Deal.” It’s about my inner things, but it was also a reaction to outer things. I’d been asked to sing at the funeral of a dear friend. I’ve sung at one wedding and one funeral and I forgot the words both times! But that particular song is a reaction to a highly charged period. My mother was wasting away in a bed in a nursing home and then I saw all these people from my past at the funeral home. When I came back to Nashville I was just overwhelmed. I thought, ‘Man, I don’t even know how to process all this information.’ Then I thought, ‘Well, I’m not supposed to understand it all. I’m just a human being.’ Because life is a big deal. Whoever told you they know the answer to life is definitely lyin.’

Life is certainly a big deal as we see more and more each day. At this point in your life, do you ever look back and wonder, ‘Should I’ve done things differently?’ Oh, I look back at my life and I always beat myself up. I’m reminded of that song “Coulda Shoulda Woulda.” But I’ve stumbled on one bit of relief for that bad habit: ‘Oh yeah, I coulda done a lot of things different, if I hadn’t been me in the first place.’ You know, you have your own childhood traumas and shortcomings and nobody’s perfect. Everybody has a different trajectory and everybody makes different decisions and mistakes. So it’s like, ‘Maybe it coulda been done better, but maybe not by me.’

Historically you’ve taken those self-effacing-type of mantras and used those powers for the greater good. People get it, they roll with it and it serves you well. Well, the trick is - getting back to the Beatles and wanting to do all this different kinda stuff - once you start people laughin,’ how do you make ‘em stop? It’s not easy, but if you can balance it all, it works. I think this album manages to pull it off. Once you’ve done a song like “Human Cannonball,” the question is - will they listen while you try to turn it around and contemplate life and stuff? I think if you do it right, they will!