David Wilcox

In 2019 he covered "Why We Build The Wall" from Hadestown.

He won top honors in the 23rd Annual USA Songwriting Competition (2018) with his song "We Make The Way By Walking". He also won First Prize in the Folk category in the competition.

He recently played a duet with James Landfair, a critically acclaimed folk musician based out of Little Rock, Arkansas, of Buddy Mondlock's song "The Kid." It was published on YouTube on February 21, 2013.

His music has been written as "deeply philosophical" and "insightful". One music critic wrote he was an "influential acoustic guitarist... the PBS darling of contemporary singer-songwriter folk." Another critic wrote that an "eager, unapologetic sincerity flows from the heart of David Wilcox's acoustic music," and elaborated that "Wilcox uses extended metaphors and beautifully detailed imagery in lyrics that are far more compassionate and philosophic than self-absorbed... Indeed, as steeped in romance as most popular music is, it rarely speaks directly to issues of loneliness, intimacy and commitment – let alone mortality and inner fortitude. Wilcox does this with sensitivity, analytic zeal and subtle emotional force."

He has received criticism and accusations of bigotry, racism and xenophobia from those who do not appreciate the intent of his 2010 song "We Call It Freedom" which is written ironically to appear to support torture of prisoners in the war on terrorism.

His Open Hand, produced by Seattle-based guitarist and producer Dan Phelps, was released in March 2009. Wilcox and Phelps were joined by longtime Tori Amos bassist Jon Evans and drummer James McAlister.

In 2008 Wilcox was honored with a silver award along with Bob Dylan, in Acoustic Guitar' s singer/songwriter category.

Wilcox performed a benefit concert in Westfield, New Jersey for Coffee With Conscience in late spring of 2008.

His 2005 album Out Beyond Ideas was a joint project with his wife Nance Pettit, described as a significant diversion from prior work, featuring sacred poetry set to music from different religious traditions, including Saint Francis of Assisi, Jalaludin Rumi, Shams-ud-din Muhammad Hafiz, Rabia al Basri, Yehuda HaLevi, Solomon Ibn Gabirol, Uvavnuk, and Kabir.

During 2005 Wilcox traveled the country with his wife and teen-aged son in an Airstream trailer attached to a bio-diesel truck. He named one of his albums Airstream. His album Vista was released in April 2006.

In the next decade, Wilcox continued to release albums, including Into the Mystery in 2003. He has been a guest artist at guitar workshops. His lyrics are sometimes of the "probing meaning-of-life" type, as well as "thought-provoking".

Many critics compare his style to James Taylor as well as Joni Mitchell and John Gorka. A Rolling Stone critic suggested Wilcox's best album was How Did You Find Me Here, which was released in 1989.

His debut album The Nightshift Watchman was released in 1987 on Jerry Read Smith's label, Song of the Woods, and was reissued in 1996. He began touring regularly. After performing at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, he signed with A&M Records in 1989. He made several albums with this label. His albums were described by one Rolling Stone critic as "unjustly neglected". After his contract with A&M expired in 1994, Wilcox continued to write songs, tour and release albums. In 1994, he performed at Carnegie Hall with thirty other singer-songwriters in a showcase event. Wilcox also appeared on the cover of Acoustic Guitar, which described him as James Taylor combined with the "husky breathiness more reminiscent of the late Nick Drake" and said he was the "best known of the brilliant crop of singer-songwriters to emerge in the late '80s." He was based in Asheville, North Carolina in the 1990s, in Washington, D.C. and Maryland in 1999–2000, and again in Asheville in 2009.

Wilcox was born in Mentor, Ohio, and attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio in 1976, where he began learning guitar. He later transferred to Warren Wilson College in North Carolina in 1981 and graduated in 1985. Wilcox appeared regularly at a Black Mountain, North Carolina nightclub called McDibbs.

David Patrick Wilcox (born March 9, 1958) is an American folk musician and singer-songwriter guitarist. He has been active in the music business since the late 1980s.