I. David Wilcox i… Read Full Bio ↴There are at least two artists named David Wilcox.
I. David Wilcox is a Canadian rock and blues musician.
II. David Wilcox is an American folk musician and singer-songwriter guitarist.
I. More than three decades into his career, singer/songwriter David Wilcox continues to push himself, just as he always has. Wilcox, by so many measures, is a quintessential folk singer, telling stories full of heart, humor, and hope, substance, searching, and style. His innate sense of adventure and authenticity is why critics and colleagues, alike, have always praised not just his artistry, but his humanity, as well.
That's not by accident; it's very much by design. It's the result of a man giving himself over in gratitude and service to something bigger than himself. “I'm grateful to music,” he says. “I have a life that feels deeply good, but when I started playing music, nothing in my life felt that good. I started to write songs because I wanted to find a way to make my life feel as good as I felt when I heard a great song. I don't think I'd be alive now if it had not been for music.”
An early '80s move to Warren Wilson College in North Carolina set his wheels in motion, as he started playing guitar and writing songs, processing his own inner workings and accessing his own inner wisdom. In 1987, within a couple of years of graduating, Wilcox had released his first independent album, The Nightshift Watchman. A year later, he won the prestigious Kerrville Folk Festival New Folk Award and, in 1989, he signed with A&M Records, selling more than 100,000 copies of his A&M debut, How Did You Find Me Here.
In the 30 years and more than 20 records since — whether with a major label, an indie company, or his own imprint — Wilcox has continued to hone his craft, pairing thoughtful insights with his warm baritone, open tunings, and deft technique. He's also kept up a brisk and thorough tour itinerary, performing 80 to 100 shows a year throughout the U.S., and regularly deploying his talents by improvising a “Musical Medicine” song for an audience member in need. In recent years he’s taken that process a step further, carefully writing and recording dozens of his “Custom Songs” for long-time fans who seek his help in commemorating and explaining the key milestones in their lives.
Lest anyone think that he's lost his touch, Wilcox pulled no punches on his most recent release, 2018's The View From the Edge. Not only does the song cycle find him delving into mental health, family legacies, spiritual contemplations, and topical concerns, the song “We Make the Way By Walking" also won him the Grand Prize in the 2018 USA Songwriting Contest.
"I think the coolest thing about this kind of music is that, if you listen to a night's worth of music, you should know that person,” he explains. “If you're hearing a performer sing all these songs, you should know not only where he gets his joy and what he loves, but you should know what pisses him off and what frightens him and what runs him off the rails, what takes him apart and what puts him back together.”
To attain that level of revelatory honesty, Wilcox follows a song to its deepest truth, even when it haunts him, a practice which demands the strength of vulnerability that he has sought since his teen years. That honesty is why Rolling Stone has written that his “ongoing musical journey is compelling and richly deserving of a listen.” It's also why Blue Ridge Public Radio has noted that, “The connection people feel with David’s music is also the connection they feel with each other.”
But Wilcox's unique brand of storytelling doesn't come easily. And it doesn't come quickly. “I could always think of a lot of possible ways the song could go, but the trick was recognizing truth amidst all the cleverness,” he confesses. “The more time I took, the more my deep heart could speak to me through the process of songwriting. I could gradually craft a song that felt like it was coming from the place I was going. If you decide to trust heart over cleverness, you not only get a song that moves you, you get a song that moves you toward being who you want to be. The time you spend immersed in the emotion of a song changes you. The song shows you the world through a particular point of view. Once you have seen the world that way, you can't un-see it.”
Website: David Wilcox
II. The American David Wilcox was born in Cleveland, Ohio. His work features lyrical insight, asmooth baritone voice, virtuosic guitar chops, and creative open tunings. He released an independent album in 1987, won the Kerrville Folk Festival New Folk award in 1988, and by 1989 he had signed with A&M Records. His first release on the label, ‘How Did You Find Me Here’, sold over 100,000 copies its first year. 17 albums later his songs have been covered by artists such as k.d. lang and many others.
All my life
David Wilcox Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Leading you home again to someplace you've never been? Well I feel that way for you.
For how can it be true, the first time I see you,
I look into your eyes,
And suddenly I knew you all my life.
Don't we have all that time: treasure that's yours and mine, and a place that we call home
Don't we have photographs taken a long time back
I know it's strange to say, when we just met this way, but I look into your eyes,
And suddenly I knew you all my life.
So I'll take the chance and tell you,
Before the chance is gone,
So at least I won't be wondering
The rest of my life long.
The lyrics of David Wilcox's "All My Life" express a belief in fate and in finding the missing pieces that fill the void in one's life. The first verse describes the feeling of having a sign lead you to a place you never knew you belonged. Wilcox sings about how he feels like he's known the person he's singing to all his life, even though he has just met them. It's a feeling that is so strong and certain, that it feels as though the universe had a plan for the two to meet.
The second verse speaks of the memories that they will create together. Wilcox talks about the time they will share, and the memories they will both live to cherish. Their time together may be brief or long, but it is meant to be cherished nonetheless. The song speaks to the idea of the universe uniting people, even if it seems uncertain, and that it is important to take the chance and tell someone how you feel before it's too late.
Overall, the song describes a deep connection with someone that is felt instantly. The lyrics suggest that it's not always about how long you know someone but rather how well you are suited to be with them. It speaks to the idea of being united in the cosmic fate that awaits you with someone else.
Line by Line Meaning
Do you believe in signs that whisper inside your mind 'till you have to follow through,
Do you trust your intuition when it speaks to you softly, urging you to take action?
Leading you home again to someplace you've never been? Well I feel that way for you.
Can intuition guide you to a place that feels like home, even if you've never been there before? Well, that's how I feel when I'm with you.
For how can it be true, the first time I see you, I look into your eyes, And suddenly I knew you all my life.
How can it be that, upon our first meeting, I feel like I have known you forever? That's the power of the connection I feel when I look into your eyes.
Don't we have all that time: treasure that's yours and mine, and a place that we call home
Don't we have the luxury of time to share with each other, along with a sense of belonging to a place that feels like home?
Don't we have photographs taken a long time back Of the seasons we have known?
Don't we have memories of the seasons of our lives, captured in photographs from the past?
I know it's strange to say, when we just met this way, but I look into your eyes, And suddenly I knew you all my life.
I know it's unusual to feel this way after only just meeting you, but when I gaze into your eyes, I feel like I've always known you.
So I'll take the chance and tell you, Before the chance is gone, So at least I won't be wondering The rest of my life long.
I'm going to take a chance and tell you how I feel because I don't want to spend the rest of my life wondering what could have been.
Lyrics © SOROKA MUSIC LTD., Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: DAVID PATRICK WILCOX, JEFFREY E. PENNIG, WILLIAM CRAIG BICKHARDT
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind