Darby Wilcox , Chris Compton, and El Jay Errante Woodshed Live [dwilcox2015-09-15]

About The Session

Darby Wilcox the indi-folk rock, soul Whiskey-slingin’ siren from Greenville, SC will be live from the woodshed Saturday 09/15/2015 starting at 6:00 and will be followed by Columbia’s own Chris Compton Solo.

My artist in residence project this year has been to record some of my favorite singer song writers that normally play in bands either solo or at least striped down to one or two other artists. This will be a great day with the contribution of these great artists… patrick

Darby Wilcox Artist Info

The legend of Darby Wilcox begins many years ago deep in the darkest corners of the wilderness. We know very little about Darby’s true origins as she was raised by a pack of wolves until the age of seven. Wolves are notoriously poor record keepers so details about her age or how she came to join a wolf pack as an infant are a mystery to us all. We can theorize, however, that long nights spent howling at the moon might have been key in the development of one of the most soulful voices in the music industry today.

When she was discovered by hunters and returned to her family Darby coupled her voice with a passion for musical instruments. Over the years Darby has taught herself how to play the guitar, ukulele, harmonica and even the kazoo. She actually picked up the guitar at the age of 12 when a dislocated finger prevented her from attending the flute lessons her human family had forced upon her. One suspects from her fine tuned wolf instincts that the injury was self-imposed in order to pursue more a desirable instrument but after all these years Darby remains mum on that subject.

As Darby continued to develop her talent for music, she also found herself living life to the fullest. Just last year she rode her bicycle across South Carolina from the Upstate to Charleston. When asked why one would pursue such a strenuous undertaking over a mere three days, Darby admits that she “wanted to take on a challenge that would raise money for charity and really punish my crotch. Plus, I wanted to trade that thing in for a younger model anyway.” Crotch punishment aside, Darby has also been shot multiple times in a drug deal gone awry, saved a family from a meth lab explosion and played Sandra Bullock’s stunt double in the movie Speed.

Through all of this excitement, Darby’s focus has never strayed from music. Citing Cat Power, Radiohead, Elliot Smith, The Beatles, Counting Crows, Bjork, Velvet Underground (R.I.P. Lou), Badly Drawn Boy, Wilco, Neko and Beck as her influences, Darby has always expressed herself through her music. From the first song she recorded for an elderly boyfriend when she was 15 to songs about more emotionally mature moments like motherhood, Darby’s real story has always been told through song.

After five years as a member of O Melo Cello Tree and a year with Adele Cotton, Darby has struck out on her own as a strikingly impressive solo artist as well as a band leader. Darby’s solo performances and recordings offer a unique window into the soul of this artist but things get a little more rambunctious when she is accompanied by her band of misfits she lovingly refers to as “The Peep Show”. In either incarnation, Darby Wilcox is an outstanding performer with one hell of a story to tell…

Darby’s first solo EP She Took to the Sea is the first chronicle of the tales of a young musician that has a lifetime of stories to share. It is inspired by her travels, her raw emotions and an innocence that prevails despite her aged soul. Ongoing DNA testing may yet prove that despite her comfort with the wolf pack, her true roots could actually have more ties to the fabled sirens of the sea as we suspect she might be a mermaid. At any rate, the combination of genetics, personal history, and undeniable talent make She Took to the Sea a true five-song masterpiece.

Chris Compton Artist Info

Chris Compton is a songwriter because there are more people drinking at cafés and bars than there are those reading books of poetry in the library. He tried to be a poet when he was younger: private tutoring with college grad students and visits with James Dickey to his house and classroom- and Chris was only thirteen at the time. But after many years of verses and only a few publications and a scholarship to show for it all, he picked up the guitar his father taught him on and began giving a voice to those images he laid on paper. By the time he was in college he had developed a hunger for collecting uncommon forms of music: scratched records of field recordings from the damp library basement, avante guarde horn players he discovered only through books and the occasional clerk behind the counter at the music store, Indonesian folk, schoolgirl hand-clapping songs. Metal pipe, garden hoses, baby toys and other found objects became instruments to color the bass, drum and guitar music he was writing at the time.

Playing all instruments himself (including flute, saxophone, banjo, mandolin, keyboard and drum programming) he recorded at home and released albums in 2009 (Field Tech) and 2010 (Perfect World) while singing in a couple of musicals and performing at festivals across the state of South Carolina.

There are some voices that are so distinct you could pick them out of a chorus of singers and Chris has one of those voices. The delivery suggests something a bit like the crooner from the 40’s but still belies his undeniable blues influences rooted in the likes of Son House and Howlin’ Wolf. The Deep South, with its few bastions of undeveloped land, its abandoned towns and buildings and black magic stirring just under the surface. This is where he was born and lives and as much as he longs to escape from it all, it is the driving force in the stories he sings.

http://www.chriscomptonsongs.com/