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Singer/songwriter David Wilcox has been described as a poet, storyteller, guitar virtuoso, healer, shaman, prophet. For more than 20 years, he's carved a mostly indie career out of pulling back the veil on ordinary life to reveal humor, inspiration, and an extended hand for listeners to join him in wrestling with the tensions of uniting the spiritual and the human. Wilcox has always remained outside the boundaries of the Christian music industry, but his is music of the soul. We spoke with him about his latest release, Open Hand, the church and spirituality, and following Jesus into new peacemaking territory.

You've said people expect music to wake up places in their hearts. What places have your news songs awakened in your heart?

David Wilcox

David Wilcox: I love that I never even know what a CD is really about until it's done. Open Hand really came from a conversation with a friend. I was asking him how he was keeping his confidence after he had looked death in the eye. I asked, "Do you feel shaken by it? Do you feel tentative now?" And he said, "No, I feel more alive than ever. I'm just holding my life with an open hand." It reminded me of those times when life gets big and deep and full and exciting. Those are the times when I'm not in the middle of trying to control everything with my clever plans but just feel like I'm swept up in a bigger current. So I love how this record is another series of songs that are showing me sort of what's next for my heart.

Your liner notes say these songs are saying, "Don't get suckered into the lulling comfort of lifeless institutional religion." You're referencing the song "Beyond Belief"?

Wilcox: That song was a humbling wake-up. It definitely was showing me that if I'm choosing safety and the comforts of my little community where I'm understood, it's sort of like a theological gated community. The problem is that the Outrageous Carpenter is always outside that gate saying, "Wait a minute. You know, he's your neighbor, too." We're trying to say, "Hey, man, get back in here. It's all about you." He's always daring us to follow beyond our comfort zone.

"Beyond Belief" uses an intimate first person voice, and each verse begins "Jesus called me a hypocrite." Are you exhorting the church or calling more to individuals to follow beyond the walls?

Wilcox: The obvious rule is that if there's something that really bugs you, it's probably annoyingly close to reminding you of exactly how you are yourself. I love the process in writing where I'll be on some second person rant and suddenly think, Oh no, if I were to sing this first person, it would be so much more true. I don't want to rant about what other people should do. That's not been my goal as a musician. What I want is to make a little musical chapel, a meeting place.

There are references to the church throughout your body of work. How do you see your relationship to the corporate church?

Wilcox: I have a lot of gratitude and compassion. It's like when musicians talk about the music business as some big, evil thing. It's not an evil thing; it's just people who are scared of losing their jobs. When you get individuals who are scared of losing their jobs running an institution, pretty soon the institution starts thinking about saving its skin. And if the institution were to behave like Jesus, it would have to value the truth more than its own life. That's a hard thing for an institution to do. Board meetings don't say, "How can we die gloriously?" Their death is not in their business plan. For Jesus it was. So I think it's beautifully contradictory.

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