Tag: Webb Wilder

LISTEN: Webb Wilder, “Night Without Love”

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Artist: Webb Wilder
Hometown: Born and raised in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, based in Nashville since 1982
Song: “Night Without Love”
Album: Night Without Love
Release Date: April 10, 2020
Label: Landslide Records

From the Artist: “‘Night Without Love’ is an old song by RS Field whom I have known for about 50 years! The song itself is easily 40 years old, although it has never been recorded and released until now. I’ve always known about it and I’ve always liked it. I guess I’m just a sucker for a good line and ‘face like an Idol from the Yucatán’ pretty much cinched it for me when I first heard it all those years ago. I used to be in a band called the Drapes. We played this song live, although Bruce Tinnin sang it instead of me.” — Webb Wilder

Photo credit: David McClister

‘Mississippi Moderne’

Posted on by Editor

If you like a snappy turn of a phrase, a slightly snarky point of view, and a good old-fashioned American rock 'n' roll groove, chances are you already have some Webb Wilder in your musical arsenal. If not, this record is a good one to get you started.

Skip the faux field holler of “Stones in My Pathway” (‘cuz Robert Johnson did it better) and go straight for the rock 'n' roll. “Been to Hell and back again, brought back some barbeque for all my friends,” Wilder sings on the three-chord rocker “Rough and Tumble Guy,” a tune that rallies the rockabilly of Robert Gordon, circa ‘77. “I Gotta Move” is a good one, too, a measure of Mitch Ryder Michigan garage rock delivered with a Texas twang. Wilder gets his Elvis on with the doo-wop meets Doc Pomus stomp of “Lonely Blue Boy,” while true Texas blues is at the heart of “It Takes Three Times.” The slower cuts get a little prosaic in their poetry, but Wilder adds some interesting touches to tunes like “Only a Fool” — is that a sitar? — and “Yard Dog,” wherein he blends scratchy blues vocals with Del Shannon-era keyboards. “Who Will the Next Fool Be?” is a snazzy, jazzy change of pace akin to the Texas swing for which Lyle Lovett is most famous.

Typically twangy and decidedly offbeat, this record is Webb Wilder through and through. Fans will dig it and newbies will enjoy it as an introduction to a guy who’s always interesting to hear.