WEBB WILDER INTERVIEW

ROCK AND ROLES

Webb Wilder brings his inimitable persona and roots rocking Beatnecks to the Ellington

By: MATT ASHARE |
Published: August 03, 2012 http://www2.the-burg.com/entertainment/2012/aug/03/webb-wilder

AMERICANA ORIGINAL:: Wilder is a consummate cult artist.

While it would be a stretch to call Webb Wilder a true renaissance man — or much of a household name — the bespectacled, western-styled, roots 'n' schlock rocker has amassed quite an eclectic resume in his three-plus decade career. From starring in amusingly titled, independently produced b-movies ("Webb Wilder, Pvt. Eye: The Saucer's Reign" and "Horror Hayride" were two of his earliest acting forays) to serving as one of the first satellite radio DJs on XM, the self-appointed "Last of the Full Grown Men" has managed to keep his fans entertained on a number of fronts since he first hit the ground chugging on a mix of high-octane rockabilly, surf guitar riffery, and wry humor with his 1986's debut "It Came From Nashville." Indeed, Wilder, who headlines the Ellington this Saturday, might best be described as a consummate cult artist – a performer who's more than made up for his lack of mainstream commercial success by cultivating a committed fanbase of Webbaphiles large enough to support an annual Webb Fest every October in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

        A genuine Americana original, the super sardonic Wilder owes his super-sardonic stage persona in large part to the detective role he created for himself in "The Saucer's Reign," and his relative obscurity to the simple fact that, as a rock-loving dude in Nashville, he was never country enough to make it on Music Row. Like Steve Earle, whose "The Devil's Right Hand" he covered on that first album, along with tunes by Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, and Steve Forbert, he's just never quite fit the mass-market mold.

       Or, maybe he's just never been the right guy in the right place at the right time to fully break through. "You know," he says, with characteristic understatement, "I'm 58 years old and I think I'm slowly learning how this business works. I've always had a number of influences and I've addressed them in different ways. We probably had a pretty focused attack back in the day of having these quirky, rootsy films and quirky, rootsy music to go along with 'em. And then the band morphed into addressing the music we had grown up playing, which is more of a Stonesy, crunchy rock and roll. Along the way there have been ballads and blues and country songs. The problem is, people in the business wanted you to be one thing and do one thing. Yet all the records I grew up loving were very eclectic. On a Beatles album, you'd get something really rocking and loud followed by something soft and tender. And that influenced me more than anything. I just have a hard time making an album any other way. I'm sure that eclecticism has bitten me on the backside more than a few times."

       Wilder’s also got a penchant for performing novelty numbers, in very best sense of the term, the most well-known of which, the circus-themed "Human Cannonball," was actually the one and only single from the 1989 major-label album he recorded for Island, "Hybrid Vigor." And, along with mixing plenty of thoughtful covers into his live sets, he's more than a little partial to peppering his shows with seemingly stream-of-conscious pontifications, skewed words of wisdom, and comic catchphrases. The Webb Credo, as it's known to his fans, is quintessentially Wilderian: "Work hard, rock hard, sleep hard, grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."

       And therein lies a big part of Wilder’s ultimate appeal: he may take his music very seriously, but not at the expense of having a good laugh. “We love to confuse people, right down to the band name, the Beatnecks. It's really been a problem at times. I mean, I had a manager who used to say it wrong, so it must be problematic. Still, it’s a nice play on words if you get it.”

       But if you really want to distill the Wilder aesthetic down to one line that “gets it,” it would have to be his twist on the classic Blues Brothers riff about playing country and western. Or, as Webb likes to put it, "We play both kinds of music: rock and roll."

It’s a joke that he and the Beatnecks have taken to heart. “We really do distinguish between rock, and rock and roll. I suppose it may be a bit snobbish, because there is some good rock music. Like ‘I Can See For Miles’ by the Who, I love it, but it does not roll. It's rock. The Stones, on the other hand, are what I think we're like at our best, which is a roots band for rock fans and a rock band for roots fans, because their rock always has a roll. Even a band as heavy as AC/DC have it; it’s what I like to call ‘jackhammer swing.’ That swing is the one element that’s at the heart of all the music I love.”

     (Webb Wilder and the Beatnecks perform on Saturday, August 4, at 8:30 p.m.at the Ellington, 421 Rivermont Avenue, Lynchburg; tickets $20 in advance, $25 at the door)