Description
How Did You Find Me Here is the sophomore album by the American singer, songwriter, and guitarist David Wilcox, released on A&M Records in 1989. The album was produced by Pat McCarthy. The album actually sold over 100,000 copies by word of mouth.
Wilcox’s debut album Nightshift Watchman was independently released two years earlier, and Wilcox went on to win the prestigious Kerrville Folk Festival New Folk award in 1988, and by 1989 he had signed with A&M Records. How Did You Find Me Here was his major-label debut and the first of four studio albums to be released on the A&M label.
After the disco movement and other calamities within the record biz threatened the careers of all but the most successful singer-songwriters in the early ’80s, the end of the decade saw a new wave of talent begin to crop up on the revitalized folk circuit. Tracy Chapman and Suzanne Vega scored Top Ten hits, and artists like Greg Brown, John Gorka, and Brooks Williams garnered critical raves. David Wilcox and Shawn Colvin, who both had been greatly influenced by James Taylor and Joni Mitchell, became standard bearers for this new generation. Wilcox’s major-label debut ‘How Did You Find Me Here’ caught everybody by surprise with its mix of humor, wit, and sensitivity. [Acoustic Guitar Magazine, September 1996 (The Essential CD Collection: 10 acoustic guitar recordings you’ve got to hear in the singer-songwriter genre)]
I like this record. From the opening guitar licks of «Eye of the Hurricane» to the soft finger-style guitar which closes «The Kid», I like this record. In an age where sampling and tracks overloaded with instrumentation are the norm, David Wilcox has created a record of rare value that features his voice and acoustic guitar as primary instruments. And it works. Electric guitar, bass and keys can be found on this record, but in a supporting rather than leading role. Wilcox’s extraordinary guitar skills and warm vocals are all that are necessary to carry us inside his perspective, expressed through songs that grow more meaningful with repeated listenings.
Songs of life and death, sorrow and joy, despair and hope, rejection and love, all those things that make life such a marvelous adventure – define David Wilcox’s work in ‘How Did You Find Me Here’. All from a poet’s perspective, told with a storyteller’s gift, set to music that alternately soothes, excites and leaves a hunger for more.
These songs sometimes defy easy explanations. «Leave It Like It Is» moves from the tale of a paint spill to a call for self-acceptance: “Most folks suffer in sorrow/ thinking they’re just no good/ They don’t match the magazine model/ as close as they think they should/ They live just like paint by numbers/ The teacher would be impressed/ A lifetime of follow the lines/ so it’s just like all of the rest / …leave it like it is, it’s fine.”
‘How Did You Find Me Here’ speaks of spiritual rescue. «Jamie’s Secret» conveys the hope of faith despite a friends death. «Rusty Old American Dream» comes from the point of view of a ’58 Oldsmobile. Perhaps Wicox says it best in the liner notes: “The songs are about life and death, and a hope that keeps coming back somehow.” Give a listen to David Wilcox and your heart will understand. [Michael P. Murphy, Harvest Rock Syndicate, Volume 5, Issue 3, 1990]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/how-did-you-find-me-here/1443404772)
LP tracklist:
Side One
A1. “Eye Of The Hurricane” – 3:35
A2. “Language Of The Heart” – 4:41
A3. “Rusty Old American Dream” – 2:35
A4. “How Did You Find Me Here” – 3:10
A5. “Leave It Like It Is” – 2:57
A6. “Saturday They’ll All Be Back Again” – 3:59
Side Two
B1. “Jamie’s Secret” – 5:09
B2. “It’s Almost Time” – 3:18
B3. “Just A Vehicle” – 3:59
B4. “Common As The Rain” – 3:00
B5. “The Kid” – 4:55
Note: Simultaneously released on cassette, 12-inch vinyl LP, and CD by A&M Records.
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