Wilcox was born in
Mentor, Ohio, and attended
Antioch College in
Yellow Springs, Ohio, in 1976, where he began learning guitar. He later transferred to
Warren Wilson College in North Carolina in 1981 and graduated in 1985. Wilcox appeared regularly at a
Black Mountain, North Carolina, nightclub called
McDibbs. He has been a guest artist at guitar workshops. His lyrics are sometimes of the "probing meaning-of-life" type, Wilcox plays
acoustic guitars made by Olson Guitars. His
fingerstyle playing, which is similar to
Nick Drake and
Joni Mitchell, extensively uses
open tuning, often in combination with customized
capos with notches cut out to allow lower strings to ring open. He has been featured in
Performing Songwriter magazine on five occasions. About his approach to music: His 2005 album
Out Beyond Ideas was a joint project with his wife Nance Pettit, including
Saint Francis of Assisi,
Jalaludin Rumi,
Shams-ud-din Muhammad Hafiz, Rabia al Basri,
Yehuda Halevi,
Solomon Ibn Gabirol,
Uvavnuk, and
Kabir. During 2005 Wilcox traveled the country with his wife and teen-aged son in an Airstream trailer attached to a bio-diesel truck. His
Open Hand, produced by Seattle-based guitarist and producer Dan Phelps, was released in March 2009. Wilcox and Phelps were joined by longtime Tori Amos bassist Jon Evans and drummer James McAlister. Wilcox is sometimes confused with Canadian rock and blues guitarist
David Wilcox. Although his albums have had diverse arrangements, Wilcox generally performs as a soloist. Wilcox performed a benefit concert in
Westfield, New Jersey for
Coffee With Conscience in late spring of 2008. He recently played a duet with James Landfair, a critically acclaimed folk musician based out of Little Rock, Arkansas, of Buddy Mondlock's song "The Kid." It was published on YouTube on February 21, 2013.{{cite web He won top honors in the 23rd Annual USA Songwriting Competition (2018) with his song "We Make The Way By Walking". He also won First Prize in the Folk category in the competition. He has received criticism and accusations of bigotry, racism and xenophobia from those who do not appreciate the intent of his 2010 song "We Call It Freedom" which is written ironically to appear to support torture of prisoners in the war on terrorism. In 2019 he covered "Why We Build The Wall" from
Hadestown. == Critical reception ==