By james art We first saw Stephen Wilson Jr supporting Brothers Osborne on their UK tour in 2022. (Read our review of that show here) The thought, power and intelligence behind his music made quite an impression. We’ve described his music as sitting at the crossroads where Nirvana meets Johnny Cash and The Cadillac 3. Our first interview with him (here) took us deep into his history as a child boxing champion and guitarist for indie rockers AutoVaughn. We also talked about his marriage to Lee Nash, lead singer of Sixpence None the Richer.
Our second interview last year focused on his bon aqua EP and his return to the UK to play The Highways festival (here), but even since then his star has risen seriously steeply with the release of his debut album, ‘søn of dad,” an album that ended up on “Best of 2023′” lists on nearly every platform. It was such a thrill to see him on his first headlining tour roll into the heart of England in Birmingham with his unique brand of grunge mountain music.
Taking to the stage in Birmingham for a sold-out show on your first headline tour must have given Steven Wilson Jr a huge thrill and it was clear from the start that he intended to take this crowd from the ‘heart of England’ to the mountains and the shouts of Kentucky. “Calico Creek” is the perfect opening, giving the tight trio a chance to blow some cobwebs and loosen up some much needed muscle. It became a thunderous drum explosion over a bed of guitars and pedal steel as Wilson paced the stage, left to right and back again, lifting it up as the song demanded. Likewise, “Billy” kept the mood and mood going and even culminated in a furious extended jam session that saw Wilson cranking up a frenzy like a man possessed. “I’ve eaten a lot of squirrels in my life,” he told the crowd before “Billy” began, explaining that his intention was to deconstruct the term “hillbilly” to reclaim it from its current use as a kind of insult.
Kentucky Mountain Music continued with “Cuckoo” and at this point it was clear that Stephen Wilson JR had the audience in the palm of his hand. The thunderous rendition of this rough country anthem was met with delight by them as they clapped and sang along in all the appropriate places. Indeed, during the show, the Birmingham crowd did a great job of showing their support and admiration for this talented and unique artist, which makes it strange that the city is sometimes left off the tour list of country artists.
One of Stephen Wilson JR’s USPs is how he interacts with the crowd. Sometimes you get to see the intensity and awkwardness of the former scientist he was, sometimes you get the Pentecostal showman and sometimes the stand-up comedian. It’s an intriguing and fascinating mix of personalities. In the intro to “Twisted,” he told the crowd that he’d been through two tornadoes, the last one being near Christmas, which he didn’t think seemed fair. “Life is twisted, man,” he declared before the song began. It was the crowd’s first chance to catch their breath after a tumultuous and intense start, though this song still struck with its anthemic chorus built around the mantra “God is good, life is twisted.”
Elsewhere, Birmingham were greeted with the reverberating, mournful sounds of ‘Kid’ and the vulnerable and raw ‘Patches’ before a double percussive acoustic segment featuring ‘The Devil’ and ‘Father’s Søn’. It was the emotional, beating heart of the show, perhaps Wilson’s two most meaningful and personal songs. The former was preceded by the story of Wilson’s Pentecostal upbringing and how he would see exorcisms in his local church every Sunday morning and then run into the same people “in the shop” in the afternoon. A pause for comedic effect and then a simple “so it was awkward” shook the crowd to pieces. “Father’s Søn” meanwhile changed the mood, and by the end of Wilson’s explanation of saying goodbye to his dying father on the iPhone 8 as he raced to be at his bedside, you could hear a pin drop. It’s the genius of the man who shifts moods, tugs at emotions and tells the stories that country music was made for.
The anthemic ‘Year to be Young 1994’, with the other two band members now back on stage, heralded the arrival of the final third of the show in fine style and was followed by a cover of ‘Something in the Way’ by the beloved other three Wilson tracks that were as loud and intense as any of his own songs. You can see that the spirit of Kurt Cobain lives on in Wilson: that drive to have fun, that intensity—thankfully without any of Cobain’s demons.
The final run of “American Gothic,” “Hometown” and “Holler from the Holler” was a perfect three-song “all-the-hits” set that was equal parts invigorating and yet tinged with bittersweet vulnerability. Before “Holler from the Holler,” Wilson told the crowd that he had “crossed an ocean” the night before and had only slept three hours. “I would do it over a thousand times to play this music for you,” he declared, eliciting huge cheers from this loud and supportive crowd.
However, the intensity and power did not stop there. The double whammy of an encore of new song ‘Gary’ and set closer ‘In the Beginning’ brought things to a tight end. If ‘Gary’ is anything to go by, Wilson’s next album will be an evolution from ‘Søn of Dad’, which feels fitting and deserved. Wilson talks about the “missing of Gary” in the modern world, but what he’s really talking about is change, using the name as an analogy for the passing of time and the decline of a certain way of life. The first two-thirds of the song were performed solo, with only Wilson on guitar, and then the band joined him for a frenetic final third that nearly blew the roof off the venue with its arena pretensions. Ambition and guts: those were the words that ran through my head as I listened to this new song. The next album is going to be something special, this is my receipt, right here.
Steven Wilson Jr. is a fascinating character and country music needs more of them. A weirdo, a storyteller, a comedian and a damn good musician. He’s pretty much everything that Music Row labels would be largely confused about, and yet he creates connections, strong, binding connections, with every crowd I’ve ever seen him play to. Last night was no exception. He’s louder live, louder, channeling the spirit of Cobain, Grohl and Novoselic into his rustic, Pentecostal persona, but that ability to reach people’s deepest emotions in a careful and measured way in one moment and then tearing their faces off with some incendiary guitar in the next is what makes this artist one of the most interesting and unique voices to emerge from the American South this generation.
Set list: 1. Calico Creek 2. Billy 3. Cuckoo 4. Twisted 5. Kid 6. Patches 7. The Devil 8. Father’s Søn 9. Year to be Young 1994 10. Something in the Way 11. American Gothic 12. Hometown 13. Holler from the screaming 14. Gary 15. In the beginning Place: O2 Institute 2 Birmingham date: October 24, 2024