Vintage Review: Webb Wilder's Born To Be Wilder (2008)

Webb Wilder deserves better than he’s gotten from the music biz. During a ten-year period circa 1986-96, the larger-then-life performer delivered five simply brilliant albums that combined roots-rock, rockabilly, hillbilly, honky-tonk, surf-rock, and rockin-blues. Although WW developed a cult following stateside, along with a significant European fan base, Wilder never got the break that would have broken him to a larger mainstream U.S. audience. Instead, much of his back catalog lies wrapped up in legal contradictions and label politics, with only Wilder’s indie-label-released debut, It Came From Nashville, re-purposed for the digital age.  

Better than 20 years after the release of Wilder’s breathless debut album, the singer and a modernized version of his ‘Beatnecks’ band are still spankin-and-crankin’ out the tunes. In 2005, WW and crew released About Time, their first work in almost nine years, a collection of inspired covers along with a handful of Bobby Field originals. The acclaim enjoyed by About Time would directly lead to the recording of the live album at hand, Born To Be Wilder. Captured onstage at a Birmingham, Alabama club in August 2005, the performance was also taped for a subsequent DVD release.

Webb Wilder’s Born To Be Wilder

For those of you keeping score at home, here’s the straight poop: Born To Be Wilder is, track-by-track, identical to the bonus CD that came with Wilder’s 2006 DVD release, Live In Concert. So, if you have that DVD, then Born To Be Wilder is probably unnecessary…unless you want an easier-to-transport copy of the disc in its own case to throw in your car (for those of you who haven’t given up and joined the iPod generation). To further complicate matters, this same live set was also released in Europe by Dixiefrog Records as It’s Live Time! Did all of you get that? Good.

Born To Be Wilder features fifteen songs, about a third of ‘em from About Time, the rest culled from the artist’s deep back catalog. Some of these are Wilder classics, and songs like “Tough It Out,” the rollicking “Poolside,” “How Long Can She Last” and the crowd-pleasing “One Taste of the Bait” stand up to repeated listening in any setting. They’re all just well-constructed, superbly-performed story-songs with a strong rock-n-roll heartbeat. Some of the newer material measures up well, especially the cover of obscure country vocalist (and my former neighbor) Tommy Overstreet’s honky-tonk weeper, “If You’re Looking For A Fool.”

Unfortunately, there’s something vital missing from Born To Be Wilder. The usually brilliant R.S. “Bobby” Field’s production falls short here. Whereas Field, who has worked with Wilder since high school in Mississippi, typically captures the mythical WW sound perfectly, these performances seem to have been stripped of their spontaneity, grit and muscle. The sound is too antiseptic, the recording far too slick and well-mannered to effectively convey the WW vibe.

A share of the blame should be levied on Wilder and his band as well, all of which are solid, if not usually spectacular players. The performances here are mostly all lacking the nearly-supernatural, raw rock ‘n’ roll vibe of a typical Web Wilder show; not surprisingly, the older material fares better. But simply listen to the ‘80s-era live tracks tacked onto the end of the It Came From Nashville and you’ll hear the stark difference for yourself. Although most of the songs here are road-tested, tried-and-true rockin’ foo, Born To Be Wilder simply lacks the one-shot knockout punch we’ve come to expect from Webb.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line   

In this light, I’d grade Born To Be Wilder with a reluctant ‘B’...still better than just about any other wet-behind-the-ears, roots-rock rug-rats that you’ll run across in this day and time, but a far cry from the A+ work delivered by WW on Doo Dad or Acres of Suede, or even the A- I’d award to About Time. Maybe age is catching up with the big man, maybe this was just an off night, but when you set the bar as high as Wilder has in the past, you have to be spry enough to either jump over or limbo under...and Born To Be Wilder does neither. (Released by Blind Pig Records, 2008)

Review originally published by the Trademark of Quality (TMQ) blog