Stephen Wilson jnr - SWX or now Electric Bristol, Bristol - review

Those who have been lucky enough to experience Stephen Wilson Jnr’s fabled live shows often speak about wishing they could bottle up that feeling, so they can dip into his indescribable mixture of euphoria, endearment, pain, conviction, and vulnerability whenever they need to.

His music is dark, a combination of country mixed with elements of grunge and alternative rock. There are plenty of choice pickings from his current album “Søn of Dad”. He has some startling material that takes the listener on a journey.

Wilson opened the show at SWX now Electric Bristol with his eclectic mix of songs that sit right at the intersection of where Nirvana meets Johnny Cash meets The Cadillac 3. Stephen offered an unforgettable journey of emotion, storytelling, and song.

His guitar and a very hard-working pedal, steel guitar player Scott Murray and drummer Craig Blundell raised the roof with a two-hour 15-track set that included a cover of Nirvana’s “Something In The Way” and his own fan favourite “Year To Be Young 1994”. He turned Nirvana’s shoe-gazing 90's angst into something right out of the hills of Appalachia.

You can see the spirit of Kurt Cobain resides within Wilson: that drive to entertain, that intensity – thankfully without any of Cobain's demons.

He references this inspiration openly in the first few bars of 'Year to Be Young 1994'. This cool Generation X equivalent of 'Summer of '69', is about being a teenager in the mid-nineties when 'Live Forever' was on your stereo and your "sweatshirt said 'No Fear - ha."

With his teeth cut in indie rock band AutoVaughan and the writers’ rooms of Nashville, he is a seasoned musical craftsman who produces a sound that is meticulously curated, whilst also sounding like it was born with its owner. Very much in a similar vein to such blue-collar heroes as John Mellencamp, Steve Earle, and John Prine, his songs are gritty, honest, and strike a nerve.

Wilson has written songs like ‘I Can't' for Caitlyn Smith and ‘Make it a Good One' with Brothers Osborne and is married to Leigh Nash, the lead singer of Sixpence None the Richer, so this Southern Indiana native is immersed in music, and it shows.

He opened with “Preacher’s Kid”, a new song, “Billy” kept the mood and vibe going and it even finished in a furious elongated jam session which saw Wilson whipping up a frenzy like a man possessed. “Cuckoo” is about the working person and how hard life can be. Ballad “Patches, a personal favourite, followed before “The Devil”, his first ever song.

The chorus again reveals his songwriting talent, “A snake will crawl the earth to shed its skin/To make more room for the poison/And the filthy rich will rob you clean/Until you raise your voices/And the louder onе above the rest/ Will call himsеlf the rebel.”

Stephen breaks all our hearts with his introduction to the haunting ballad “Father’s Son”, in which he tells the tale of losing his own father, in a song as wide reaching as the plains of America’s heartland. Saying goodbye to his dying father on an iPhone 8 on the side of a Kentucky highway as he raced to be at his bedside. This was the emotional, beating heart of the show, perhaps Wilson’s most meaningful and personal song.

“I've never known better, yeah / 'Cause every bone's tethered / You wanna change my name? Gotta drain my blood / 'Cause everything I am's everything you was”.

And continues: “I wear his blue jean jacket & his name like a badge of honour/I used to hate being called Junior/but I don’t mind any longer” – all played out over Murray’s weeping lap steel, is something that lingers on long after the night ends.

‘Calico Creek' built to a thunderous drum explosion on a bed of guitars and pedal steel whilst Wilson stalked the stage.

Armed with gut-string acoustic guitar, and one almighty pedal board, Wilson Jr. has no place to hide as he unfolds tale after tale.

Just to lift the spirits, he sings Ben E King’s “Stand By Me”, “Hometown” and “Holler from the Holler”. Both are tales of dead-end hometowns where the option is get away or die inside. His delivery invokes Springsteen’s drawl on his acoustic album” Nebraska”, which is why it’s a perfect combination of style and substance.

Raised by a single father who was a boxer, Wilson Jr. was a Golden Glove kid himself whose path to middle Tennessee did not come through country music, but in the pursuit of a microbiology degree at MTSU in Murfreesboro. While at college, he started an indie rock band but eventually left after graduating to become a full-time scientist. But then decided music was more his speed and stationed himself in Nashville.

Picking up the pace a little, “Year to Be Young 1994” was led by Wilson Jr. stating, “There was not much to do in my hometown but drugs and roller-skate, sometimes both at the same time.”

Sometimes you can see the intensity and awkwardness of the former scientist that he was, sometimes you get the Pentecostal showman and sometimes the stand-up comedian. It's an intriguing and beguiling mix of personas.

A set-ending of “Hometown”, “Holler from the Holler” and “I’m A Song” was a perfect three song run that was equal parts uplifting and yet tinged with bittersweet vulnerability, celebratory anthems of self-discovery and defiant individuality.

The intensity and power didn't stop there though. An encore of new song “Gary” brought things to a breathless conclusion.

Non-conforming maverick, storyteller, comedian, and a damn fine musician. This tour will undoubtedly be remembered as the beginning of an extraordinary chapter in Stephen Wilson Jnr’s ascending musical journey.