American Folk: David Wilcox & Nance Pettit's Out Beyond Ideas

Going back to April’s Festival of Faith & Music at Calvin College and my review of David Bazan (Pedro the Lion, Headphones), there has to be a “posture of discovery” (Bazan’s phrase) when approaching David Wilcox and Nance Pettit’s Out Beyond Ideas: Songs for Peace Project. Setting mystical poetry to music, the recording benefits Partners in Conflict and Partners in Peacebuilding at the Center for International Development and Conflict Management.

As a Christian, Wilcox has often illuminated faith through his folky singer/songwriter songs. He doesn’t always approach the faith directly, but rather, uses stories to metaphorically showcase the intensity of God’s grace. Much of the discussion at the Festival of Faith & Music (FFM) centered around how Christian artists can point to faith without always presenting it in a tidy little package. Rather, as Bazan suggested, the art which speaks of faith recognizes that Christ comes to us in the midst of messes, mystery, and questions.

While I appreciate that Wilcox has been very good at this way of revealing his faith through his art, Out Beyond Ideas requires even more of a posture of discovery. The poetry that he and his wife, Pettit, set to music comes from a wide range of faith backgrounds—Christian, Jewish, Native American, Sufi, Buddhist, and Hindu. Wilcox and Pettit write in the liner notes, “We heard a common voice in their direct experiences with God.” It’s an idea that challenges the more absolutist, modernist line in my theological thinking, but allowing for postmodern recognition of the God’s truth in many places, there’s a way that this poetry can point to Christ no matter what it’s origin.

The poems themselves would make a great text for a Bible study discussion group. As mystics often do, these songs challenge us to realize the spiritual dimensions that can breeze right past us. In Shams-ud-din Muhammad Hafiz’s “How Did the Rose Ever Open,” we hear the power of God’s love (“How did the rose ever open its heart/And give to this world all of its beauty?/It felt the encouragement of light”).

Musically, because of working with the poetry of others, the album has a more linear feel in its song structures. As duets, the songs also take on more of hushed tone than Wilcox’s own work, such as his most recent, Into the Mystery. Wilcox has never been one to shout over the top, but the highs and lows are more muted here on Out Beyond Ideas. However, through many contributing artists, especially percussion and rhythms from Bill Kreutzman (Grateful Dead) and producer Ric Hordinski, these arrangements also give hints of their ancient spirit, worldly flavor, and mystical notions.

Going back to Wilcox’s Into the Mystery, it’s an album built around a posture of discovery. “Out of the Question” urges the believer to stop trying to “catch the wind inside my fist” and realize that God is in the question, in the mystery, such as the Old Testament prophets who sometimes asked more questions than gave answers and yet pointed to God’s truth all the same. The blues-tinged acoustic guitar and Wilcox’s knowing voice invite you more than most preachers to run—not walk—to find the God who calls you His own.

For more information, visit the Out Beyond Ideas Website. Thanks to David Wilcox and What Are Records? for the review copies.