Webb Wilder's Music Is Greasy, Danceable And Irresistible

January 02, 1998|By Dan Kening, Tribune Staff Writer.

Some bands just play rock 'n' roll. Webb Wilder and his band the Nashvegans flat out are rock 'n' roll.

Over 12 years and five albums that synthesize rockabilly, Southern-fried blues, surf, country, mid-'60s British and vintage American rock 'n' roll music into one big greasy, danceable and irresistible whole, Wilder and his boys, who play Friday and Saturday at FitzGerald's in Berwyn, guarantee a good time.

Adding to the music is the larger-than-life persona of Wilder himself. A mysterious, Western-clad, horn-rimmed character with a booming baritone and a between-songs patter reminiscent of a fundamentalist preacher, the 43-year-old Nashville resident adds some well-placed humor between the beefy guitar riffs. Take this self-description: "Webb Wilder is the last of the full-grown men, the last of the boarding-house people, a man who was never a child and will never have children, a guy who knows every thrift shop and plate lunch joint in town, a guy who's never quite bald and never quite wall-to-wall, a guy who has dedicated his life to both kinds of music -- rock and roll."

"I'm sure I'd be taken more seriously as a musician if it wasn't for the humor element in the music," said a noticeably toned-down Wilder by phone. "But there's a big difference between humor and comedy, and on the whole I think (that element) has helped more than it's hurt."

Wilder's career has taken some interesting twists since he first turned heads with his 1986 debut album, "It Came From Nashville," which many Webb Heads still consider his best. There have been side ventures into acting, including a role in Peter Bogdonavich's "The Thing Called Love," and hosting and voiceover work for Country Music Television (CMT). Along the way he's been signed and dropped by major record labels. But thanks to tireless touring, Wilder continues to be a live favorite in Webb Head strongholds like Chicago.

"If I can blow my own horn, Webb Wilder never went away," said Wilder. "Whether it's Webb Wilder and the Beatnecks (his original quartet) or Webb Wilder and the Nashvegans, we're still rockin' and still doing gigs. I could tell you stories about how the music industry has served me poorly at precisely the wrong moment -- or maybe how I served myself poorly at precisely the wrong moment. However, we've never stopped. The key thing is that Econoline van has never stopped rolling."

Wilder's current touring Nashvegans ("Nash Vegas" is his pet term for his hometown) includes guitarist Joe McMahan, bassist Tom Comet and drummer Steve Ebe. While the touring personnel has been somewhat fluid in recent years, a constant on all the Webb Wilder albums has been the songwriting and producing talents of Wilder's boyhood friend R.S. "Bobby" Field, a k a the "Ionizer." Field wrote or co-wrote such Wilder classics as "Horror Hayride," "One Taste of the Bait," "Human Cannonball" and "Tough It Out," and has played on and produced all the Webb Wilder albums.

"My thing is to just make it up as I go along," said Wilder of his career modus operandi. "I'm not a studied, premeditated type of careerist. And I guess it shows. That's probably why I'm still in the touring van after all these years."


the facts

Webb Wilder

Friday and Saturday


6615 Roosevelt Rd.