| Pat Wictor | |
| Landscape: | yes |
| Background: | solo_singer |
| Origin: | Caripito, Monagas, Venezuela |
| Instrument: | Acoustic guitar, vocals, dobro, lap slide guitar |
| Genre: | Blues, folk, Americana |
| Occupation: | Musician, singer-songwriter, recording artist, educator |
| Years Active: | 1995–present |
| Label: | RiskyDisc Records, Brother Sun Music |
| Website: | PatWictor.com |
Pat Wictor (born 1966, Caripito, Venezuela) is an American blues and folk musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, and recording artist. Known for his ethereal style, he was nominated for Emerging Artist of the Year in 2006 by the Folk Alliance, and has released a number of solo albums. In 2010 Wictor co-founded the folk trio Brother Sun, with singer-songwriters Joe Jencks and Greg Greenway, and the band has since released two full albums and toured extensively. Wictor also has an extensive discography as a sideman, playing instruments such as lap slide guitar and dobro. He currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.
Pat Wictor was born in 1966 in Caripito, a city in the Monagas State of Venezuela. Both his parents were American, and early on his mother, Cecilia "Cee Cee" Lower Wictor, exposed Wictor to history, poetry and the arts. For several years Wictor and his four older siblings lived in oil camps owned by Creole Petroleum Corporation, and their father's career in the oil industry later led to them living in East Texas, the Netherlands, Norway, and England. Wictor returned to the United States as a teenager, living first in California.
Wictor began playing guitar while young, and focused on genres as diverse as rock, heavy metal, and jazz. After starting with guitar he also learned bass and saxophone. He quit music entirely in the late 1980s to become a community organizer, then a high school teacher.
In 1993 Wictor returned to music, and around that time also began composing songs. He initially played solo; however, he soon met fellow guitarist Jim Ypsilantis while both were living in New York City and working as teachers, and they began composing music together and performing live in the area under the band name Tall Tales.
On January 5, 1999, they released their first album, Souls Are Falling. According to a review, the album contains "creative 'new acoustic' sounds (i.e., elements of folk, rock, jazz, and soul). Touches of world music – African, Latin, Middle Eastern – can be heard throughout their work, distinguishing it from the pack of other current adult contemporary music. The band's focus and strength lies not in its vocals, but in the sound of Wictor's and Ypsilantis's guitars blending together, weaving in and out, dancing about like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers."
Wictor and Ypsilantis released a second album on October 4, 2001, titled Things You Know. That year, Wictor left teaching to become a full-time musician. In 2002, he performed on the first of many recordings as a sideman, and he began to develop a reputation for his skill with lap slide guitar.
On March 23, 2003, Wictor released his debut solo album Temporary Stay on his own independent label RiskyDisc Records. This was followed by the album Waiting for the Water, also released on RiskyDisc on September 23, 2004. Waiting for the Water reached No. 4 on the Folk-DJ Charts, and Wictor toured throughout the United States. In 2005 and 2006, his touring included opening sets for artists such as Richie Havens, Chris Smither, and John Hammond.
Like his previous album, it peaked at No. 4 on the Folk-DJ Charts, In a 2007 review for Heaven Is So High by Acoustic Music, Wictor was described as "a monster lap steel, resonator guitar and dobro player...He plays blues and folk like he was born to them." The review also praised both his original songs and his adaptations of older songs.
In 2006, Wictor was nominated for the Emerging Artist of the Year Award by Folk Alliance International. The following year, he was a finalist at the New Folk songwriting contest at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas. He has also been named "Most Wanted" at the Falcon Ridge Emerging Artist Showcase, and was a nominee for Best Gospel Song with his track "Love Is the Water" at the Independent Music Awards.
The album includes a rework of his song "Where Did You Go?," originally on Waiting for Water. This time on the track, he was joined by Red Molly, a band from New York then consisting of Abbie Gardner, Laurie MacAllister and Carolann Sollebello. Songs like "Eventide" feature Wictor on laptop steel guitar, with vocal harmony from the duo of Joe Jencks and Helena Nash, and accompaniment from Jon Carroll on organ, Cheryl Prashker on drums, and Don Porterfield on bass. He also recorded songs by Phil Ochs for the album, though he significantly re-arranged the tracks.
Sunset Waltz reached No. 2 on the Folk-DJ charts.
His solo album, Living Ever-Lovin' LIVE, is a live album with both Wictor's original tracks and a number of re-arrangements of traditional songs. The CD features several duets with dobro player and vocalist Abbie Gardner.
A capable improviser and instrumentalist, Wictor has worked as a sideman and session musician since 2002. He has contributed slide guitar and vocals to a number of releases, including ones by Sloan Wainwright, Joe Crookston, Jon Vezner, Tom Prasada-Rao, and Buskin & Batteau. He has written a number of covers and tributes for Dave Carter. Wictor is also a frequent music educator, giving workshops on music history, songwriting, improvisation, and guitar and slide guitar techniques.
In late 2009, Wictor joined long-time collaborators Joe Jencks and Greg Greenway to form the band, Brother Sun. The trio had first performed together at a music conference at the Southeast Unitarian Universalist Summer Institute that summer. According to Wictor, "I invited Joe and Greg to join me onstage in a concert I was doing [at SUUSI]. We rehearsed for an hour, got onstage, and the sound of our voices together was one of the most powerful musical experiences of my life. Lots of audience members and musicians in attendance said we should form a group." However, since the members all had conflicting schedules and lived in different cities (Boston, New York, and Chicago), the band didn't coalesce until the spring of 2010, starting its first tour that December with the members traveling separately to shows.
Each member of the band plays guitar and sings, with Wictor also playing slide guitar, Greenway on piano and ukulele, and Jencks on the bouzouki, a mandolin-like instrument. Instruments such as ukulele are also used. Most of the band's songs are written by individual members, then arranged as a group, with the style typically incorporating folk, blues, and gospel. According to Wictor, "Suffering and transcendence are what the blues and gospel both have. That speaks to all three of us and what we want to project with our music." The trio's music also incorporates elements of Americana, pop, jazz, Celtic, rock, and a cappella singing.
The band's debut, Brother Sun, was released on June 18, 2011. The album was recorded with the same setup as one of their live shows, with no extra instruments or voices. After debuting at No. 2 on the Folk DJ Chart, it was named the No. 8 album of 2011 on FOLK-DJ. Over a dozen radio stations, including WUMB (Boston), WFUV (NYC), and WFMT's The Midnight Special (Chicago), put the band on their "Best of 2011" and "Best of 2012" lists.
The majority of Wictor's touring time in 2011 and 2012 was spent with Brother Sun. Their second album, Some Part of the Truth, was released on January 26, 2013, on their new label Brother Sun Music. The album was more heavily produced than their previous release, and brought on Grammy-winning producer Ben Wisch. Bassist Zev Katz, percussionist Joe Bonadio, and cellist Brian Sanders also contributed to the recording sessions. According to Wictor, "I see this new album as more atmospheric, textural, colorful, moody, evocative, and emotionally rich [than the debut]." The album was positively received. According to Rich Warren of Chicago station WFMT, "More polished than Brother Sun's initial effort, Some Part of Truth blends expressively riveting male harmonies with precise, equally sensitive guitar and keyboard talent into three personal journeys from deep within."
Some Part of the Truth was the No. 1 CD on the Folk-DJ chart for all of 2013, receiving the most play of any release, and "Lady of the Harbor" was the No. 1 song of the year. The CD debuted at No. 1 and remained there for two months, then spent another five consecutive months in the chart's Top-40. It also reached No. 2 on Sirius XM’s Americana Chart. The first track on the CD, "Lady of the Harbor," debuted at No. 1 on the Folk-DJ Chart, and in early 2014 was also included on the in-flight program for Lufthansa Airlines.
As of 2014, Wictor continues to tour both on his own and with members of Brother Sun, and he has performed at festivals such as the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, the Kerrville Folk Festival, and the Philadelphia Folk Festival.
| "He manages to creatively absorb the work of others, leaving their musical intentions beautifully intact, while adding his own sonic signature to the mix." | |
| — Ellen Geisel, Dirty Linen |
About his songwriting style, The Country Blues wrote, "He manages to infuse an almost playful, yet tasteful, improvisation while maintaining a beautiful sense of melody." The review also praised his skill with fingerstyle and lap steel guitar," positively comparing him to Harry Manx and Kelly Joe Phelps. Also, "Wictorʼs signature sound is clean and understated, not a note too many. He annunciates each note and plays with a simple, eloquent feeling and advanced virtuosity. His music is, if anything, tinged with a sweet-sensitivity, a gentleness. This is the antonym to fiery, angry, furious blues."
As of 2014, Wictor resides in Brooklyn, New York. He continues to write a monthly email column entitled "A Few Choice Words." He is also a co-founder and board member of The Reading Odyssey, an organization dedicated to helping adults "re-ignite their curiosity and learning, mostly through exploring classic literature together."[1]
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| Song title | Performer(s) | Album | Role | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | "For You" (spoken word piece set to "Where Did You Go?") | Chris Chandler, David Roe | American Storyteller Volumes 3&4 | co-written with Chris Chandler |
| "Look for the Light" | Erik Balkey | Mission Street Project: Liberty Tree | co-written with Erik Balkey | |
| 2008 | "Make Levees" | PW | Mission Street Project: Make Levees | |
| "When the War is Won" | Laurie MacAllister, Amy Speace | |||
| 2011 | "Walkin' Cane" | Abbie Gardner | Hope | co-written with Gardner |
| 2002 | Find Me | Anne Mironchik | |
| 2006 | Been There Too | Marc Raphael | |
| 2006 | American Storyteller Volumes 3&4 | Chris Chandler and David Roe | |
| 2006 | Get on Board! | ||
| 2006 | Honey on My Grave | ||
| 2006 | Roadside Saints | Zoe Mulford | |
| 2006 | Shake the Stars | Sharon Goldman | |
| 2007 | Blackberry Time | Jud Caswell | |
| 2007 | Wilderness Plots | Tim Grimm, Carrie Newcomer, Krista Detor, Michael White, Tom Roznowski | |
| 2007 | The Candle and the Flame | Joe Jencks | |
| 2007 | Little Known Secret | Todd Giudice | |
| 2007 | North of New York | ||
| 2008 | Holding Up the World | Tim Grimm | |
| 2008 | Standing on the Side of Love | ||
| 2008 | Something Worth Standing For | Andrew McKnight | |
| 2008 | Able Baker Charlie and Dog | ||
| 2008 | Mara's Gems | Mara Levine | |
| 2008 | Back in the Day | Mel White and Various Artists | |
| 2008 | Painting a Moving Train | Helena Nash and Greg Greer | |
| 2008 | A Song For Every Station | Michael Berkowitz | |
| 2008 | Cold, Cold Year | Amy Laber | |
| 2008 | Whatcha Gonna Do? | Spook Handy | |
| 2009 | Links in a Chain | Joe Jencks | |
| 2009 | Tomboy Princess | Meg Braun | |
| 2009 | W. 11th | Sonya Heller | |
| 2010 | Sleepless Lullaby | Sharon Goldman | |
| 2010 | Bleecker Street Roots | Luanne Surace | |
| 2010 | Cookin' in the Kitchen | Anne Mironchik | |
| 2010 | Chalkboard | Amanda Penecale | |
| 2010 | Hundred Shades of Blue | T.M. Hanna | |
| 2011 | End of the Beginning | John Flynn | |
| 2011 | Upside Down & Under My Heart | ||
| 2011 | Unbroken | Lipbone Redding | |
| 2011 | Darkling & the Bluebird Jubilee | ||
| 2011 | Catz of the Coliseum | Jon Vezner | |
| 2011 | Wilderness Songs and Bad Man Ballads | Tim Grimm | |
| 2011 | Broken Places | Meg Braun | |
| 2011 | Every Mile is a Memory | Friction Farm | |
| 2011 | Ride the Sky | Annie Wenz | |
| 2011 | Seeds | Fred Arcoleo | |
| 2012 | Adagio | Tom Prasada-Rao | |
| 2012 | Love Remembered, Love Forgot | Buskin and Batteau | |
| 2013 | Steel and Salt | Carolann Solebello | |
| 2013 | I Read Your Book | Friction Farm | |
| 2013 | Coyote Wings | Zoe Mulford |
The following tracks are covers of Wictor's songs.