A (Mostly) Quiet Ride From ‘Kerrville’

It got a little scary at one point during Ohio singer-songwriter David Wilcox’s headlining set of the “Kerrville on the Road” show Saturday at the Veterans Wadsworth Theater, a concert promoting the annual Kerrville, Tex., folk festival. Those in the small audience who probably abhor and decry the bullet-ridden urban revenge fantasies of N.W.A. and “True Lies” laughed and cheered heartily as the boyish Wilcox performed “Blow ‘Em Away,” a commuter revenge fantasy.

Frankly, the singer-songwriter showcase, also featuring Kerrville veterans Eliza Gilkyson, Sara Hickman and Tom Prasada-Rao, could have used more of that relative unruliness. Only Hickman challenged conventions of folk decorum with a delightfully ditsy, spontaneity-filled set. From her musical influences (Beatles pop to Prince funk) to her rich harmonizing with vocal accompanist Kristin DeWitt, she was anything but restrained. She even flashed her pregnant belly and later leaped on stage to back up Wilcox on a song she admitted she didn’t know.

Wilcox was game for Hickman’s playfulness. He’d already proven himself nimble, earlier improvising a verse asking that the house lights be dimmed to preserve a song’s intimacy. But as clever and insightful as he is with, as one title put it, “The Language of the Heart,” he largely stuck to that one emotional note.

Gilkyson, after flirting in recent years with rock and New Age styles, has made a prodigal return to her acoustic roots in the tradition of early Judy Collins and Joni Mitchell, showing Saturday a sense of strength and confidence. Newcomer Prasada-Rao displayed a winning manner and sweet, strong voice and offered the evening’s only political tune--albeit a predictable swipe at Newt Gingrich.