D'Arcy Wickham

Artist Information

Biography

2007 Winner in "Songs from the Heart" Competition for his song "Feather Fingers"


2008 and 2011 Featured performer at North-by-Northeast Music Festival


2009 One of Ten Finalists in the Canadian Region for the Mountain Stage NewSong Contest


2009, 2010, 2011, 2011, 2012 and 2013 Featured performer at Winterfolk Blues and Roots Festival





With a professional musical career spanning 3 decades, D’Arcy Wickham brings maturity and depth to his performing and songwriting talents. "He showcases an exceptional facility with all styles of guitar picking, from elegant folk to atmospheric blues, and with his gifts as a composer of comfortingly retro, acoustic-based pop songs. He’s in fine voice as well: a full, truly pitched baritone graces his compositions." (Greg Quill, Toronto Star)

D'Arcy has had a wealth of excellent performance and workshop experience over the past few years. D'Arcy's five appearances at Toronto's Winterfolk Blues and Roots Festival in 2009 through 2013 have seen him share the workshop stage with such musicians as Wendell Ferguson, Rick Taylor, Danny Marks, Margaret Stowe, David Gillis and Steve Briggs. As a performer at the Bruce Cockburn Tribute at Hugh's Room in October of 2009, D'Arcy was in the excellent company of Jason Fowler, Andy Sheppard, Michael Johnson and Heather Luckhart, among others. June of 2008 was the occasion of his first appearance at the NXNE Music Festival in Toronto. In April of 2008, D’Arcy was one of three featured performers and workshop leaders at the Waterloo Guitar Summit. On Nov. 17, 2007, he opened for Jon Brooks, and accompanied Jon on a few tunes, at the Acoustic Harvest Folk Club in Toronto. On Sept. 20, 2007, D'Arcy joined Ian North and Clela Errington to open the first City Roots Presents series at the Cameron House in Toronto. D'Arcy was the featured opening act on March 24, 2007 for Oliver Shroer at the Greenbank Folk Society in Greenbank, ON. D'Arcy performed to a sold-out audience at Hugh's Room in Toronto for the release of his CD, "Feather Fingers", and opened for Tommy Emmanuel there in 2005.

D'Arcy's first solo recording, "Dust and Loneliness", which was produced by Ian Thomas and released in 2000, received critical acclaim. Tracks from the CD were featured on two composite CD’s: Borealis Records' "6 Strings North of the Border" vol. 2 and "Tears of a Thousand Years".

In 2005, D'Arcy released another critically acclaimed CD, "Feather Fingers", which was produced by Jason Fowler. Greg Quill of the Toronto Star was particularly impressed with D'Arcy's facility and virtuosity on the guitar.

In August of 2007 the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals contacted D'Arcy to congratulate him on winning the instrumental category in the " 2007 Songs from the Heart Contest", for his tune "Feather Fingers". D'Arcy showcased his tune at the "Songs from the Heart" awards ceremony at the OCFF conference on October 13.

In August of 2009, D'Arcy was selected as one of 10 finalists in the Canadian Region for the Mountain Stage NewSong Contest, on the strength of his song "Malahat Highway".

As a guitar teacher with some 30 years of instructional experience and as an award winning composer, D'Arcy has a wealth of musical background to drawn on in offering workshops: aspects of guitar technique, song writing, history of folk and blues, and live performance.

Well known in folk music circles, an outstanding guitar teacher, performer and composer, D'Arcy would make a great fit for any folk festival or roots music venue.

Instrumentation

Oliver Wickham - Keyboards / Vocals

Discography

2005: Feather Fingers
2000: Dust and Loneliness

Official Website

http://www.darcywickham.com

Links

• Facebook
• MySpace

Audio

• Malahat Highway
  Listen   Download
• Hanging at Owl Creek Bridge
  Listen   Download
• Feather Fingers
  Listen   Download

Lyrics

• Malahat Highway
• Hanging at Owl Creek Bridge

Video

Photo Gallery

Press

• What's On Disc [+ Show ]
  

  Thursday, March 10, 2005 D’Arcy Wickham Feather Fingers (Independent/www.darcywickham.com) ...Thursday, March 10, 2005
  
  D’Arcy Wickham
  
  Feather Fingers
  (Independent/www.darcywickham.com)
  
  Veteran Toronto guitarist, music teacher and singer/songwriter D’Arcy Wickham’s latest is both a tasty showcase of his exceptional facility with all styles of guitar picking, from elegant folk to atmospheric blues, and of his gifts as a composer of comfortingly retro, acoustic-based pop songs.
  
  He’s in fine voice as well – a full, truly pitched baritone graces most of the 11 pieces – and in full control of a fine band (Strangely uncredited on the one-sided CD Cover). Standout tracks are Mississippi John Hurt’s “Satisfied and Tickled Too,” the eerie “Hanging at Owl Creek Bridge,” and “Malahat Highway” (collaborations with Bob Carmichael).
  
  Wickham is showcasing material from the album in concert tonight at Hugh’s Room (2261 Dundas St. W.), performing with bassist David Woodhead, drummer Al Cross, guitarist Jason Fowler and keyboard/accordion wizard Denis Keldie. Tickets are $12 in advance (416-531-6604), $15 at the door.
  
  

• Feather Fingers: New Release by D'Arcy Wickham [+ Show ]
  

  by Darya Kotova Monday, April 18, 2005 For those that enjoy good old-fashioned guitar music,...by Darya Kotova
  
  Monday, April 18, 2005
  
  For those that enjoy good old-fashioned guitar music, there is something new in store, from an artist that has been part of the music industry for decades. Canadian singer, songwriter, and guitarist D'Arcy Wickham has now finished an independent album, which took a large amount of thought and hard work to complete. The album, Feather Fingers, is mellow, pensive, and meaningful music, with poetry that speaks of personal growth and reflects on the content of one's character. Wickham had successfully overcome the challenge of putting together a 10-song CD that is both easily listenable, and memorable.
  
  The sound presented in this album is soft, acoustic, with distinct country and folk influences that will be welcome among the admirers of those genres. Although Wickham demonstrates expert skill at music and vocals, his songs are immediately accessible, with neither the unnecessary simplicity, nor the unnecessary complications. There are great tunes to be encountered on this recording, from the opening "Malahat Highway", to the title track "Feather Fingers". That particular, entirely instrumental, song displays intricate guitar sound that is missed in the works of most recent artists. The album turns to the traditions that made music so great in the past, rather than to the formulas of today.
  
  D'Arcy Wickham values focused songwriting very much, since it is a crucial aspect in creating impressive music. Feather Fingers features great quality lyrics as much as excellent guitar skill. His vocals spin tales of changes in personality, following the things Wickham has endured and enjoyed in his life. There is a distinct feeling of realness in Wickham's songs, which can only be delivered by a person that has lead an eventful and purposeful life, with many things to tell and share.
  
  Feather Fingers does indeed feature the skill that has been acquired over a long while, as well as a natural talent. D'Arcy Wickham is a born-to-be entertainer, who has been performing nearly for his entire life. Ever since he started playing guitar at the age 14, he became fascinated with the art of musicmaking enough to sustain the wish to play until today. He started out playing music at parties and dances, later at coffee shops, then began touring with various bands, after which he put a lot of effort into the rewarding job of teaching music. He has worked with many other renowned musicians, including Ian Thomas and Sarah McLachlan. This is only a brief summary of D'Arcy Wickham's life so far, which inspired his newest record.
  
  Whether or not you are familiar with D'Arcy Wickham's work, his teaching, or the story of his life, I highly recommend that you check out this enchanting record. Both relaxing and thought-provoking, it is bound to appeal to your musical side.
  
  Visit www.darcywickham.com
  

• D'Arcy Wickham [+ Show ]
  

  www.thelivemusicreport.com/received/2005a/darcyWickham.html Featherfingers • SOCAN • 11 Tracks • ...www.thelivemusicreport.com/received/2005a/darcyWickham.html
  
  Featherfingers • SOCAN • 11 Tracks • 41 minutes
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  D’arcy Wickham has a fine new CD entitled Featherfingers. Three of the eleven tracks are his fingerpicking-style instrumental compositions. The brief title track is a lucid, lyrical melody, lively, warm and appealing.
  
  “Remembering” is a longer, low-key reflective piece, darktoned, minor and hypnotic, which has an open, slightly unresolved ending that speaks for itself. “Hooked on you” is upbeat and quite repetitive. These tracks reassure one that good as the lyrics he writes alone or with Robert Carmichael are, and good as his voice and delivery are, supporting all that is a fully-fledged artist on the guitar.
  
  Two of the tunes, “Malahat Highway”, and “Hanging at Owl Creek Bridge”, show D’arcy as a traditional balladeer, a chronicler of events of moment in a community, be the event a hanging (with Tom Dooley or Danny Deever or Kevin Berry as the victim), or an epic pattern of important stories embedded in geography, such as Lightfoot’s “Canadian Railroad Trilogy,” or Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited”. Mr. Wickham’s songs in this genre are convincing and the material in “Malahat Highway” could become an historical document.
  
  On the musical level, I like the native drone the guitar lays down in the instrumental bridge between verses in these and other of his tunes, though one also gets the feeling that some of his melodies blend into a sameness. The lyric writing is quite masterful in these and other songs such as “Only Trying to Say Goodbye” where this sharp line occurs:” Don’t confuse me with words about what a great guy I am when you’re only trying to say goodbye. ”Brother of Mine” epitomizes Wickham’s skill in varying rhyme-schemes to create surprise phrasings, particularly when the end word of the first line in a couplet is ‘mill’ which rhymes with the word ‘hill’ that is placed only two-thirds of the way through the next line so that it becomes an internal rhyme.
  
  D’arcy Wickham is also the songwriter of the sad, the balladeer of the blues (think of Ewen McColl), who’s woman’s ‘got that goodbye look’. He gets some good lines in that kind of tune such as “Come back to me, that’s all I ask/I need you in my future like you were in my past.” This is from the tune “Can’t Imagine Any Future”, that rises, in my opinion, above the level of popular bluegrass to the level of a genuine, traditional folksong because of the high quality of story, lyric, and above all, his featherfinger picked guitar.
  
  Featherfingers is available at www.darcywickham.com.
  

Setlist

Here are two possible 45-minute sets consisting of original material, except as noted :

Set #1

Malahat Highway
Welcome to this World
Hanging at Owl Creek Bridge
Wishing You Were Here
Feather Fingers
Remembering
Satisfied and Tickled Too (Mississippi John Hurt)
Hooked on You
Rainfall (Bruce Cockburn)

Set # 2

New England Rag
Forecast Bad Weather
Can't Imagine Any Future
All of Your Faces
Brother Of Mine
In the Blink of an Eye
Underway
Time to Heal
One Last Look

Basic Requirements

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