DAVID WAGNER

Born in Mount Vernon, Ohio in 1970, David Wagner was raised one hour away in a small town named Marion. It is here that his early musical tastes were formed, with a mother listening to Paul Simon, Bob Dylan and Dean Martin and an older brother showing him the other side of the coin within such artists as Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd and Led Zepplin. But it was a manager of a shoe store where David worked at the age of 18 that changed his life forever. It was this retail manager who introduced a young Mr. Wagner to Frank Zappa, and from that moment on, all rules were meant to be broken. At the age of twenty, David moved to Florida where his musical experimentation continued to evolve as he dove into obscure musicians and albums from the twenties, forties, fifties, sixties and seventies. At twenty-four, David left the east coast and began traveling out west, living in a van for seven years as he trapsed the west, writing over forty songs, five books of poetry (which he self-published to much underground success) and one novel, 'The Life and Partially Coherent Times of Linus Cain'.
The past decade has found David Wagner living in California, where he recently finished a BA in philosophy. Now, he frequents the Bay area both as a solo artist/novelist/film maker, and as the leader of a tight knit group of amazing musicians who have come together under the name of Duchamp's Cowboys. Blending folk/country/rock with the heavy tribal and middle eastern music that is dominating the Bay area these days, David has found the gypsytonk sound that has haunted his music since his early pieces, and that continues to influence and shape his sound as he matures as an artist (check out the first part of the epic 8 minute 'Hickory Jack').
Whether he is playing a straightforward (or at least as straightforward as he can get with such a tongue-in-cheak- approach) waltz, or a dirty little blues/rock number, or singing a eastern-tinged ballad of cowboys, whiskey or any far-stretching road, David Wagner and Duchamp's Cowboys are names on the rise, and will be rambling your way soon.