My wife gifted me (us) tickets to the first stop on Stephen Wilson Jr.’s Gary the Torch tour in Columbus, Ohio last week. I’ve been listening to Stephen Wilson Jr. for, I don’t know, eight months or so. Overall, I’d say he’s wrecked me. There’s something about the depth of the poetry combined with grungy guitar that etches his songs in the deep caverns of my psyche.

I’m a fan of music. Always have been. But something shifted for me somewhere between Coldplay’s Viva la Vida and Mylo Xyloto. Sounds became more electronic and artificial. EDM lurked about everywhere. Lyrics seemed vapid. Music, like everything else, more primed for mindless, consumptive entertainment (superficial pleasure) than a deep, human artistic expression. Now, I’m painting with a broad brush, and, to be fair, we had a lot of kids between 2008 and now. So, it’s not like I’ve had a ton of time to go digging for real artists. In fact, I didn’t go digging for SWJ. A dear friend introduced me to his music. I think I listened to “Grief Is Only Love,” “I’m a Song,” and “Stand by Me” in rapid succession. My wife was gone with our kids and she came back to the rare sight of me with music on in the kitchen. I told her she had to listen to this and we’ve been listening ever since. In fact, it’s been hard for me to listen to anything else. (Hence the “wrecked” reference above.)

Stephen Wilson Jr. grew up in Seymour, IN. His parents divorced when he was a child. His father, a boxer, raised him as one, too, while his mother bounced between abusive relationships. He pursued science in college as a way out of his fundamentalist town and religious upbringing, a kind of middle-finger to the whole church thing. Though church did give his music a start in the worship band. Before taking up a research job in microbiology with Mars, Inc. Stephen Wilson Jr. was the lead guitarist and songwriter for indie rock band AutoVaughn. In 2016, he left Mars, Inc. to pursue songwriting in Nashville. In 2018, his father died suddenly at age 59. Before his death, Stephen Wilson Jr.’s father was constantly encouraging his son to sing his own songs instead of writing them and giving them away. At a songwriter festival in Deadwood, South Dakota, Stephen Wilson Jr. took the stage and sang his cover of Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me” as more of a plea than a song. That was the moment his artist was born.

I’d like to share four observations from Friday’s show that provide meaningful insight into this meaningful singer/songwriter:

• His whole life is on stage with him. Stephen Wilson Jr.’s official bio on his website says, his “journey from the hollers of southern Indiana to Nashville, Tenn. has been a winding road that’s taken many detours.” That may be true, but each detour has been meaningful. So, it’s interesting to see him bouncing around the stage, wiping his face with a towel, and returning to his corner like a boxer. It’s interesting to see elements of a praise and worship concert creep into exorcistic songs like “the devil.” It’s interesting to listen to listen to a self-described stenographer on stage, articulating universal truths after years of careful observation and listening to humanity — his own and that of others. It’s interesting that he has a massive Our Lady of Guadalupe backdrop as reminder of the miraculous and a reversal from his prior dismissal of religion. Each detour mattered and all of it comes out on stage in a way I couldn’t have imagined just by listening to the music. Said another way: SWJ is himself and okay with it.
• He and the band made music. They didn’t just play songs. There was a sense throughout the night that the concert was happening and the crowd was swept up in the making of music. While I’m sure the band spends countless hours rehearsing, there was plenty of improv going on, and a sense that this show was completely unique, like all of them must be. It took on a life of its own and only the people there got to experience that.
• It was a human experience and not only because humans were there. SWJ is just very human and he plays through his humanity. There was a sense that he was sharing this experience with us and he wanted us to share it with him. After the show, he didn’t leave the stage, but greeted people, snapped photos, and made a point to be in touch with several wheel-chaired concert-goers. He expressed palpable appreciation for everyone being there.
• He’s clearly an artist. Artists are kind of weird. Artists are very human. Artists are not scandalized by the gray mess of life, it’s apparent absurdity. They have the gift (and burden) to reach deep down into it, pull out beautiful truths, and help us to see something we could not see before. In a grungy way, he reminds me of authors like Flannery O’Connor and Evelyn Waugh, or philosopher Matthew Crawford. This is what art is and why beauty will save the world (Dostoevsky) — and, as a corollary, why music will save the world.¹ The day after the concert, as my wife and I prayed Lauds, she prayed for Stephen Wilson Jr. and for his work. I do think his work as an artist is important, right now, at this time of increasing artificiality. I do think the realness of his work can wake our humanity in a way it needs to be woken up, and I pray that, in the spotlight, he will stay “Gary” humble in carrying the torch.

1. As a theologian, I’d be remiss to not point out Dostoevsky’s deeper reference. Actually, Joseph Ratzinger does this in the conclusion of his excellent article, “The feeling of things, the contemplation of beauty”: “Is there anyone who does not know Dostoevsky’s often quoted sentence: ‘The Beautiful will save us’? However, people usually forget that Dostoevsky is referring here to the redeeming Beauty of Christ. We must learn to see Him. If we know Him, not only in words, but if we are struck by the arrow of his paradoxical beauty, then we will truly know him, and know him not only because we have heard others speak about him. Then we will have found the beauty of Truth, of the Truth that redeems. Nothing can bring us into close contact with the beauty of Christ himself other than the world of beauty created by faith and light that shines out from the faces of the saints, through whom his own light becomes visible.” ↩︎