A call from David Grissom was the catalyst that kickstarted Webb Wilder’s 13th album, Hillbilly Speedball.
“David said, ‘I’ve got a new song I want your opinion on,’” Wilder recounts. “After he sent me the acoustic guitar and vocal, I asked, ‘What do you think about me doing it?’”
That title cut, featuring a Grissom solo, sits alongside covers of the McCoys (“Sorrow”), Chuck Berry (“Beautiful Delilah”), Savoy Brown (“Tell Mama”), and a clutch of originals. “V-8 Ford Blues” comes from Willie Love’s 1952 recording on Trumpet Records, owned and operated by Webb’s aunt, Lillian McMurry.
In addition to leading a band, the Mississippi Musicians’ Hall of Fame inductee who was an early deejay on XM Satellite Radio’s Cross Country channel, hosts five shows a week on WMOT/Roots Radio of Middle Tennessee State University. He has also narrated the audio books The Man In White by Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson’s Me and Paul, and Barry Mazor’s biography of the Everly Brothers, Blood Harmony.
As a kid, were you aware of Aunt Lillian’s recording career?
I didn’t really realize that Lillian and Uncle Willard’s label had any kind of significance until I was college age, which is embarrassing! When I discovered they’d recorded Elmore James and Sonny Boy Williamson, that was the real “light bulb moment” for me.
Most pop or country records these days have songs written by committee, each recorded in different studios with different producers.
That’s the new Nashville. Even if I didn’t cut everything live on the floor, I’m still coming from where I’m coming from – a rootsy album not aimed at that commercial market. I’ve never been good at homework; I’m kind of a spontaneous guy. A lot of the songs began with me playing guitar to a click track and putting everything on top of that. It’s still pretty organic when you’ve got Richard Bennett saying, “I think I’ve got something,” and coming back with a beautiful 12-string solo.
A reviewer called you “Tom Petty for the trailer set.”
I was and am a big fan. I really related to Petty’s vision. I appreciate that he saw “the big picture,” as it were. Like all of my favorite artists, he had roots and went somewhere with them. Also, I think he felt obligated or inclined, like I do, to be at least somewhat hip to all the different cool genres and to incorporate and touch on them from time to time with his own music, creating an eclectic body of work not unlike, dare I say it, the Beatles. The Beatles opened the door for us all to do that. The trouble is, by the time I started making records, no labels wanted you to do an album made up of disparate influences. They all wanted a ZZ Top, Ramones, or Georgia Satellites kind of “one sound” thing that they could market.
How has your onstage setup changed?
I went from using the Hiwatt 50 with 1×12 cab to a ’65 Bassman head with the same cab. Then in the last year or so, I started using a ’66 Bandmaster chassis in a custom-built open-back 1×12 Fender-style combo cab that Chris Swope made. I still take a couple of Teles and a third guitar – sometimes my mahogany Historic ’58 Flying V, other times it’s three Teles with one tuned open. I’ve used Teles with two humbuckers a good bit over the last 20 years, but I still use the traditional single-coils, too, especially in the studio. As far as pedals, it’s just a Malekko mini Trem, an Xotic EP Booster, a silver J. Rockett Archer overdrive, and an Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail Nano for reverb.
On “Beautiful Delilah,” I played the ’61 ES-330TD that belonged to Gerry “Phareaux” Felton, who was in the original Omar & the Howlers, and the Commandos, through a tweed Vibrolux. On “Sorrow” and “Kick Me When I’m Down,” I used this parts Tele that I got autographed by Hank Garland, Chet Atkins, Scotty Moore, Duane Eddy, James Burton, Jimmy Johnson, Hubert Sumlin, Steve Cropper, and Don Helms.
Did you learn anything from doing solo concerts?
What I realized is that solo, three-piece, and four-piece all have their limitations and their freedoms, but if the song is good it doesn’t matter what you do with it. I think that made me a more confident guitar player, and made it easier to adapt to a three-piece.
Does playing as a trio, as opposed to having another guitar player, require a different tone?
Maybe I fatten up the tone more when playing as a trio, or maybe I just do that anyway these days. When I hear the various live moments captured, usually by cell phones, that show up on social media, I always figure the tone could maybe be fatter – although the V always sounds fat. Three chords and a cloud of dust, you know? How much stuff do you wanna have to haul out of the venue at the end of the night? – Dan Forte
This article originally appeared in VG’s October 2025 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.