Derek Webb with Sandra McCracken

Back in 2006, when In Rainbows was merely a twinkle in Thom Yorke’s lazy eye, Derek Webb released his third solo album, Mockingbird, for free. The album had a more typical release in late 2005, but starting the following September, Webb began giving the album away on the Free Derek Webb website in exchange for a downloader’s name, email, zip code and the e-mail of five friends. More than 80,000 people downloaded the album.

It’s a tactic that fits the progressive persona of Webb, an evangelical Christian who began his career with Christian radio faves Caedmon’s Call and has been putting out surprising solo releases since 2003. Webb has described himself as an artist who occupies “a niche within a niche within a niche.” At his show Friday night--which was a benefit concert for Project Compassion, an organization that provides assistance to Central Ohioans with HIV and AIDS--that proved to be true.

Evangelicals tend to label Webb as a dastardly liberal, and liberals find him too evangelical; the mainstream Christian market shies away from his not-so-subtle criticisms of the church and the government, while mainstream radio thinks he’s too Christian (after all, this show took place at New Life Church in Gahanna). Folkies and indie rockers also haven’t let him into the club as they have contemporaries like Sufjan Stevens or David Bazan of Pedro the Lion.

Webb kicked off the show as a backup musician for opener Sandra McCracken, who also happens to be his wife. The Nashville couple created a nice, off-the-cuff mood for her set of originals, as well as some tunes they co-wrote off the home-recorded Ampersand EP that was released last week. McCracken has a lovely, pure voice that resonates live better than on record, where she sometimes slides into adult-contemporary land. It’s nothing brazenly new, but she has folk pop nailed--“Grey’s Anatomy” noticed and picked up one of her older songs, “Ten Thousand Angels,” recently. The Dylan cover “If Not For You” rang especially true.

The highlight, though, was Webb’s solo set, thanks to his scratchy-at-the-summit vocals, folky hooks and biting lyrics. And while Webb does tread a starkly different path from those in the mainstream Christian music industry, it would be a mistake to characterize him as someone who’s not “preachy.” Each song has a message, a very clear one. But he takes cues from protest folk singers as opposed to sentimental schlocks you’re likely to hear on The River.

Take the sarcasm-laden “New Law” off Mockingbird: “Don’t teach me about politics and government, just tell me who to vote for/ Don’t teach me about truth and beauty, just label my music/…I don’t wanna know if the answers aren’t easy, so just bring it down from the mountain to me/ I want a new law.” Or the politically charged “A King & A Kingdom”: “There are two great lies that I’ve heard: ‘The day you eat of the fruit of that tree, you will not surely die,’ and that Jesus Christ was a white, middle-class Republican.”

It’s a rare breath of fresh air for an artist who sings about faith to push the envelope and make some people squirm. Webb said jokingly that his goal is to eventually alienate everybody--his next album will focus on race and sexuality. Apparently he’s still palatable enough, though, because “Grey’s Anatomy” picked up one of his songs, too: “Name,” off of last year’s more electric The Ringing Bell, was recently played over a lengthy montage of fornicating doctors. “It’s as close to a hit as I’ve ever had, or probably ever will have,” he said.

That may or may not be true. Webb’s acoustic rendition of “I Wanna Marry You All Over Again” was funny, quirky and catchy--a good recipe for a love-song crossover hit. But in the off chance it becomes a top download on iTunes, don’t be surprised if he just starts giving it away.

(More slightly out-of-focus pics with bad lighting here.)

mp3: Derek Webb - Mockingbird