Rock on Wood – An Interview with Oliver Wood

A roots music fan’s dream, The Wood Brothers is one of the best acts touring right now. This superbly talented trio hits the road next week for a Midwest run, including stops in Fayetteville AR at the always rockin’ George’s Majestic Feb. 17, the legendary Bottleneck in Lawrence KS Feb. 18 and Tulsa’s Vanguard Music Hall Feb. 24.

Brothers Oliver and Chris Wood, along with multi-instrumentalist and percussive wizard Jano Rix, make up the Wood Brothers. A magical union of blues, folk, gospel, and jazz, the band’s unique sound, like the proverbial three-legged stool, is perfectly balanced on the incredible talents of these three musicians. Fans of avant-jazz outfit Medeski, Martin & Wood will recognize Chris Wood’s superlative work on bass. Big brother Oliver shines on guitar and lead vocals with a voice that is unconventionally beautiful and well capable of breaking your heart. Rounding out the triad, Rix, like a resourceful magician, plays a crazy mix of instruments, including his own creation- the shuitar – “a shitty acoustic guitar rigged up with tuna cans and other noisemakers.” The result is as much fun to watch as it is to hear.

The band, which started out as a side project, has grown into the main act. The brothers chose to relocate to Nashville a few years ago with Chris moving from New York and Oliver from Atlanta. Living in the same city has been a positive change for the siblings. “It makes a lot of things easier,” Oliver said in a recent interview. “First off, it’s easier for us just to stay connected as a family. The cousins are able to play together and the wives can bond while we’re gone,” he explained. The move has helped the music, too. “It’s nice for us to actually be able to rehearse before we go out on a tour, or write music in each other’s living rooms instead of over the Internet.”

Life in Music City has been inspiring for Oliver, as well. “I just like knowing that all of these creative minds are in one place and that they’re all making music and writing, and they’re all really good at it. It just makes me want to be a part of that. It just makes me want to get creative and work on stuff and collaborate with people. It just gets the juices flowing,” he laughed.

The Muse, the Wood Brothers’ 2013 album, was produced by the great Buddy Miller and released on country musician Zac Brown’s Southern Ground record label. The album is packed with beautifully crafted songs like the sublime title track.

The band has been back in the studio recently working on a new album for a possible summer release. This time they are self-producing. “We’ve always worked with a producer, and it’s always been great,” Oliver said. “But we felt like, at this point, we wanted to see what would happen if we were just left to our own devices…We’re going to give that a try, and we’re pretty excited about just doing the whole thing home grown.”

The band is hoping to explore some new territory with these songs. “I think it’s a little bit different in a lot of ways,” Oliver commented. “I think it will still sound like us. It’s not like we’re switching to polka music or punk music, but we’re consciously just trying to make a few different decisions.”

While Chris’s distinctive upright bass and Oliver’s trademark lead vocals are still a constant in the band’s sound, Oliver says fans can expect a few twists. “We might have a little extra harmony singing. We might try electric bass on a song or two, which would be a new thing. Chris is an amazing electric bass player, too, and it’s just something we’ve never used in the Wood Brothers, so there’s some pretty rocking stuff on the new album. But I think there’s still going to be some real sort of intimate and more vulnerable stuff, and it’s going to be balanced out with some rocking stuff.”

Fans eager to hear the new material just might get a preview at the upcoming shows. “It’s a possibility,” Oliver conceded. “We may start playing them as early as in a couple of weeks when we’re out your way. Or we might wait until early in the summer. We’ll just have to see. I’m not going to promise anything,” he laughed. “But I won’t be surprised if we whip out one or two.”

For more information on the Wood Brothers, including tour dates, visit their website.