Oliver Wood of The Wood Brothers
by Stacy Huggins | images by Alysse Gafkjen
Oliver Wood (left) with The Wood Brothers
“Even when I’m sitting still, my soul still wants to run,” sings Oliver Wood.
This line from “Never and Always” is on The Wood Brothers’ new album Paradise, which is full of poignant moments like that — the kinds of thoughts that we all have but often don’t give voice to.
Oliver Wood lends his voice and guitar to these touching poems; his brother Chris Wood plays bass, harmonica, and provides back up vocals, while Jano Rix offers inventive percussion on his ‘shuitar,’ drums, vocals, and the piano.
Another theme that surfaces repeatedly in this beautiful assemblage of 10 earnest songs is the desire to connect with others— with strangers, with family members, with lovers.
“As musicians, as artists, we’re always trying to connect to each other. Our favorite thing about performing is when the audience and musicians are all on one team, rising up together,” says Wood.
As a musical team, Wood says that collaborating with his brother is not really any more or less challenging than collaborating with anyone else. “You really have to trust who you’re collaborating with…it can be hard to compromise sometimes, but it’s also more rewarding, more triumphant,” he observes. During our conversation, light guitar strumming periodically comes across the phone line. It’s just delightful.
After their mother passed away, Oliver and Chris felt compelled to move their families closer together; Oliver’s family left Atlanta, GA, and Chris’s family left Woodstock, NY, to create their new home in Nashville, TN. “As a musician, it’s a great place to be based,” Wood says. Nashville may have come to prominence as the home of country music, but it has grown into a vibrant home for musicians and creatives of all genres. “There’s so much going on here that has nothing to do with country music, and most folks don’t know it,” says Wood.
Being in the same town has allowed the Wood boys to keep their families connected and to work closely together for this, their fifth album, Paradise. They both still do their own thing: Chris’s celebrated avant-jazz-funk-groove band Medeski, Martin, and Wood is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year; Oliver is a sought after session musician who sits in with other bands frequently.
Wood found his passion for music through the blues as a young man, drawn to its simple, straightforward qualities. Now he finds inspiration in many forms of art— “There are a lot of things that influence the writing,” he says, like where they’ll be playing that tour, but mostly the motivation comes from knowing what they don’t want to do and beginning from there. “We try to impress ourselves, try to do something new that we haven’t done before…and just feel our way around like that,” Wood says. These musical storytellers have created a roster of wise observations of the human condition that are wholly relatable, uplifting, and will carry you away with their infectious grooves.
UPCOMING SHOW
The Wood Brothers live at Charleston Music Hall
October 11, 2016 | 8PM
37 John Street, Charleston | 843.853.2252
charlestonmusichall.com
thewoodbros.com
by Stacy Huggins
From ART MAG 2016 Fall Issue
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Preserving the Origin Story of South Carolina’s Jazz Musicians
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