The Wood Brothers
Ways Not To Lose
Blue Note c
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This disc has a very rootsy and acoustic feel to it. It is Oliver Wood on guitars and most of the lead vocals, Chris Wood plays bass and does some vocals also, and Kenny Wollensen plays drums and percussion on 5 tracks. This disc is a distillation of the music the brothers grew up hearing around the house. Their father, Bill Wood, was active in the Boston-Cambridge folk revival scene that included the music of Fritz Richmond, Geoff and Maria Muldaur, and his good friend Joan Baez. The boys remember sitting around the house with their father picking and singing folk and country songs from that era. Others would come by and bring in whoever was exciting them at the time so they were exposed to a wide range of music from the Beatles and Josh White, to Muddy Waters and Lightnin’ Hopkins. Oliver picked up the guitar and Chris the bass. Chris after studying at the New England Conservatory of Music met John Medeski in
NYC and eventually they teamed up with Billy Martin to form Medeski Martin &Wood. Oliver relocated to Atlanta and he wound up playing second guitar behind Atlanta bluesman, Tinsley Ellis, who became a mentor. He eventually founded his own band King Johnson. Eventually the two brothers came together again and started to think about doing a disc. They enlisted John Medeski to be the producer and here you can hear the result. A funky mélange that is always interesting, with some startlingly good playing that leans and draws heavily upon the roots of folk, blues, jazz, and rock music.