Infinity Hall

For Chris and Oliver Wood, music has always been a family affair. Raised in Boulder, Colorado by a Harvard-trained microbiologist father and a poet mother, The Wood Brothers grew up immersed in music. Their father was part of the late 1950’s Boston-Cambridge folk revival scene and played with Joan Baez and introduced his sons to the world of folk and country music.

The Wood brothers wrote and played together growing up, then wound up on divergent paths in pursuit of their individual music careers. Oliver moved to Atlanta where he embraced the blues/rock music scene and fronted the band King Johnson, while Chris ended up in the vibrant, underground music scene of New York City and is bassist and one third of the improvisational trio, Medeski Martin&Wood.

It wasn’t until 2003, when Chris and Oliver shared the same stage as part of a King Johnson/ Medeski Martin&Wood double bill, that they realized there was potential for a duo project. As Chris recalls, “Oliver sat in with us – he just played guitar, didn’t sing but he was so good and so familiar. Even though we’d been pursuing music in two very different worlds, we shared a perspective that made our collaboration feel really natural.”

In 2004 Chris and Oliver began working up songs, retreated for writing sessions and in March 2006, released their debut album, Ways Not to Lose on Blue Note Records. The songs - sung and largely composed by Oliver Wood – possessed a timeless quality. There were echoes of country blues, Appalachian bluegrass and New Orleans R&B. Oliver’s vocals were set within expressive arrangements created by his guitar riffs and Chris’ nimble, note-bending bass lines. It is a spare and raw album, a “loose reimagining of American roots styles…earthy, acoustic original songs spiced with a shot of hipster irreverence,” said Rolling Stone. The twelve tracks comprising Ways Not to Lose embodied a tinge of sadness and struggle but also a strong spirit of resilience and fortitude.

The Wood Brothers spent the better part of 2006 on the road supporting their debut album, which included the festival circuit such as Bonnaroo, Summerfest and Newport Folk Festival. In the spring of 2008, they released their sophomore album on Blue Note, Loaded, which Chris’ Medeski Martin&Wood band-mate, John Medeski, returned to produce. This album, unlike their debut, was a more fleshed-out, multi-layered band effort, with collaborations from Amos Lee and others. “We had a chemistry that was good and we captured that on the first record. [In the two years since the first album], we’ve just evolved. We have different things to say…that combined voice has taken us to a different place and this record illustrates that.” The passing of their mother from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) influenced the emotions and songwriting behind Loaded and exposed fans to the brothers’ loss. Despite Loaded being a heavy, personal album, there were numerous upbeat, foot-stomping numbers like “Pray Enough” and “Postcards from Hell.” Critics have called Loaded “a flawless exercise in roots, rock and even reggae.”

For The Wood Brothers, the blues offer solace from downheartedness; there’s a soulful quality in their work that grows increasingly compelling (and comforting), the more familiar their songs become. In 2009, The Wood Brothers released an EP of carefully crafted covers called Up Above My Head. The mini-album features the brothers pared down to their original duo format, covering works from The Beatles’ “Fixing a Hole” to Steve Earle’s “Mystery Train Pt 2.”

The Wood Brothers continue to tour extensively (most recently supporting k.d. Lang, Bruce Hornsby&The Noisemakers and Levon Helm) and are gathering material for their next studio record.

Opening for The Wood Brothers is Clay Cook. An Atlanta native, Cook has made his living through many avenues in the music industry over the past decade. An accomplished mulit-instrumentalist, he has recorded and toured with John Mayer, Sugarland, The Marshall Tucker Band, & Shawn Mullins. Along with his own solo efforts, Cook has written songs with Mayer & The Marshall Tucker Band. Owner & operator of The Small Room Studio in Inman Park, he has produced & engineered records for local artists & the occasional national act. 2009 found Clay as a newly added member of the Zac Brown Band.

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