Feature

Chris (Medeski, Martin and Wood) and Oliver Wood (King Johnson) are proving that the bonds of brotherhood run deep even in music. After the success of their debut album “Ways Not to Lose,” they are currently promoting their latest release “Loaded” with a national tour that will bring them to Port City.

As I spoke with Oliver, I learned this album was composed during a very bittersweet time for the Wood Brothers, which is definitely reflected in its songs.

SC: What kind of musical interaction did you and your brother have growing up?

OW: Well, we had quite a bit, actually. When we were teenagers, we both started playing and got really into playing guitar and bass. Actually, I started out on bass and got tired of it and switched to guitar and gave my brother the bass, and he sorta went nuts with it. We were always playing together. Our father plays and sings. So, he was definitely an influence and inspired us from early on. Really, we played more as kids than we ever did as adults – until the last couple of years.

SC: You and your brother already had pretty in-depth projects already going on. What was the driving force that ultimately brought the Wood Brothers together?

OW: I guess it started when my band King Johnson shared the bill and opened up for Medeski, Martin and Wood five or six years ago, and I sat in with MMW. That was the first time Chris and I had played together in 15 years. We had such a good time and had this chemistry. I think that was when we first realized.

Chris and I don’t live in the same part of the country, so we would only see each other around the holidays. It was at one of these family functions that we decided to do a little pickin’ together and played a little bit and recorded and had just a great time with the two of us. We started jamming and writing songs and working up old songs and had such a good time. That’s when we decided we ought to do something, even if it’s recording an album just for the fun of it.

SC: Speaking of MMW and King Johnson, The Wood Brothers’ sound is quite different from both bands. As you were composing music, what were your expectations for your sound?

OW: Well, we didn’t really have any expectations. I think we felt like the fact that it was just the two of us, then we could make it interesting and challenging for us. On the other hand, I think that although King Johnson and Medeski, Martin, Wood are quite different on the surface, I think we all have a lot of the same influences. By no means was it a stretch to play and have a middle ground. We both have been influenced by the same stuff, whether it was jazz, blues or New Orleans music. In Medeski, Martin and Wood, there’s a lot of R&B, even thought there might be this avant-garde edge to them at times and sort of a boundary-breaking thing that they do. If you listen underneath it, you hear a lot of New Orleans R&B. In addition to all the other more out-there stuff, there’s a real solid foundation in blues and R&B, and they’re huge fans of Sly Stone and The Meters and Ray Charles and things like that, as I am too, with King Johnson. I think there’s a lot of middle ground there, so it’s easy for us to merge what we were doing. Keep in mind too that what we’re doing is structured songs with singing, verses and choruses. If there are any boundaries for us, then that’s what it is. We have some sort of form involved.

SC: You brought out your debut “Ways Not to Lose” in 2006, and it seemed to really appeal to the critics. How did that feel to find acceptance like that with your first Wood Brothers release?

OW: Oh, it was awesome. I mean, I had fairly low expectations going into it meaning that I was in it just for the fun and to bond with my brother. It’s amazing to have this thing in common with your brother and not have exercised it really for 20 years. Our whole adult life, we lived in different parts of the country, and we still do. But we ran with different musical circles, so we had these parallel music careers. So, I was just excited to be back with my brother and playing and reconnecting not only musically but also socially. My expectations weren’t to hit it big or anything as much as they were to get close to my brother again. So, it was definitely exceeded my expectations when we made that record, and I’m real proud of that record and how it came out.

SC: How would you compare your latest release “Loaded” to “Ways Not to Lose?”

OW: I think it’s quite a bit different, and we wanted it to be different. It’s certainly more collaborative on several levels. First of all, my brother and I did a lot more writing together for this record. So, that felt good. We also collaborated more with our producer John Medeski. He was awesome on the “Ways Not to Lose” record. The key there was that he let us do this raw and basically lent an extra set of ears, but he didn’t really intervene a lot, and he was involved in the arrangements as much as on this new record.

On this new record, he arranged the strings and coordinated all the other players, and he also played quite a bit on it, which was really cool. We’re huge fans of his playing and producing, so to collaborate with him was fantastic. Of course, we had a lot of guest musicians that we collaborated with as well.

SC: I was reading that this is an album of reflection. Could you elaborate on that?

OW: We had sort of a unique and heavy and bittersweet year or two during the time that we wrote this record. Our mom was dying of ALS, which is Lou Gehrig ’s disease. So, really this whole year before we recorded the record, we were working on songs, but we were also slowly saying goodbye to our mom. She ended up passing away about a year ago now. That year before she passed away, we spent a lot of time with her and family in general, and our family got real close. There was a lot of grieving involved, but we also got real close. That’s sorta what I mean by the bittersweetness of it all. During that time, Chris and I wrote most of this music. So, it was quite an experience. In a sense, the whole band was losing its mother. Instead of one member, it was Chris and I both. We were there for each other support wise, but we were also there to collaborate on these songs.

SC: You’re about to start your Southeastern tour. What are your expectations?

OW: Our tour kinda started a couple of months ago on the West Coast, and we’re continuing next week in the South. We’ve been on the West Coast and the Northeast. So, this is our Southern leg coming up. You’re in Mobile, right?

SC: Yeah

OW: We’ve had really great shows so far. We had a really good response on the West Coast, and the Northeast has been strong for a couple of years now. We’ve played so much up there. The West Coast was a pleasant surprise and how we’ve grown out there. We’re definitely optimistic. This run will include not only Mobile but also Birmingham. I know we’re going to Atlanta and Cincinnati, which isn’t really in the South, but we end up at Bonnaroo. The Bonnaroo Festival will be the end of this run. That’s always a good time and a big gig.

Stephen Centanni is Lagniappe music editor. Contact him at scentanni@lagniappemobile.com.

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