music feature

june 2010
Band of brothers
The Wood Brothers return to Birmingham with a new sound
june by sam george
17-Parachute Musical/Vinyl Theft
18-Part Bear/Self Destructing Messengers/
The Kopecky Family Band
19-Abandon August/A Fragile Tomorrow/From The Heart

Live Music
20-SUNDAY NIGHT LIVE with: The Bluesweaters
*Service Industry Night!* 1/2 off ticket price if SIN!
21-$5 “Jager Bombs” All Night
22-No Band / No Cover / No Earplugs
23-Matt Kurz One
24-The Poison Control Center
25-Dub Massive/Kimmer Rowe/I-Tegrity/The Happening
Every Saturday!
26-MOTHRA/BeItTheMeans/
Late Night with:Death On Two Wheels
27-SUNDAY NIGHT LIVE with:Music Hates You/Apsis
*Service Industry Night!*/1/2 off ticket price if SIN!
28-$5 “Jager Bombs” All Night
29-No Band / No Cover / No Earplugs
hey bands! join us for “Gulf Aid!”
(a benefit for the Gulf Coast Fishermen)
Sat July 10 - all day long!
Brothers in arts: Oliver Wood (L) and Chris Wood (R) are rebinding their family ties.
$2.00 High Life, Miller Lite and MGD 64 on Sundays
$5.00 Jager Bombs on Mondays! When I was 12, I spent the summer travel- early 90s with Tinsley Ellis, a blues guy out of
Tue nights after 9 p.m. $2.00 well drinks ing up and down the east coast with my family Atlanta, and we’d go to Birmingham, it was
tickets available at www.ticketalternative.com and The Nick performing a street theatre piece based on always a favorite stop. And I love the Workplay
www.myspace.com/thenickrocks the poetry of Carl Sandburg called Rootabega Theatre. That’s a great listening room, and that’s
Stories. It was a grueling task, baking in the what we like in The Wood Brothers, we like
withering heat of late July while your father gave when people are actually sitting there and cap-
FOOD 11PM TO 5AM you notes about your prat falls. Still, I wouldn’t
trade those long hours for anything you could
tives to a degree.”
It’s true, when they roll through Workplay
give me. In a life spent in pursuit of creative ful- this Saturday it will be The Wood Brothers
THURS JUNE 17 fillment, those early days on the road stand out third stop here in three years. Don’t think you
black magnolias as a golden period. It was easier to be free with get off the hook if you’ve been to those shows
FRI JUNE 18 family, to imagine fully, to make brazen and and think you can skip this one, because they
(7-10PM) t. scott fearless fools of each other and ourselves. Since recently recorded a new album in Los Angeles
(LATE) frankie velvet then we have all continued to create separately, with Wilco and Lucinda Williams producer Jim
& the mighty veltones but rarely together, at least for my part. I would Scott, and for the first time they are bringing
SAT JUNE 19 relish the opportunity to work alongside them a drummer to play the new material. After an
(LATE) rollin in the hay again, though we are spread through the world album of covers, it’s a relief to know the brothers
now, our own people in our own contexts. are getting back to original songwriting. “The
SUN JUNE 20 Perhaps this is why I am so captivated by the covers thing was fine,” says Oliver. “It was fun,
(10PM - 1AM)
carlos pino jazz group
music of The Wood Brothers. They have also and it was kind of a cool, but we’ve been waiting
spent years creatively apart, Chris Wood in New to do this original album and we’ve been work-
TUES JUNE 22 York with jazz-funk trio Medeski, Martin & ing on these songs real hard for the last year or
OPEN STAGE NIGHT W/ FRANK Wood and Oliver Wood with popular Atlanta- so. We’re putting it out on a new label called
based jam band King Johnson, but a few years Southern Ground Records, which is owned by
ago, they began performing together as The Zac Brown. He’s a musician himself and under-
Wood Brothers. Chris plays the upright bass stands the plight of the artist much more than
that made him famous, and Oliver plays and some guy in a suit does, so we were able to make
sings with irresistibly scratchy soul, and the an album exactly the way we wanted to make it,
resulting music is simple but subtle. They play and still do it on what looks like it’s going to be a
songs that make you weep, songs that make you very cool label. I think it’s coming out in the late
stomp and holler, and songs that make you do summer or early fall.”
both at the same time. In general, their subject So far, these fellas have yet to deliver a bad
matter tends towards larger themes of hope and album, so anticipation is high in my world, and
failure, redemption and the flawed, but their I have faith that they will give me another round
songs always feel personal. I asked Oliver Wood of great songs to absorb. Perhaps I will send
if these were his demons getting exorcised. “I them to my family as a reminder of the joyful
generally feel like its personal,” he says, “but I things we once made together in the summer
feel like that happens whether your conscious of heat all those years ago.
it or not. In other words, I might come up with
a story, or I might write what I think is a song
about someone else, and ultimately it’s about The Wood Brothers and opening act Joe Mc-
me, it’s about an emotion that I have.” Guinness will be at WorkPlay on Saturday, June
Whatever the formula, it seems to be working 19, at 9 p.m. For tickets, visit www.workplay.com.
because I can’t get enough of it. Speaking of  
which, The Wood Brothers can’t seem to get Sam George is Birmingham Weekly’s newest
enough of you either, Birmingham. “I love staff writer. Send your comments to editor@
Birmingham,” exclaims Oliver, “I’ve played bhamweekly.com.
Birmingham forever. I used to play there in the

22 j u n e 17 - j u n e 2 4 , 2 0 1 0 B I R M I N G H A M W E E K LY