photography by Alysse Gafkjen
“I like a good temptress to stir my blood, but I go home to the one I love,” sing The Wood Brothers on their latest single, “The One I Love” (listen/share). Available tomorrow (Jan. 10) on all digital streaming platforms and premiered today at The Boot, the song is the 4th single from the Nashville-based band’s forthcoming studio album, ‘Kingdom In My Mind,’ set for release January 24 on Honey Jar/Thirty Tigers. The infectious, Zydeco-tinged track encapsulates the search for balance between darkness and light that lies at the heart of the 11-track collection—The Wood Brothers’ seventh studio album and their most spontaneous and experimental collection yet.
“Everyone has these little kingdoms in their minds,” says Chris Wood. “The songs on this album all explore the ways we find peace within those kingdoms. They look at how we deal with our dreams and our regrets and our fears and our loves. They look at the stories we tell ourselves and the ways we balance the darkness and the light.”
Recorded over a series of freewheeling, improvised jam sessions that The Wood Brothers retroactively carved into more conventional structures, the album is a reckoning with time, mortality, and human nature. Thoughtfully honing in on the bittersweet beauty that underlies our doubt and pain, the songs grapple with the power of our external surroundings to shape our internal worlds (and vice versa), finding strength in accepting what lies beyond our control through vivid character studies and unflinching self-examination. While the lyrics dig deep, the arrangements always manage to remain buoyant and transportive, drawing from a broad sonic and stylistic spectrum that’s indicative of the trio’s unique place in the modern musical landscape.
“My brother came to this band from the blues and gospel world, and my history was all over the map with jazz and R&B,” says Chris, who first rose to fame with the pioneering trio Medeski Martin & Wood. “The idea for this group has always been to marry our backgrounds, to imagine what might happen if Robert Johnson and Charles Mingus had started a band together.”
The Wood Brothers hit the road in support of ‘Kingdom In My Mind’ on January 29 at Ram’s Head Live in Baltimore. Among the highlights of the extensive North American tour, the band headlines two nights at Webster Hall in New York City, two nights at The Bijou in Knoxville, three nights at The Orange Peel in Asheville, as well as, single night engagements at The Fox Theater in Oakland, The Ryman in Nashville and Crystal Ballroom in Portland.
THE WOOD BROTHERS
Tour Dates
1/29 – Baltimore, MD – Ram’s Head Live ^
1/30 – New York, NY – Webster Hall ^
1/31 – New York, NY – Webster Hall ^
2/1 – Philadelphia, PA – The Fillmore ^
2/3 – Toronto, Canada – Mod Club Theatre ^
2/5 – Rochester, NY – Kodak Center ^
2/6 – Burlington, VT – Flynn Center for the Performing Arts ^
2/7 – New Haven, CT – College Street Music Hall ^
2/8 – Albany, NY – Palace Theatre ^
2/9 – State College, PA – The State Theatre ^
2/11 – McKees Rocks, PA – Roxian Theatre ^
2/12 – Richmond, VA – The National ^
2/13 – Chattanooga, TN – Walker Theatre ^
2/14 – Nashville, TN – The Ryman ^
2/27 – 3/1 – Punta Cana, DR – Avett Brothers at the Beach (Sold Out)
3/4 – Phoenix, AZ – The Crescent Ballroom *
3/5 – Los Angeles, CA – The Regent *
3/6 – Santa Barbara, CA – Campbell Hall *
3/7 – Oakland, CA – Fox Theater *
3/8 – Eureka, CA – Arkley Center for the Performing Arts *
3/10 – Eugene, OR – McDonald Theater *
3/11 – Kirkland, WA – Kirkland Performance Center *
3/12 – Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom *
3/13 – Vancouver, BC – Imperial *
4/2 – Knoxville, TN – Bijou Theatre
4/3 – Knoxville, TN – Bijou Theatre
4/4 – Chicago, IL – Riviera Theatre
4/5 – Milwaukee, WI – Pabst Theatre
4/7 – Detroit, MI – Majestic Theatre
4/8 – Columbus, OH – Southern Theatre
4/9 – Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel
4/10 – Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel
4/11 – Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel
5/22 – Chillicothe, IL – Summer Camp Music Festival
6/27 – Laytonville, CA – Black Oak Ranch
^ w/ Kat Wright
- w/ Birds of Chicago
‘Kingdom In My Mind’ is available for pre-order here on LP, CD & Digital Formats
