CD REVIEW: THE WOOD BROTHERS: LOADED

So occasionally you stumble on a good CD. Well made, nice tunes, very tightly played. You listen to it a bunch of times and claim it as your own... and then your standing in the Starbucks waiting for your vente (whatever the hell that means) black iced tea (unsweet) and suddenly you hear one of the songs from the CD. Does it ruin it? Does it validate your taste? Or is it a non-event and you are only considering how it e you because you are so dramatically self involved. Yes that is probably it.

This was recently my experience with The Wood Brothers new Cd “Loaded”. It was released in March and I listened and then listened again and... damn i thought these were fine songs. The Wood Brothers have been around for a long time and through at least three CD’s. They are Oliver Wood on guitar and vocals and Chris Wood on bass. Chris is one of the founders of the (I never got it) Medeski, Martin and Wood. Medeski produced this one and it is just a fine, listen-able tuneful CD.

One of the things I love about it is that it does not seem front loaded. Some of the best tunes are buried in the middle and the back. it is definitely a CD you could put on while chatting with some friends and having a drink and sooner or later someone says “who is this?” And as a music snob that is about all you can ask for. Oliver has a kind of young Levon Helms or Levon helms pre throat cancer type voice that just sounds real and mournful right from the start on the opening cut “Lovin Arms”. The happily named postcards from hell carries it on but aside from an interesting little noodling guitar line there is not too much there. Pray enough is a little more bluesy with even a New Orleans lilt with some sweet organ by Medeski. “Loaded” is a mournful drinking song which you have written and sung a hundred times. “Walk Away” is a throw away followed by “Don’t Look Back they make up the low part of the Cd both lyrically and energy wise. “Twisted” starts to ramp it back up and they really hit stride on Fall Too Fast” where he sings:

“Don’t let me fall to fast.
I want to fall slowly.
I want my fall to last”.

Amen brother Oliver.

After that lyrical delight they go into the boringly named but beautiful “Angel” which is just...just a great song. Written by that nobody Jimi Hendrix it just is lilting and nuanced and...great. they then cover Dylan’s “Buckets of Rain” in a pleasant romp that does not borrow too heavily from the man which is really the nice thing about both covers. they made them their own. They close it out with “Make Me Down A Pallet On Your Floor” and a song called “Still Close” and they are both listenable and would be a nice inclusion on anybodies CD.

These guys can just flat out play and there is something about brothers who have been playing together for so long and have so much history where the groove just...grooves. Buy it and smile and do not worry too much about the Starbucks thing.

www.thewoodbrothers.com

8 Slingers on the 10 scale