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Olivia Jacobs \/ TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE<\/p>\n
Fresh off the release of a new album, the Wood Brothers will bring their genre-blending experimental sound to Solana Beach on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The Grammy-nominated progressive Americana trio is touring with new music from its ninth studio album, \u201cPuff of Smoke,\u201d which was released\u00a0 in November.<\/p>\n
The Wood Brothers fine-tuned the live versions of the album\u2019s songs during a string of dates last fall. Then they hit the road again March 26 for the North American \u201cPuff of Smoke\u201d tour that will finish up Aug. 29 in West Virginia.<\/p>\n
In describing the album on their website, the band wrote that the songs represent \u201cthe state of the human condition.\u201d Instead of a literal soundtrack to uncertain times or a roadmap showing how to live through them, the album has a happily contrarian outlook: Life can turn on a dime, and all we truly have is the moment at hand. And that\u2019s perfectly fine.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not in control,\u201d says guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Oliver Wood, \u201cand that can be good news.\u201d<\/p>\n
The band started more than 20 years ago as a duo of brothers Oliver and Chris Wood, who plays bass and electric guitar. They became a trio in 2011 with the addition of Jano Rix on percussion and keyboard.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe play roots-inspired music, we do a lot of traditional music,\u201d Oliver Wood said in a recent interview. \u201cBut our goal is to be experimental and to mix different traditions and come up with something unique, un-categorizable, that when people ask us what kind of music do you play, you can\u2019t just say one thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a real combo of things, and that\u2019s kind of our goal, is to make something that we enjoy and have fun playing and feels like we invent a new musical recipe,\u201d he continued. \u201cI think traditional fans will enjoy it and music nerds will also like that we try to innovate within these traditional styles.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Wood Brothers have played at a variety of bluegrass and jam band festivals.<\/p>\n
For the most recent album, the band set out to surprise themselves and create something different from previous projects.<\/p>\n
The result was a blend of Latin, calypso, gospel and other musical styles that\u00a0Wood\u00a0said they are excited to share on the road.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think our fans that we built over the last 20 years appreciate that we\u2019re kind of experimenting, and we\u2019ve done it even more on this latest record, very intentionally so,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I think no matter how far we depart, we still sound like us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur fans will recognize this new record as still the\u00a0Wood\u00a0Brothers, but they got a little weird, and just have done something they haven\u2019t done before, and it\u2019s cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
On this record,\u00a0Wood\u00a0is particularly proud of a few songs, including \u201cThe Trick\u201d for its spontaneity and \u201cAbove All Others,\u201d which he described as both weird and fun to play live. The band recently released a music video for the latter.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust looking forward to playing music, and for the fans of the old music, we play old music, too, and it\u2019s awesome to do that, (but) it\u2019s fun and challenging to play new songs for people who haven\u2019t heard them live yet,\u201d he said. \u201cExpect a lot of new songs, some old favorites, great musicianship, and improvisation as well as some cool songs.\u201d<\/p>\n