The Wood Brothers – Kingdom In My Mind
Honey Jar Records/Thirty Tigers – Out Now
According to The Wood Brothers’ Chris 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.” It goes a long way to explaining how the blues and gospel of Oliver Wood merged with the jazz and R&B of Chris and the rhythmic chops of Jano Rix to produce their latest work, Kingdom In My Mind.
The spontaneous art of creation on the new disc comes from the three finally having their own studio in Nashville. Jam sessions that came from testing the acoustics of the various rooms meant, “… we weren’t performing songs, we were just improvising and letting the music dictate everything. Normally when you’re recording, you’re thinking about your parts and your performances, but with these sessions, we were just reacting to each other and having fun in the moment, ” according to Oliver.
There was magic in the tracks, so Chris chipped and chiselled verses, choruses and bridges out of the jams, finally dividing the material that spoke to each of them, penning lyrics individually and as a group. The approach pays off handsomely. With a vocal from Oliver Wood that sounds vaguely like Dr John, Alabaster has a slow groove and a string bass courtesy of Chris Wood while telling a tale of a woman leaving an abusive relationship.
Little Bit Sweet is a country-ish number heavy on the bass and a light-handed guitar. All three contribute harmonies. Chris Wood sings lead on Jitterbug Love, discussing the fact that “there’s a kingdom in my mind where I find you all the time,” while Oliver adds a dose of acoustic slide guitar. Touches of Garth Hudson are revealed on the organ solo in Cry Over Nothing.
Funky slide mixes with bass to provide a beguiling bed for the fast-paced Don’t Think About My Death. Slowing things down, Little Bit Broken suggests “Everybody is a little bit broken,” but at the end of the day that’s all right. The organ and piano that drive Satisfied sums up the feeling of optimism that pervades this disc. “Do you remember the day you die? Do you wake up somewhere to some other life? Do you see anybody you used to know? Are you there with your mother and your friends and you foes? I’ve got nothing left to be afraid of, so I will be satisfied.” The song builds like the angels have actually appeared in all their glory.
More than simply a Kingdom In My Mind, The Wood Brothers seem to have established their own kingdom where carefully crafting great material leads to albums that stand the test of time.