The Wood Brothers One Drop of Truth “It’s the freest album we’ve done, the most independent album we’ve done, and was the most fun we’ve ever had making a record,” says Oliver Wood. “And most importantly, this is the most purely Wood Brothers’ album we’ve ever made.” Indeed, The Wood Brothers’ sixth outing, ‘One Drop of Truth,’ dives headfirst into a deep wellspring of sounds, styles and influences. Whereas their previous outings have often followed a conceptual and sonic through-line, here the long-standing trio featuring brothers Oliver and Chris Wood along with Jano Rix treat each song as if it were its own short film. The plaintive, country-folk of the album’s opening track “River Takes The Town” gives way to the The Band-esque Americana soul of “Happiness Jones.” The wistful ballad “Strange As It Seems” floats on a cloud of stream of consciousness, standing in stark contrast to “Sky High”—a Saturday night barnburner built upon stinging slide guitar funk. “Seasick Emotions” is rife with turmoil, yet “Sparking Wine” is jaunty and carefree. The end result is undeniably The Wood Brothers’ most dynamic recording to date. “Often, when you’re making an album in the traditional way, there will be a unifying concept, whether that be in the approach to the music stylistically or lyrically in terms over the overall narrative. And even though there are some themes that revealed themselves later, this one is all over the place,” explains Oliver Wood. “What I really love about this record is that each one of these songs has its own little world. There are diver-se sounds and vibes from one track to the next.” Building off the success of their previous studio album, 2015’s ‘Paradise,’ which was dubbed “the warmest, most sublime and occasionally rowdiest Wood Brothers release yet,” by American Songwriter, the band found themselves at a fortuitous crossroads. Following a tour with Tedeschi Trucks Ba¬¬¬¬¬nd, high profile festival dates and sold out headline shows, the band felt free from the cyclical album release, tour, write, record and do-it-all-over-again pressures of the traditional music business. With all three members living in Nashville affording easy access to each other and a wealth of local independent studios at their disposal, they started work in January of 2017 with a new approach. “Instead of going into one studio and recording it all at the same time, we picked a couple studios, and started to experiment,” says Chris Wood. “Sometimes we’d just make demos of songs to see if we got anything we liked. There was no pressure, and that really freed us up. We just did one or two songs a day, put it aside, let the songs simmer, and then we’d have a fresh perspective on what was working or not working. You need time to go by to gain objectivity.” The band extended this approach to the mixing process, sending tracks to four different mixing engineers, each selected based on what the song demanded. Scotty Hard (who’s worked extensively with Medeski Martin & Wood, among others) was recruited for the “edgier, funkier tunes,” “Sky High” and “Happiness Jones.” Mike Poole (who worked on The Wood Brothers album ‘The Muse’) mixed “Sparkling Wine” and “Strange As It Seems.” Their old friend Brandon Belle from Zac Brown’s studio Southern Ground took on “Laughin’ Or Crying.” The remainder of the album was mixed by Grammy Award-winning engineer Trina Shoemaker, especially sought after by The Wood Brothers for her work with Brandi Carlile. While the songs on ‘One Drop of Truth’ achieve the goal of standing on their own, a few common themes did, inevitably, emerge. Water—whether in a teardrop, a storm, a river or a libation—was being used as a metaphor in the search for truth and happiness. Chris Wood’s “Seasick Emotion,” one of two songs he sings on the collection serves as a prime example: “All the blue sky is gone / How can I get out of bed / This hurricane in my head / I’m just a boat in a storm / How can I know where to go / When everything that I know / Is already lost in the wind.” “That one was written last fall during a hurricane, while at the same time the election was coming up, and there was all this crazy energy in the world,” Chris reveals. “I definitely got swept away emotionally by everything that was going on.” Album opener, “River Takes the Town,” takes on both figurative and literal meaning. It was completed just as a series of hurricanes were decimating parts of the U.S.: “It's been a few days since I heard any word from you / and I don't sleep easy, I don't sleep easy / and the rain keeps comin’, the rain keeps comin’ / nothin's ever for certain / 'til the levee breaks down / the water comes in and the river / the river takes the town.” “I remember hearing a news story about a flood in Shreveport, and I wrote the line ‘I hope the levee in Shreveport does what it's supposed to do,’” explains Oliver. “I was writing literally, at first, about how scary it must be when people lose power and communication with those they love. But then the lyrics became a metaphor for something more interpersonal. And by the end of this summer, it seemed to take on new meaning yet again.” Though emotional struggle is a recurring thread, so is the comforting truth of how much wisdom comes from the hard times. The song “Happiness Jones”, was based on a news article Oliver read about how our society is addicted to happiness, antidepressants, and the distorted “happy” reality social media can depict. As a result, people feel like it’s unnatural to be sad, yet. sadness can be a gift: “All of my wisdom came from all the toughest days / I never learned a thing bein’ happy / all of my sufferin’ came / I didn’t appreciate it / I never learned a thing being happy.” While the majority of ‘One Drop of Truth’ was written and recorded as a group, the standout track “Strange As It Seems,” described by Chris as, “a classic Oliver song,” was an exception. “I had recorded it a couple months before Chris and Jano added their parts, so I was excited to see what they would do with it. We talked a lot about it having a dreamlike quality to it. Chris has all these cool sound effects that he can make with the bowed bass, and then Jano played the melodica and the piano on it, and they added exactly the atmosphere that it needed,” explains Oliver. “Conceptually, I almost think of it like a Tim Burton movie, where you go to sleep, and you go into this dream world, to meet your lover, but you do so with purpose. You bring your wallet, you get dressed up, you’re going on a date. The idea being, that you rendezvous in the dream. One of my favorite things about any song is ambiguity, leaving it open to interpretation. Maybe the man and woman in this song are already married, and they’re on separate sides of the bed, and they’re disconnected, so they’re hoping to find a better version of a partner in their dreams. Or, maybe they are two lonely people, in separate places, finding each other in this dreamworld. But at the end of the song, the guy wakes up, and he goes down to the kitchen, and he’s with his wife and it’s a beautiful thing, and they dance in the light. So perhaps there’s also an element of hope, whether they’re lonely, or they’re disconnected, there’s still a connection there, sometimes you have to go to that other level to realize it.” Fittingly titled, ‘One Drop of Truth,’ the latest entry in The Wood Brothers evolution finds three musicians being true to themselves. At a point in their career where most artists would be looking to strategically position themselves for even greater commercial success, they instead turned to artistic expression in service of the muse. In chaotic times when honesty is in short supply and ulterior motives seem to always be at play, The Wood Brothers put faith in themselves and ultimately their audience by writing and recording a collection of songs that is honest and pure. As they sing on the album’s title track: “Rather die hungry / than feasting on lies / Give me one drop of truth / I cannot deny.” For more info on The Wood Brothers, please contact: Kevin Calabro at Calabro Music Media: kevin@calabromusicmedia.com/ 917.838.4613 ht Ramble. As repeat special guests at Helm's famed Woodstock barn, the trio—guitarist Oliver Wood, bassist Chris Wood, and drummer Jano Rix— developed a cherished friendship with the late icon that transcended simple musical collaboration and left an indelible mark on their songs and their lives. That shared history made it all the more emo- tional when The Wood Brothers returned to the barn on August 19, 2016, for their first Ramble since Helm's passing. Captured pristinely on their new album, 'Live At The Barn,' the band's sold-out performance that night spanned their career and showcased the kind of singularly eclectic and electrifying performance style that's earned them devoted legions of fans around the world. "We're huge fans of Levon's and count him as a big influence," says Oliver, who named his son for Helm. "Since we actually got to know him, his influence was more than musical—it was personal. He was one of those unique and powerful personalities, and I’ll always remember how gracious he was. We also got to know his daughter Amy quite well and have had great tours and collaborations with her. She’s a beautiful soul just like her dad, and we have fond memories of playing with both of them in that barn." Live At The Barn follows 2015's critically acclaimed Paradise, which the band recorded at Dan Auerbach's Easy Eye studio in their adopted hometown of Nashville, TN. Hailed by Rolling Stone for songwriting "that hits both the heart and head" and praised by American Songwriter for its "spry, soulful folk-rock," the album debuted at no. 1 on the Billboard Heatseekers Chart and launched The Wood Brothers into the most successful year of their career, with performances everywhere from Bonnaroo to Red Rocks to Carnegie Hall. NPR's World Cafe raved that "there is so much warmth, soul and musicianship at a Wood Brothers show, it's no surprise that the band's audience keeps growing," and Live At The Barn is no exception. Over the course of the album's nine tracks, the band careens from soul to folk to funk to blues to rock, mixing acoustic and electric instruments and effortlessly blending eras and regions of American music. While the album documents their remarkably adventurous musicianship and tight interplay, it also manages to capture their extraordinary relationship with their fans, an essential ingredient in the magic of any Wood Brothers concert. On "I Got Loaded," the exuberant audience joins in a rousing call and response, while the bluesy groove of "Tried And Tempted" elicits whoops and hollers from listeners overcome by the energy in the room. The Wood Brothers can effectively transform any venue into a revival tent with their exhilarating performances, but there's something singular about playing in that barn. "It’s so intimate and casual that it feels less like a concert and more like a living room jam," says Oliver. "The spirit in there is strong, from the history and the intent that Levon had when he built the place to all the great music and musicians that have played there." With Live At The Barn, The Wood Brothers weave their own little moment into the rich and ever expanding tapestry of Levon’s barn, while at the same time tipping their cap to the influences that came before them. It's only fitting, then, that the record ends with The Band's "Ophelia," a mainstay of The Wood Brothers' live show from a time well before any of them ever imagined performing, let alone recording an album, in such an historic space. "We're just proud and honored and humbled that this album was made in the barn," says Oliver. "I’d like to think we're part of the same lineage as The Band. We certainly draw from a lot of the same roots, and they've always been an inspiration. Their music reminds us to be ourselves.”