Americana music has experienced a surge in the past few years. In the years following the surprising Album of the Year victory by the O Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack, traditional roots music has come to enjoy something of a renaissance.
On their new record, Loaded, The Wood Brothers follow up to their debut, Ways to Lose. On this sophomore release, Oliver and Chris take Americana and successfully fuse it with streaks of blues and tinges of gospel, not unlike Ways to Lose, but certainly with a better understanding of the sound they are striving to create.
On the opening track, Lovin' Arms, Oliver Wood's thick and throaty voice offers up a dolefully sweet elegy to a loved one. On Pray Enough, he turns into a preacher at a revival as the background vocals soar like a full chorus. At times, it feels like you're listening to the band on a Mississippi riverboat.
Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan Covers
Three covers toward the end of the album include the traditional, Make Me Down A Pallet On Your Floor as well as Bob Dylan's Buckets of Rain and the Jimi Hendrix classic Angel. The latter is a standout track with an unmistakable Jimi intro that turns into a relaxed reggae groove. Oliver Wood's gravelly voice has an attractively imperfect timbre that gives these songs an honest and believable quality.
Not MMW
What makes "Loaded" a really good record is the assortment of top-notch musicians that show up to back the Wood Brothers. With Chris Wood's always impeccable bass playing and Oliver often on slide guitar, the album also features John Medeski, Kenny Wolessen and Billy Martin to name just a few. For anyone whoever wondered what an MMW record (excluding Let's go Everywhere) might sound like with vocals, this might be as close as you will ever get.
However, "Loaded" is not MMW. From start to finish, it is pure roots music. If anything, it draws the comparison to another of Medeski's former projects, The Word, which introduced Robert Randolph to the world. But more than anything, it is a convergence of two distinct styles from two brothers who took very different musical paths in life.
True to the nature of the music they set out to create, Loaded doesn't forsake its gritty and rough texture for slick and superfluous production values, although there are some nice string arrangements and subtleties that are felt more than heard. What results is an album that sounds great the first time and yet, never loses its appeal.
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