“So for instance, the song ‘Losing Streak’ (from the latest Wood Brothers CD, “The Muse”), it’s cool because, Chris calls it porch dub music,” Oliver Wood said. “He came up with this very dub, reggae-ish kind of bass line. Yet, it’s certainly not a reggae song at all, but just the bass line has an element of that, and then the rest of it is kind of a weirdly tuned piano and tremolo guitar. I don’t know, I feel like it helps us get out of sounding typical or things that to us sound like oh, we’ve already done that or somebody else has already done that.”
“The Muse,” which was produced by Buddy Miller (an accomplished songwriter and musician in his own right) is arguably the most developed example yet of the group’s ability to create a richly varied collection of songs that still sounds like it shares a common foundation and aesthetic. It’s the group’s fourth studio album.
“Neon Tombstone” at its core, is a fairly simple sounding folk-rock tune, but the song gets a little New Orleans ju-ju from its boozy horns and melodica. The piano-accented “Wastin’ My Mind,” meanwhile, sounds like a great lost song by the Band. Hints of gospel filter through “Sing About It,” a tune with a back-porch-jam feel whose lyrics talk about music being a balm for all that ails people.
The sunny country-folk of “Keep Me Around” gets a jazzy touch from Chris Wood’s inventive bass line. On “Sweet Maria” and the title song, things get stripped back to acoustic guitar, bowed bass and little more, a move that puts each song’s emotional lyrics front and center. “Honey Jar” and “Who The Devil,” on the other hand, find the Wood Brothers rocking things up a bit. The former is a jaunty, harmonica-spiced romp, while the latter tune is a bluesy standout with a rapid fire, highly rhythmic chorus.