Always on the lookout for concert tickets that are in my price range (i.e. free), I'm try to take full advantage of my county's free summer concert series. Actually, they have a few free summer series going at once, but the one in the town one over from me features mostly folk and folk-rock artists. They often get some really good artists on their way up and sometimes even get some (relatively) bigger names to come into town (last year I saw Graham Parker there, and the year before that they got Marshall Crenshaw to come down to play). And the concerts are on a little outside stage carved into a dell, complete with a little stream running behind it.
Last Wednesday night, the nine-year-old and I went out to see the Wood Brothers. About a year ago a coworker of mine gave me the brothers' debut album, Ways Not to Lose, to listen to. This year he pretty much demanded that I go see them when they came to town (I was already planning on going anyway).
Oliver Wood does most of the singing and most of the songwriting. He also plays a mean guitar, despite his mild-mannered disposition (he was very kind to a little girl who decided she would watch the show from right on the stage). Christopher Wood (he of Medeski Martin & Wood) plays stand up bass and a little harmonica and provides the back up vocals. It's a pretty bare-bones little operation they run, but they make the most of it. Their sound is rooted in the blues but there's a lot more going on there, too. Someone said it pretty well over at Wikipedia (no, seriously, someone actually wrote an accurate wiki for once):
[T]he songs... possess a timeless quality: Their bedrock melodies and astutely observed stories sound instantly archetypal. There are echoes of country blues, Appalachian bluegrass, and New Orleans R&B. Oliver’s inimitable vocals—yearning, rueful, jubilant—are set within expressive yet economical arrangements created by his own impressionistic (electric and National steel-bodied) guitar riffs [and] Chris’ nimble, note-bending bass lines.
Great stuff, and their album is just as impressive. You can download a bunch of songs from their website, but you can download the disc's single right here: "One More Day" [mp3]. And the Free-at-Noon concert they did last year (how'd I miss that?) is archived over at NPR.
And, of course, I took some photos while I was there (they're not the greatest shots - outdoor nighttime concerts aren't the easiest things in the world to shoot).
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