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The Wood Brothers: Musical Democracy And Instrumental Telepathy

The Wood Brothers.
Alysse Gafkjen
The Wood Brothers.

From childhood, Chris and Oliver Wood grew up hearing their dad's renditions of American roots music and their mother's poetry. They both became musicians: Oliver wrote songs and formed the blues/funk/r & b/country band, King Johnson, while Chris became a jazz bassist and co-founded the avant-groove trio, Medeski, Martin and Wood. In 2005, after the brothers had pursued separate musical careers for fifteen years, their mother, poet Renate Wood, entered the final stages of ALS. That's when they started recording demo songs as The Wood Brothers.  The 2018 self-produced release, "One Drop of Truth," is the band's sixth full-length album together.

Chris says, “The influence for the Wood Brothers, it's a lot of the same stuff we were listening to in the van with Medeski, Martin and Wood.”

(Broadcast: "Musician's Spotlight,"  5/24/18 and 8/16/18. Listen on the radio Thursdays, 7:30 p.m., or via podcast.)

John Floridis, the host and producer of Musician's Spotlight, has been with Montana Public Radio since 1997. He has interviewed over 200 musicians during that time. He is also an independent recording and performing artist in his own right and a former registered music therapist.
Beth Anne Austein has been spinning tunes on the air (The Folk Show, Dancing With Tradition, Freeforms), as well as recording, editing and mixing audio for Montana Public Radio and Montana PBS, since the Clinton Administration. She’s jockeyed faders or "fixed it in post” for The Plant Detective; Listeners Bookstall; Fieldnotes; Musicians Spotlight; The Write Question; Storycorps; Selected Shorts; Bill Raoul’s music series; orchestral and chamber concerts; lecture series; news interviews; and outside producers’ programs about topics ranging from philosophy to ticks.
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