The best find for me in September’s AMA awards was a couple of live discs from the Wood Brothers that were included in the swag bag. Â Volume 1 is entitled Sky High, and Volume 2 is Nail & Tooth. Â Regardless of the separate names and release dates, these discs are like, well, two brothers. Â Chris Wood, the bass player, is best known for his stint in the progressive jazz band Medeski, Martin, and Wood. Â Brother Oliver cut his chops as a blues guitarist side man and band leader on the modern day chitlin circuit. Â After performing separately for a couple of decades they hooked back up a couple of years ago, and friends, the music world is a better place now for it.
There are a couple of themes that work their way through the two records, whether intentional or not. Â The first is the overall sound. Â It’s sort of like the Avett Brothers harmonies with a New Orleans rhythm section. Â Shoofly Pie is a love song, or maybe a lust song, for an only-in-the-south dessert. Â It has Little Feat written all over it, if Lowell George had been a little more redneck. Â One More Day opens the first disc with a 2nd line feel. Â And Made It Up the Mountain is a greasy jazz number that’s hard to imagine coming from anywhere that’s not near a bayou.
The other theme that winds its way through the two records is a church/bar relationship observation. Â As noted in the outro of Stumbled In, “that was a song about the spiritual benefits of a night club.” Â Above My Head talks about hearing “music everywhere” as a proxy for heaven. Â The one I like the most is Ain’t No More Cane that puts a hymnal spin on a song that seems a channeling of Levon Helm.
As you listen to the songs you also hear the wry observations that feel like one brother commenting to another. Â When I Was Young notes that “the older I get, the less I know and the more I dream.” Â And Glad says as much about brotherhood as anything: “it’s good to see you, but I’d be glad to see you go.”
 Analysis aside, these two albums are just great music.  They’re ebullient expressions of a couple of brothers who went their own way and now are the musical example of the 1 + 1 = 3 idea.  It doesn’t matter which disc you listen to, you’re chair dancing thirty seconds after hitting play.  I’d been playing Nail & Tooth at high volume and pulled up to a light wearing a stupid grin that the guy next to me noticed.  I just turned it up even louder so he could hear.  No doubt this project will make my top 3 favorite albums of the year.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.