The Wood Brothers perform the latest in a series of midday concerts from NPR Music and WXPN. The roots-rock duo's show has ended. But their full performance from the stage of World Cafe Live in Philadelphia, Pa., is now available in archive form.
Chris and Oliver Wood, the sons of a poet and a microbiologist, grew up in Boulder, Colorado. Although they both took up music at an early age, the pair went in completely opposite directions. Oliver moved down to Atlanta and became a Southerner. Chris moved up to New York City and became a Yankee.
After years of musical and geographical separation they have begun a collaboration that combines their shared childhood influences with everything they've learned since leaving home. While in Atlanta, Oliver soaked up the roots of blues, the soul of the south, and found he had a talent for writing and singing songs. He had a successful band, King Johnson, named after Freddy King and Robert Johnson, which toured mostly in the southern states. At the same time, Chris was living in Manhattan playing everything from rock and roll to free jazz. This is where he met his bandmates and formed the popular group Medeski Martin & Wood.
Their music has a rootsy feel that blends blues, folk, and rock music in a guitar/bass duo. Their first colllaborative album, Ways Not To Lose produced by John Medeski, will be released March 7, 2006 on Blue Note Records.
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