Album Review: The Wood Brothers

By Aaron Davis (for JHWeekly.com)Live Volume 1: Sky High The Wood Brothers ****The Wood Brothers are easily one of my favorite duos in this current renaissance of the duo format. The coincidence of bassist/vocalist Chris Wood being a member of one of my favorite bands of yesteryear—Medeski, Martin & Wood—has little crossover here. Where MMW were the kings of experimental and progressive jazz-groove, The Wood Brothers are straight-up acoustic blues-folk and Americana.On Live Volume 1: Sky High—which is a follow-up to three quality studio albums and the second of two live releases—the listener gets a seven-track snapshot of songs recorded at three different venues. Chris and Oliver Wood (guitar/vocals) are accompanied here by Jano Rix (drums, melodica, vocals) and guest Clay Cook (lap steel, vocals), which add a depth of texture not fully achieved on studio efforts.The “live” sound quality is phenomenal, specifically the fat upright bass and Oliver’s truly unique voice. And there’s not a bad song in the set—an advantage to cherry-picking the best of one’s studio songs along with three performance choices.