A band of Wood Brothers | Arts & Entertainment

Oliver and Chris Wood grew up in Boulder in the ‘70s and early ‘80s and spent seven summers in Aspen. Oliver looks back on those idyllic days fondly. 

“I have a lot of fond memories of Aspen,” Wood said from his home in Nashville. “Getting whippy dip ice cream cones from Carl’s Pharmacy, selling newspapers on the corner for pocket money, fishing the Roaring Fork and Maroon Lake, watching rugby in the park, hiking around Maroon Bells and Independence Pass. There was a free shuttle that took us kids everywhere without our folks; those were the best summer memories of my childhood.”

Oliver and Chris would go from playing in Aspen together as kids to playing music with one another in the Wood Brothers, a band whose music is rooted in rock n’ roll, folk, gospel, blues and jazz. They are joined in the band by percussionist and multi-instrumentalist Jano Nix.

The Wood Brothers play Big B’s Delicious Orchards (close to Paonia) on Saturday, headlining a day of music that starts at 3 p.m. with Kapori Woods. Emily Scott Robinson plays at 5:30 p.m., Lex Line follows at 7 p.m. and the Wood Brothers take the stage at 8:30 p.m. 

Growing up, Chris and Oliver picked up some of their early musical influences from their parents. Their father was a molecular biologist who played guitar by the campfire and their mother was a poet who instilled a love of storytelling to her sons. The brothers had a mutual love of the blues of Jimmy Reed and Lightning Hopkins. 

After high school, Oliver and Chris chose different paths. Chris moved to Boston to attend the New England Conservatory of Music, and Oliver moved to Atlanta because one of his bandmates at the time was from there. 

Atlanta is not what you think of when you consider great music cities like New Orleans, Nashville or Austin. But Atlanta proved to be a haven for Oliver. 

He linked up with blues musician Tinsley Ellis and became part of his touring band. It was Ellis who first encouraged Oliver to sing and write his own songs.  

Oliver met blues drummer Donnie McCormick who was a huge influence on him. One of the Wood Brothers most beloved songs is called “Postcards from Hell” and was inspired by McCormick.

“Donnie was a hero of mine. He was a real unsung hero, not somebody that’s very well known; I just really admired him for his artistry,” Oliver recalled. “He was the most genuine, present, expressive artist. He was a conduit. He went into sort of a trance when he played. He just transformed into this vessel where nothing else mattered. He never sold his soul. He was egoless. He wasn’t in it for the money. He wasn’t in it for fame.

“It didn’t matter if if there were a thousand people watching or one person, and sometimes that one person was me, and it was just the most incredible, real thing I’ve ever witnessed, this guy is singing to me like I’m the last guy on earth, and I’m all he cares about at this moment. I always found that really, really inspiring. The message he taught me was to be myself, be an artist, and that is the highest thing to be.”

Another mentor Oliver encountered during his days in Atlanta was Col. Bruce Hampton, a soul singer and guitarist revered by many as the godfather/spiritual guru of the jamband scene.

“The Colonel and Donnie represented the same ideals of no ego and being truthful in your playing,” Oliver said. “Donnie did it through example and the Colonel was more of a philosopher and preacher in his own way. He married my wife and me.”

Oliver was one of the guests at Hampton’s 70th birthday concert, where Hampton had a heart attack and died at the end of the show. Oliver wears a Col. Bruce belt buckle in his honor. 

“Bruce was someone who not only did his own thing, but he encouraged and trained his disciples to do the same thing and that is to be yourself.”

Oliver founded King Johnson, a rock band that released six albums of blues-inflected R&B, funk and country over 12 years. After graduating from music school, Chris moved to New York and was a founding member of the jazz/funk fusion band Medeski Martin and Wood, which released two dozen albums over 20 years. 

On May 24, 2001, King Johnson and Medeski Martin and Wood found themselves at the same music festival in North Carolina. Oliver sat in with MMW and the chemistry was undeniable. 

“It was mind blowing how comfortable it was,” Oliver recalled. “Chris and I were just completely locked in. I had this feeling that was hard to describe. But it was like this psychic connection that could only come from maybe genetics, or having a shared history or whatever, but we just gelled, and it immediately reconnected us and not just musically but as brothers, it was like, ‘wow, we have this thing in common we should take advantage of it.’” 

In 2005, Oliver and Chris formed the Wood Brothers and for over 20 years they have cemented themselves as one of the great bands in American roots music.

“We don’t like to be called any kind of music because we use all kinds of American roots, music, a little bit of world music and we mix it together,” Oliver said. “A lot of people call it Americana; I’m not crazy about that term. It has elements of blues, jazz, gospel, country and rock and roll.”

The Wood Brothers have released nine studio records and four live releases. Their new record, “Puff of Smoke,” comes out Aug. 1. 

When asked if he could point to some key songs for  someone who had never heard of the Wood Brothers he pointed to “Luckiest Man” and “Postcards from Hell” from 2008’s “Loaded.” He also highlighted two songs from the band’s live album “Live at the Barn” (recorded at Levon Helm’s barn in Woodstock, New York) “Who the Devil” and “Honey Jar” as good examples of the Wood Brothers rocking out.

When asked what he hopes people will take away from seeing the Wood Brothers live, he said, “I hope people have some kind of connection with the music. Jano and Chris are virtuoso players so you’ll get to see a  bass player like Chris Wood play that upright bass and Jano plays the drums and keyboards at the same time. I hope the songs will resonate with people.”

Oliver said that the most meaningful part of his life as a musician is when he hears from fans how much the music means to them.

“What really means the most to me more than any sort of accolades or applause, or anything like that, is when people mention how the music is medicinal, and how the music got them through a tough time, or that they feel connected to a song in a deep way. When you play a show and you have a thousand people all singing along, and these might be people with all sorts of different backgrounds and political angles and religious beliefs, etc, but they’re all united at the same time singing one of your songs, that kind of transcends all the crap that’s going on. In other words, it makes this job feel really important.”