Relax — you don’t have classes today. The past seven weeks are a dream you don’t have to even think about for another five days at least. The foreseeable future is yours to fill. Though you have (almost) unlimited options, the end goal of anything you do should be to de-stress, to figure out who you are when you don’t have professors breathing down your necks.
If you find yourself needing help with that, I’d recommend you pull up the Wood Brothers’ newest album, “Paradise,” which came out Oct. 2.
The Wood Brothers is a folk/blues group consisting of brothers Chris (upright bass) and Oliver Wood (acoustic and electric guitar), with the addition of Jano Rix (multi-instrumentalist) to cover any instrument the brothers can’t.
“Paradise” is the group’s sixth album. Each song contains lilting melodies backed by a uniquely relaxing type of rock ‘n’ roll sound, allowing them to both relax and energize their listeners, something college students need during school breaks.
The first song of the album is titled “Singin’ to Strangers.” Starting out with both drums and well-played harmonica, the song is instantly unique; the harmonica serves to temper the power of the drums, and the sound is further tempered by the vocalist’s tenor range. Basically, through its lyrics, the song compares religious fervor to that feeling musicians get when they perform in front of an audience, or when they are ‘singin’ to strangers.’
“American Heartache” is the second song in the album. Its theme is a bit more sobering, arguing against the reality of the “American Dream” by treating it as nothing more than a dream for the night that only manifests itself during the day through a faint longing that can’t be fulfilled. Maybe skip this song for the break and listen to it when classes start again in a week.
Folk music often mixes melancholy story lines with upbeat music; “Heartbreak Lullaby” is a great example of that. Despite its mentions of tears and loss, the song has a light rhythm that makes it bearable, even enjoyable.
There is a certain way of playing the piano that brings to mind images of old Western bars with a piano player performing away in the corner, and “River of Sin” creates that sound. The song feels like it could be performed in just such a bar, where someone might come in asking for the piano man to play a memory, perhaps at 9 o’ clock on a Saturday (see Billy Joel’s “Piano Man”).
“Never and Always” starts out with a sound similar to Jack Johnson’s “Banana Pancakes,” but the two begin to differ fairly quickly. The star of this song is the upright bass grounding each beat, and though the lyrics are again somewhat angst-filled, the song itself mimics the style of the album on the whole: energetically relaxing. Or relaxingly energizing.
Either way, these songs in addition to the five others on the album would provide a great soundtrack for fall break. Enjoy listening to this less well-known group; who knows, the Wood Brothers may just become your new favorite folk artists.