feature photo: Laura Partain
The happy-go-lucky folk troubadours The Wood Brothers will soon be touring around the USA again but this time they’ll be doing so with a fresh new set of songs that they recently recorded. Puff Of Smoke (Honey Jar/Thirty Tigers) won’t be out until August 1, 2025 but there’s already a tune from it on the loose that signifies that this album will be every bit as a quality modern Americana disc as the prior eight ones.
“Witness” — the lead single now out with a video above — uses a stream of cultural references employed so cleverly before by singer-songwriters from Bob Dylan to Billy Joel. The message, however, lines up with the one John Lennon sang about with “Watching The Wheels.” Lead singer and guitarist Oliver Wood reveals that with “Witness, “‘I’m just a witness’ — I’m just watching things happen. I’m not gonna be my feelings. I’m gonna watch ’em float by.”
The making of this video, by the way, was not farmed out to some hot shot film director; bassist Chris Wood handled all the filming and editing and has an endearing avant flair to it that could also describe the music of his prior trio, Medeski, Martin & Wood.
Still, one might wonder: a witness to what? The video provides a clue when the camera pans up to the sky. But like any well-written song, you can derive your own personal purpose from it.
Pre-order/Pres-save Puff of Smoke from here.
*** The Wood Brothers CDs and vinyl on Amazon ***
- The Wood Brothers, “Witness” from ‘Puff Of Smoke’ (2025): Something Else! sneak peek - April 29, 2025
- Tobias Meinhart – ‘Sonic River’ (2025) - April 22, 2025
- Ivo Perelman, with William Parker + Rashied Ali – ‘Sad Life’ (1996, 2025 reissue) - April 15, 2025
