feature photo: Alysse Gafkjen
Wood Brothers frontman Oliver Wood is set to drop a fresh load of tunes on us under his solo artist guise. His upcoming second album Fat Cat Silhouette showcases this singer-songwriter who happens to excel at both sides of that hyphen. His knack for wedding wit-filed lyrics to funky, toe-tapping strains is as big of a draw about his music as his uniquely pliable, relatable croon.
Wood wanted to use the occasion of making a solo album to venture out further and do stuff he probably wouldn’t do on a Wood Brothers record. “I wanted to get outside my box and embrace the uncertainty of what’s out there” affirms Wood. “I wanted weird guitar tones. I wanted more percussion and less drums. Once we began experimenting and doing whatever inspired us, the pressure melted away and I felt liberated.”
As a major architect of the Wood Brothers’ sound, he isn’t running away from the things that makes them one of the top roots music acts of the last fifteen years, either. He even brought in another Wood Brothers member Jano Rix to do the producing, which speaks loudly to how well Wood regards Rix because Wood is a successful producer himself.
Off of Fat Cat Silhouette, “Yo I Surrender” has that quality of unforced quality that comes from a natural, open process, because that’s how it came together. Wood came up with this tune right there in the studio collaborating on it with everyone who played on it: Wood, Rix (shuitar, drums, percussion, keyboards, vocals), Ted Pecchio (bass, vocals) and Los Lobos’ Steve Berlin on baritone sax.
The video above is the official lyric video for this song, which is the right way to present the song because quality confessional lyrics are harder to come by these days. Berlin’s bari adds a splash of an RnB/jazzy element to this snappy, down-home ditty that manages to be uplifting without even trying too hard.
Fat Cat Silhouette is slated for release on June 14, 2024. Pre-Order it from here.
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