Oliver Wood has gone out on his own and shared his first solo single, “Soul of This Town”. One-third of Grammy-nominated trio The Wood Brothers, teamed up with North Carolina singer-songwriter Phil Cook for the ditty about the dying spiritual nature of cities across the country. While “Soul of This Town” is not yet attached to any album, Wood stated in a press release that he does plan to release another single in early September.
The song finds Oliver Wood in much the same gospel-blues sound that has defined The Wood Brothers. However, Wood maintains that the tune is a full-on collaboration with Cook, and it also includes Wood’s son Kieran on horns in their first-official collaboration. “Soul of This Town” takes direct aim at what Wood and Cook see as the scourge of gentrification.
Related: The Wood Brothers Perform “Little Bit Sweet” On Rooftop Of eTown Hall [Video]
Throughout the song, Wood taps into the small town mentality that goes hand-in-hand with his roots stylings, starting with the opening line “When you come back home, boy/You gonna be so surprised/This little town that you came from/Has just left us behind.” Oliver Wood explained via a press release,
The week before [Cook] came he sent me chords and a melody he had. He didn’t have lyrics, but he did reference Bob Dylan’s ‘Nashville Skyline’ and mentioned the present day rapid growth of Nashville, cranes everywhere and the face of the town changing with every visit. I loved Phil’s ideas and thought about Nashville, and then thought more universally about a lot of cities where gentrification is not only changing the look of the place, but displacing so many people. Cities are literally selling their souls in the name of growth and progress, which obviously doesn’t benefit everyone (though you’d think it should and could).
Listen to the debut single from Oliver Wood, “Soul of This Town”, featuring Phil Cook.
Oliver Wood – “Soul of This Town”
[Video: Oliver Wood]