The Wood Brothers have released “Cry Over Nothing”, the second single from the Nashville-based trio’s forthcoming studio album, Kingdom In My Mind, due out on January 24th via Honey Jar/Thirty Tigers. The forthcoming album follows the band’s Grammy-nominated 2018 LP, One Drop of Truth, which arrived in February of 2018. Listen to “Cry Over Nothing” by The Wood Brothers below:
The Wood Brothers – “Cry Over Nothing”
[Audio: The Wood Brothers]
Kingdom In My Mind was recorded over a series of freewheeling, improvised sessions, ultimately resulting in the band’s most spontaneous and experimental work to date. On past albums, the band—comprised of brothers Oliver Wood and Chris Wood alongside Jano Rix—would write a batch of songs and then deliberately set out to record them. For their latest effort, however, they began the process without even realizing it.
At the time, they thought they were simply breaking in their new Nashville recording studio/rehearsal space, tracking a series of extended instrumental jam sessions as a way to test drive the facility. However, after listening back, the trio realized there was something undeniably alive and uninhibited in what they captured. So, like a sculptor chipping away at a block of marble, Chris took the sprawling improvisations and carefully chiseled out verses, choruses, bridges, and solos until distinctive songs began to take shape.
From there, the brothers divvied up the material that spoke to them most, penning lyrics both separately and together as they pondered what it takes to know contentment in our chaotic and confusing world. “If we had known we were making a record, we probably would have been too self-conscious to play what we played,” reflects Chris Wood in a press release. “At the time, we just thought we were jamming to break in our new studio, so we felt free to explore all these different ways of playing together without worrying about form or structure. It was liberating.”
The resulting 11-track collection is a reckoning with circumstance, mortality, and human nature. The material finds strength in accepting what lies beyond our control as it hones in on the bittersweet beauty that underlies doubt and pain and sadness with vivid character studies and unflinching self-examination. While the lyrics dig deep, the arrangements are buoyant and transportive, drawing from a broad sonic and stylistic spectrum.
“We all have these little kingdoms inside of our minds,” explains Chris. “And without really planning it out, the songs on this album all ended up exploring that idea in some way or another. They look at the ways we deal with our dreams and our regrets and our fears and our loves. They look at the stories we tell ourselves and the ways we balance the darkness and the light.”
You can pre-order The Wood Brothers’ Kingdom In My Mind here.
The Wood Brothers – Kingdom In My Mind – LP Cover Art
[Photo: Alysse Gafkjen]
The release of the new single is accompanied by the addition of 18 new shows to the trio’s already-extensive 2020 touring schedule. The new batch of dates includes headlining performances at Oakland, CA’s Fox Theater, Los Angeles, CA’s The Regent, and Chicago, IL’s Riviera Theatre as well as a three-night run at Asheville, NC’s The Orange Peel, a two-night stand at Knoxville, TN’s Bijou Theatre, and more.
See below for a full list of upcoming The Wood Brothers tour dates. For more details and ticketing information, head here.