The Wood Brothers Announce New Album ‘Heart Is The Hero’

News

By Stu Kelly / January 26, 2023

The Wood Brothers have announced their upcoming eighth studio album, Heart Is The Hero, which will arrive on April 14 via Honey Jar/Thirty Tigers. In addition to the new record, the band has also added 20 new tour dates to its spring tour with support from Shovels & Rope. The Wood Brothers consist of siblings Oliver Wood (guitar), Chris Wood (bass), and Jano Rix (percussionist, multi-instrumentalist). 

The band recorded their eighth studio album at The Studio Nashville in Nashville with engineer Brook Sutton. Heart Is The Hero was recorded analog directly to a 16-track tape. The recording sessions saw the band “with nary a computer in sight.” The trio has been captivating audiences since its inception in 2004. With heavy influences of Americana, Folk, and Blues, The Wood Brothers have carved out a unique sound constructed around Oliver Woods’ rich and unique vocals. 

“The chorus of the album’s title track says, ‘the heart is the hero of every song.’ By no means was it intentional, but much of the material we were writing for this record seemed to come full circle to the idea of trusting in your heart in matters that you can’t control,” said Oliver Wood. “Those words seemed to illustrate so much of what we were feeling—that heart and spirit guides us through this world. Even by recording completely analog, we had to commit to feeling the performances and have faith in what the three of us were creating together instead of trying to make things perfect by letting technology or overthinking things get in the way.”

The 10-song LP acts as the follow-up to their 2020 full-length Kingdom In My Mind. The writing sessions provided were bountiful and recording to analog directly helped the band capture their live sound as authentic as possible in the studio. Armed with the new material, the band is itching to take the new songs on the road. 

“I’m looking forward to going on the road with these new songs from Heart Is The Hero and seeing how they evolve from night to night when performed in front of audiences,” said Chris Wood. “The recording process for this album was completely different from our last one, Kingdom In My Mind, where we had all the time in the world to experiment, tinker, and shape performances. For those sessions, I was living in Nashville close to Oliver and Jano, but I’ve since relocated to Canada, so our time to record together this time around had to be extremely focused and intentional. I think those limitations actually added something special. The end results feel raw, honest, immediate, and vulnerable, more so than any other record we’ve made to date.”

A pre-sale for the new tour dates began today, Thursday, January 26 at 10 a.m. local venue time through the band’s website. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday, January 27 at 10 a.m. local time. Fans can also pre-save and pre-order Heart Is The Hero on vinyl, CD, and digital formats here. The Wood Brothers have also partnered with American Friends of Canadian Conservation so that $1 per ticket will support The Nature Trust of British Columbia (NTBC) in their efforts to conserve ecologically-rich wetlands and protect irreplaceable land from development. Every $1 donated will be matched by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with $2 so more endangered wetlands can be saved.

Heart Is The Hero tracklist

1. Pilgrim
2. Heart is the Hero
3. Worst Pain of All
4. Far From Alone
5. Between the Beats
6. Line Those Pockets
7. Mean Man World
8. Rollin’ On
9. Someone for Everyone
10. Kitchen Floor