![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/wooks.jpg\")
The Wooks (the band)<\/p><\/div>\n
Banjo player Arthur Hancock clears his throat as if readying to read a prepared statement. \u201cYou can bring in philosophical types of thought,\u201d he explains, \u201cor even the nature of good versus bad. And those things all come into play when one asks, ‘What is a wook?’\u201d<\/p>\n
Before there’s a chance to change the subject, Hancock adds this: \u201cWe are of the reform sect, and we are here to put the good back into the wook. We are doing nothing but trying to make good music and spread the wooky way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cain tries to get things back on track. \u201cWe really try to just let it be whatever the fans decide they want it to be; that’s all that matters.\u201d Those fans are undeniably drawn to the Wooks’ deft mix of styles. Asked where the group belongs on the bluegrass-jam continuum, Cain is again circumspect. \u201cIt depends on what show you see, and where we’re at in the set list,\u201d he explains. \u201cBecause we really don’t stay in any kind of genre for very long.\u201d<\/p>\n
A typical Wooks set does feature some extended jams, but there’s rock ‘n’ roll, bluegrass and old-time as well. \u201cThere are also our interpretations of singer\/songwriter music,\u201d Cain says, \u201cbut with more music behind it. More than just a guy with a guitar, singing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Wooks take into consideration the audience they’re playing to. \u201cYou kind of feel the energy of the crowd,\u201d Cain says, \u201cso you kind of know what song you want to do next based on how they’re responding to you.\u201d He provides a real-world example: \u201cWe wouldn’t want to go out and do a ten-minute jam of a Jerry Garcia song if it’s a traditional [music] crowd,\u201d he says. \u201cWe might<\/i> do that song, but we’d play it a little differently. And we might not use every pedalboard option.\u201d<\/p>\n A Wookie in its natural habitat (Shakori Hills, Lockn’, etc.)<\/p><\/div>\n The Wooks often manage to be many things to many people, but they also endeavor not to alienate a crowd. \u201cI’m probably one of the guys that CJ tells not to worry about it,\u201d says Hancock, \u201cbut having been a traditional bluegrass fan, I’m pretty critical of our music in that way. Yet we’ve been able to get away with doing things that are far outside of the box in a way that I can’t really explain.\u201d<\/p>\n Released last June, Little Circles<\/i> is the group’s debut album. \u201cWe were lucky to have the support of a burgeoning fan base in Kentucky to help us get the record made,\u201d Hancock explains. But good fortune played a part in the creation of the album as well. When he was in college, Hancock took an elective banjo course; the instructor was multiple Grammy Award nominee Alison Brown.<\/p>\n \u201cAs I grew older, I maintained communication with her,\u201d Hancock says. \u201cSo when the Wooks decided to make a record, what better way to make one than with Alison Brown producing us at Compass Sound Studio in Nashville?\u201d<\/p>\n Kentucky is home to the group’s largest fan base, though they’ve developed a significant following in Colorado as well. \u201cOn this tour, we’re going to hit places we’ve never been before,\u201d says Hancock. \u201cIt’s going to be interesting to see how it goes; it’s all new territory for us. But either way, we’re just going to do what we do and hope for the best.\u201d Because that’s the wookie way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kentucky-based band the Wooks came together in early 2015; the group quickly established its core sound: an acoustic approach that bridges the gap between bluegrass, old-time music and the modern […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12782,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,41],"tags":[3061],"class_list":["post-12780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-americana","category-interview","tag-wooks","cat-6-id","cat-41-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12780"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12783,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12780\/revisions\/12783"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/wookie.jpg\")