{"id":7091,"date":"2014-12-23T05:30:42","date_gmt":"2014-12-23T10:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=7091"},"modified":"2014-12-23T05:30:42","modified_gmt":"2014-12-23T10:30:42","slug":"interview-aaron-woody-wood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2014\/12\/23\/interview-aaron-woody-wood\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Aaron “Woody” Wood"},"content":{"rendered":"

Though it’s in many ways an informal affair, Warren Haynes Presents Christmas Jam<\/strong> has been growing in a deliberate fashion. Thanks both to concertgoer demand and the long line of musicians wishing to be involved in this fundraiser event, the festival \u2013 now in its 26th<\/sup> year \u2013 expanded to two nights a few years back, and has added extra events downtown.<\/p>\n

The Christmas Jam By Day presents musical artists \u2013 many of whom are local and\/or regional sensations \u2013 in smaller, more intimate settings. The acoustic jam, hosted by Drivin’N’Cryin<\/strong>‘s Kevn Kinney<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 has been part of the festival since the beginning. Its newer, more plugged-in counterpart takes place just down the street at Asheville Music Hall and its downstairs annex, The One Stop.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/center>Guitarist-vocalist Aaron \u201cWoody\u201d Wood<\/strong> has been a fixture of the Jam By Day for the last several years; usually the organizers contact Wood and ask him to participate. \u201cThis year, I kinda reached out to Kevn Kinney through Facebook,\u201d Wood says. \u201cI asked if I could play again this year. I never heard back from him. Next thing I know, it’s in the paper!\u201d Wood is as well-known nationally as he is in his longtime hometown of Asheville; as a member of The Blue Rags<\/strong>, Custard Pie<\/strong>, Sufi Brothers<\/strong>, Hollywood Re<\/strong>d and a solo artist, Wood’s brand of music incorporates Piedmont blues, bluegrass, soul, and good old fashioned rock’n’roll.<\/p>\n

For this year’s Jam By Day event, Wood will appear at both Asheville Music Hall and Jack of the Wood. For the latter, he says, \u201cI’ll be playing some newer stuff that I’ve written. The crowd there…you can hear a pin drop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wood’s Asheville Music Hall set is with his pick-up band of musical brothers, Trouble<\/strong>. The group is an ongoing collective of well-known and in-demand local\/regional players who convene for the occasional gig. Trouble also features Jay Sanders<\/strong><\/a> on bass, keyboardist Ryan Burns<\/strong>, Shane Pruitt<\/strong> on guitar, and drummer Frank Bloom<\/strong>. \u201cWe go together like red beans and rice,\u201d Wood says. Trouble builds spontaneous jams out of well-known songs. \u201cThe best way to hear songs that I really, really love,\u201d Wood says, \u201cis to play ’em.\u201d He likens each song to \u201ca ‘face.’ Then we start playing, and that’s how we put ‘eyebrows’ on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trouble has been together in one form or another for as long as Wood has been playing the Jam By Day. \u201cI think what we do is really in line with what happens on Saturday night, at the main Jam,\u201d Wood says. \u201cMusicians who love to play get together with people they really love to play with.\u201d That informal approach encourages players to just hang out and do what comes naturally, with the added features of a huge crowd of fans in attendance, and fund raising for a good cause. For the last several editions of the festival, proceeds have benefited Habitat for Humanity. The whole event \u201chas a real family type of feel,\u201d says Wood.<\/p>\n

Advance tickets for the Jam By Day at Asheville Music Hall are available online for $10. The AMH lineup includes Blue Bop (Bela Fleck Tribute), The Broadcast, Jahman Brahman, Love Canon, Lyric, Marcus King Band, Ed Williams’ RumpelSteelSkin (ft. Andrew Campanelli, George Gekas & Michael Girardot of The Revivalists) and Trouble.<\/p>\n

The Jack of the Wood acoustic jam lineup features Ray Sisk, Aaron Lee Tasjan, Aaron \u201cWoody\u201d Wood, Laura Reed, Bobby Miller & The Virginia Daredevils, Red Honey, Josh Daniel – Mark Shimick Project, Leigh Glass<\/a>, David Earl, Jamie Dose & Dorsey Parker, The Pond Brothers, Ian Harrod and Michelle Malone. Tickets are also $10, but advance purchase is not available.<\/p>\n

VIP pass holders get admittance to both Jam By Day events at no additional charge.<\/p>\n

Wood explains his perspective on the jam aesthetic: \u201cYou can get a bunch of musicians together \u2013 people who have never played together before, and who might not play together again \u2013 and play songs they all know: ‘What key would you like to do this in? A major? Okay.’\u201d And in that sense, Wood contends that all of it \u2013 no matter what style of music each player comes from \u2013 is really folk music. \u201cBecause all the folks know that shit, y’know what I mean?\u201d<\/p>\n

This feature originally appeared in print in<\/em> Mountain Xpress.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Follow \u201cthe_musoscribe\u201d on \"\" Twitter<\/a> and get notified
\nwhen new features, reviews and essays are published.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Though it’s in many ways an informal affair, Warren Haynes Presents Christmas Jam has been growing in a deliberate fashion. Thanks both to concertgoer demand and the long line of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,41,44],"tags":[123,237,2347],"class_list":["post-7091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-americana","category-interview","category-live-shows","tag-aaron-woody-wood","tag-asheville","tag-warren-haynes","cat-6-id","cat-41-id","cat-44-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7091","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=7091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7091\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}