Some people call what Matt Woods does Americana, but he “has a hard time putting a label on things like that.” A lot of his songs are “very much based in classic country music while others are grounded in straight forward and greasy rock ’n’ roll,” Woods explains. “I write what is ready to come out and try to be as honest as I can about it.”
Woods has been a figure in the East Tennessee music scene for the past ten years and has performed in several bands as well as working as a solo artist. Woods has shared the stage with the likes of CAKE, Drivin’ n’ Cryin‘, Will Hoge, Two Cow Garage, Chris Knight, and many other musicians compiling a seemingly never-ending list of talented independent artists from points around the globe. Woods took some time out from his current tour with Adam Lee, “The Connoisseurs of Lesser Things,” to share a story about his love of vinyl.
“I must have been 10 or 11 years old the year I got my first real stereo and turntable. Mail ordered from the Sears Christmas catalog and awaiting me that early morning was the power to rattle the walls with rock ‘n’ roll in a way previously lacking in the toy record player with the cartoon scene from The Smurfs on its lid. All I needed was some vinyl (my collection of Alabama 45s wasn’t going to be enough.) We were used to my dad playing country albums around the house like Willie and the Family Live, tons of old Merle Haggard, and always Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues. I knew I wouldn’t be able to talk him out of those.
I was, however, able to acquire from him Janis Joplin’s Greatest Hits, Black Sabbath’s Master of Reality, and Gladys Knight and the Pips’ All I Need Is Time that Christmas morning. I recognize that now as the point of no return.
By the time I was old enough to drive, I would make the trip into Knoxville nearly every weekend and spend entire afternoons digging through record stores and building my collection with anything from rare pieces to newly released limited editions to dollar bin finds. I couldn’t get enough. I never lost that love.
Now that I am on the road most of the time, I do the same thing every chance I get in towns all over the U.S., grabbing stacks of albums on every tour (often some of the same old country albums that I grew up listening to with my dad.) These days when Christmas comes around we still rattle the walls, trade albums, trade stories, and share the music.”
You can catch Woods and Lee on their joint “Connoisseurs of the Lesser Things” tour in Mississippi and Missouri between now and March 20th, and Woods can be found on his solo tour in various parts of the country between March 21st and August 2013.
