Woods of Wisdom :: “The Woods Band” - Greenwich Gramophone Company
From the auburn ashes of Fairport Convention bassist Ashley Hutchings’ super group, Steeleye Span, came the duo of Dionysius declaration, Gay and Terry Woods’ The Woods Band. A spectacular spirit in iconic Irish tonality, the duo immediately began connecting with future members Ed Deane, Pat Nash, and David “Sparky” Hughes at the beginning of the decade, before landing in the studio to record their self-titled masterpiece in the winter of 1971, sealing their musical divinity in the eternal echoes of music history. Conquering the atmospheric aroma of multi-generational sounds from a collective of cultures both in tradition and the more standard, familiar approach of the decade, the group incorporated a wide range of irresistibility with instruments such as the bodhran, concertina, autoharp, mandola, harpsichord, and the dulcimer, while simultaneously manifesting musical majesty across the album’s eight tracks of splendor and sonic seduction.
Released on Decca’s short-lived label, Greenwich Gramophone Company, the group focused on separating themselves from the gravity of Steeleye Span, by eagerly establishing a stoicism in their aphrodisiac approach, more specifically with numbers like “January’s Snows”, “Dreams” and “Over The Bar/The Road To Athy”. In retrospect, it's been said that Terry Woods could have leaned more into his ‘role’ as a trailblazer in the electric folk movement that took place in Britain, but it seemed, at the time, that Woods was more focused and inspired to make music that captured his country’s collective consciousness, while exploring the many eclectic elements and soulful shades of its seasonal sorcery.
