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Abra Richardson

Chris and Oliver Wood play the guitar on their knees while performing one of their newly released songs, on Thursday, May 11, 2023, at the Salt Shed, located at 1357 N. Elston Ave. Band’s new album “Heart is the Hero” was written amidst the pandemic and is about trusting your heart.

The sound of The Wood Brothers’ iconic bass and guitar duo took over the sound waves at the Salt Shed on Thursday, May 11, as they continued on their 2023 tour promoting their newest album, “Heart Is The Hero.”

Guitarist and singer Oliver Wood spoke about the joy he had when creating the record.

“It was actually one of the funnest records we’ve ever made,” Wood said. “The reason it was so fun is we understood how to make it fun after years and years of doing what we’re doing, and part of it was that we understood this concept of trust, of trusting our hearts.”

The two other musicians who complete The Wood Brothers trio are Oliver Wood’s younger brother, Chris Wood and drummer Jano Rix. The trio has been together creating music since 2004.

Aside from premiering some of their songs from their new album, the band played some of their previous hits, including “Happiness Jones,” “Luckiest Man” and “Little Bit Broken.”

When creating music, the band usually writes off of improvisation from a variety of rhythms and jamming during sound check, in the green rooms and rehearsals. Those improvisations became musical conversations, which turned into the songs on the album.

“It’s kind of cool because there’s not really any rules,” Wood said when talking about the writing process on the road. “But there are things that spur creativity, and oftentimes, it’s just improvising together, or just hearing something that somebody else does, or somebody else says.”