ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — The roots band The Wood Brothers will play a two night engagement at The Orange Peel at the end of this week. The pair of shows make up the latest leg in The Wood Brothers’ “Puff of Smoke” tour, promoting the band’s 2025 album of the same name.
In advance of the performances, band member Oliver Wood sat down with 828newsNOW to discuss “Puff of Smoke,” his relationship to Asheville and two decades of playing with the Wood Brothers.
Find tickets for the Wood Brothers’ Jan. 30-31 performances here.
20 years of peeling oranges
The Wood Brothers have a long history with the Orange Peel. According to Wood, he and his brother, bandmate Chris Wood, played under the Wood Brothers name for the very first time at the Asheville venue in mid-2005 or 2006.
“I don’t know why they had us play there, because there was just two of us, and I remember 18 people showed up,” Wood recalled. “They put out all these chairs. It was gonna be kind of an intimate, seated show, but it was really intimate. We have a recording of it. It was such a good fun show, I remember, and the people that were there were awesome.”
After that quiet debut, the Wood Brothers would return to Asheville several times over the years, growing bigger and bigger as the volume grew on their musical renown.
“We played at the Gray Eagle once or twice, and then years later, 15 years later, we were playing two nights at the Orange Peel, and now, 20 years later, we’re playing two nights at the Orange Peel,” Wood said. “It’s one of our favorite places.”
Two brothers, three Brothers
Though the size of their crowds have grown over the years, the size of the band plateaued at three members: Oliver Wood, Chris Wood and the multi-talented musician Jano Rix.
“It’s just the three of us. But you have to take into account that, like, there’s some superhuman musicians on stage,” Wood said. “I’m not one of them. My brother, you know, plays bass, has a harmonica rack on. He can do two things at once and we’re all 3 singing. Jano, incredible drummer that he is, is also as incredible on keyboard. He has a keyboard built into his drum set, so that he’s basically playing keyboards and drums at the same time.”
The Wood Brothers have now played together for over 20 years, resulting in 10 studio albums and five live recording records. The band’s deep catalogue of music is another reason Wood is excited to perform two nights in Asheville.
“We got way more songs than we can play in one night,” Wood admitted. “Of course, we’ll showcase some songs from our latest record, which is still relatively new. We’ve not played those songs in Asheville yet. But we’ll have two nights to fill, so that means we can play two completely different shows. We can look at what we’re playing the first night and then we’ll play a whole flip-flop the next night.”
20 years of forging connection
For Wood, playing his old songs is an exercise in nostalgia as much as love for the music.
“It’s like looking at a photo album, when you listen to old recordings or recordings of shows back then,” Wood mused. “It’s like you grow up, and things change, and you captured it, you know?”
The roots musician is all about the fans at his shows. He loves requests, even of the Wood Brothers’ most popular tunes.
“The best thing about a couple of our songs that are requested, everybody sings along, and I hate to deny that, you know, ’cause that’s why we’re all doing it. We’re all trying to be connected,” Wood said. “That sounds kind of cheesy, but I’m not in it for the same reasons I used to be. It’s not all about glory and artistic purity. It’s about feeling connected and making people feel connected.”
In 20 years, Wood has grown up right alongside his music. Crafting connections has become the calling card of his musical craft.
“I didn’t go into music thinking of it that way. I liked, you know, girls paying attention, and I liked being clapped for, and I liked traveling to new places,” Wood said. “That stuff all gets kind of old, and I’m getting older. But what doesn’t get old is when somebody says, ‘Hey, that song really makes me feel good,’ or, ‘It helped me through a tough time. It helped me when I lost my parents.’ Or whatever it could be. That’s why that’s a better reason to do it. That’s really important stuff.”
For more information about The Wood Brothers, visit www.thewoodbros.com.