{"id":143285,"date":"2026-02-04T12:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T12:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/143285\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T12:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T12:28:08","slug":"folkie-siblings-the-wood-brothers-return-to-orlando-in-a-puff-of-smoke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/143285\/","title":{"rendered":"Folkie siblings the Wood Brothers return to Orlando in a ‘Puff of Smoke’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TheWood Brothers: Chris Wood, Jano Rix and Oliver Wood Credit: Laura Partain<\/p>\n

Grammy-nominated folk fam the Wood Brothers performing at the Plaza Live Thursday, road-testing their 2025 album Puff of Smoke and celebrating the 20th anniversary of debut album Ways Not to Lose. This touring run, kicked off in Atlanta last week and now stopping in Orlando\u2019s Milk District features a still-fresh setlist full of new songs as well as fan favorites from previous albums.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The core duo of brothers Oliver and Chris Wood got their musical start in Boulder, Colorado, beginning their music careers separately, each playing in a number of different bands before inevitably uniting. Now Nashville-based, with the addition of adept percussionist and multi-instrumentalist Jano Rix, the Wood Brothers proffer an ever-evolving and crowd-pleasing Americana-rooted sound that draws on jazz and, most recently, Latin influences.<\/p>\n

The Wood Brothers saw success in a big way with their 2018 album, One Drop of Truth, which was nominated for Best Americana Album at the 61st Grammy Awards. They\u2019ve built on that momentum steadily, last year releasing ninth album Puff of Smoke and starting this new touring cycle as 2026 dawned.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Guitarist Oliver Wood tells Orlando Weekly that the band\u2019s diverse sound emerged naturally after reconnecting with his brother.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we put the Wood Brothers together, Chris and I had already gone our separate ways after we left home,\u201d Oliver Wood says. \u201cWe played in completely different zones. We kind of grew apart, and what brought us together as brothers was music. We hadn\u2019t played together in years and we sat down: \u2018Wow, this is so cool.\u2019 We had both discovered our musical and human identities by being apart for a while and living for 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tight-knit trio approached the production of Puff of Smoke with an experimental bent, looking to organically expand their Americana fusion sound \u2014 and maybe even have some fun along the way. \u201cI think the intention was to be open to anything and be able to try anything,\u201d Wood says. \u201cThat\u2019s where you kill your creativity, by questioning or judging. So I think the beauty of it, for me, is not to know how something\u2019s going to turn out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Wood Brothers\u2019 nontraditional folk sound has long been their calling card. Puff of Smoke, taking in new influences from gospel and jazz, is no different. \u201cWe pushed ourselves to really make some new sounds,\u201d Wood says. \u201cLike, what\u2019s a new recipe we can come up with? Let\u2019s mix some Latin music here with some gospel, and see what that feels like for a song. No matter how hard we try to be experimental, it\u2019s still going to sound like the Wood Brothers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Puff of Smoke songs are thus far connecting on stage with tongue-in-cheek lyrics that engage the crowd. \u201cI look forward every night to playing songs like \u2018The Trick,\u2019 \u2018Witness\u2019 and \u2018Pray God Listens,\u2019\u201d Wood says. \u201cThose are all really fun to play live for me, because I think they\u2019re fun songs with quirky lyrics and quirky music, and it\u2019s just fun to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about his favorite part of touring, Wood says that the palpable energy at shows is the most fun. \u201cUltimately, my favorite shows are where everybody feels really connected,\u201d Wood says. \u201cSo that involves singing, it involves listening. But it\u2019s often just a vibe that you can\u2019t really put your finger on.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 20 years of the Wood Brothers\u2019 history, metaphorical fortunes have fluctuated, but for Wood, the impact the music has on fans is the most fulfilling.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s traveling the world and being able to see new places,\u201d Wood says, \u201c[but] when people connect to the music and say after a show, \u2018Hey, that album got me through a really tough time,\u2019 I now appreciate my job for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wood emphasizes that music can be a much-need source of positivity and comfort for a roomful of strangers, essential in these times.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of times you imagine a room of 1,000 people watching your show,\u201d Wood says. \u201cSome of those people may have very different politics, religion or whatever outlooks. They might be stressed out, but they\u2019re all there for the same reason, and they\u2019re all getting the same vibe in the room, and it feels good. I just want everybody to feel that positivity and maybe escape.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Wood Brothers with Ric Robertson, 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 5, The Plaza Live, 425 N. Bumby Ave., plazaliveorlando.org<\/a>, $41-$106.<\/p>\n

Orlando\u2019s daily dose of what matters. Subscribe to The Daily Weekly.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\tThey celebrate the 20th anniversary of their first album at the Plaza Live Thursday\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Theater\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tEven for audiences willing to return to Rowling, the truncated touring version of \u2018Cursed Child\u2019 running at the Dr. Phillips Center may not connect\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

This article appears in Feb. 4-10, 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wood Brothers: Chris Wood, Jano Rix and Oliver Wood Credit: Laura Partain Grammy-nominated folk fam the Wood Brothers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[6072,139,141,140,24661,69556,69557],"class_list":{"0":"post-143285","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-concerts","9":"tag-orlando","10":"tag-orlando-headlines","11":"tag-orlando-news","12":"tag-plaza-live","13":"tag-ric-robertson","14":"tag-wood-brothers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}