Toronto-based singer/songwriter BILL WOOD has traveled
a long and winding road to pop stardom and back again.
With his second solo album just released, he has come full-
circle as a musician and a staple on the Canadian music
scene. Here's a little history lesson for the young 'uns:
BILL WOOD rose to prominence in the mid-1980s with the pop
rock band EYE EYE, garnering two Juno nominations and radio
hits across the country. Over the course of 30 years, Wood has
maintained one foot in the proverbial music industry door, constantly
writing songs, while raising a family, starting his own home renovation
business and running a homeless shelter and food bank for street
kids in the "real world."
Born in Montreal, he picked up a guitar at age 10 after seeing
The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. Wood moved to Burlington,
Ontario, for high school, forming a glitter band called Palace Laundry
with Wayne Cass (now a noted jazz musician) and Mark Caporal,
who would later go on to play drums in Eye Eye. After high school, he
toured with a cover band then traveled to England and witnessed the
punk movement first-hand. He came home and put together a group
called the Oh-Nos, who came in second in Q107's very first Homegrown
battle of the bands contest. Touring alongside other local talent like
Teenage Head in the early '80s, the Oh-Nos spent 3 years on the road.
From there, Wood started a band called Billy Club, who opened regularly
for Eye Eye, a project that Wood's former band-mate Caporal and
guitarist
Andy Ryan had put together. In 1985, Wood joined Eye Eye as the singer
and landed a record deal with Duke Street Records. In 1986, they were
nominated for Most Promising Group and their producer, Terry Brown, was
nominated for Producer of the Year for their debut album, Just In Time
To
Be Late. The songs "Out On A Limb," "X-Ray Eyes," "My Sensation," and
"Endless Night" became ubiquitous on Canadian household radios, and
Eye Eye toured with Glass Tiger, Honeymoon Suite, Gowan, Images in
Vogue and Platinum Blonde, which Wood says was akin to touring with
The Beatles in those days!
When Eye Eye broke up in the late '80s, Wood launched a successful
home renovation business, married and raised two daughters, worked
on other people's albums, released two albums with his early '90s
group Ghosttown, then put out a solo debut in 1996.
A decade later, Wood began writing again and bartered with his friend
Tim Abraham, who owned a recording studio. In exchange for installing
an exhaust fan and some carpet, Wood was able to demo a couple of
new tunes. And they haven't stopped flowing since. His new album,
Take It, is an alt.country pop rock piece of Canadiana, based on Wood's
personal experiences of love and life. "I'm in all of these tunes, but
they're not all about me," says Wood. "I wanted to have that classic
'70s rock vibe with a full band. I like Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs and
Englishmen, The Faces, The Band... that sort of energy."
Featuring Abraham on guitar, Mark Duff (Atomic 7) on drums,
Rob Clark (Rizdales) on bass, Dennis Kelde on organ and
accordian, and Bob Egan (Blue Rodeo, Wilco) on pedal steel and
lap steel, it's easy to compare BILL WOOD's new solo album to
Canadian icons like Blue Rodeo, Neil Young or Bruce Cockburn.
His songwriting is timeless, he has a knack for a great melody line,
and his voice is comfortable and confident, not forcing you to listen,
but bending your ear with his laid-back tone and that thing that only
comes with age: experience.
"I'm not on any great mission," he says. "It's just that the songs keep
coming and I wanted to do something about it! There's definitely some
mojo at work when we're gigging and it's fun!"
BILL WOOD celebrates the release of Take It with a residency at
GRAFFITI'S in Kensington Market on the last Thursday of every month.
Please plug the following gigs with a mention in your around-town
listings:
BILL WOOD live at Graffiti's, 171 Baldwin St., Toronto
Thursday, November 29th - 9:30 p.m.
Thursday, December 27th - 9:30 p.m.
Thursday, January 31st - 9:30 p.m.
No cover.
<http://www.myspace.com/billwoodmusic>
To request a photo, a review copy of Take It or an interview with Bill
Wood,
please contact Karen Pace at Pacemaker Productions.
416-918-6525 <karen@gokarenpace.com>
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