Tracked on tape At Neil Finn’s Roundhead Studios in New Zealand, via The Who’s old Neve Console, Tom Rodwell’s new album, Wood & Waste, is an entirely analog production with “no digital conversion at any stage”. Guitarist Tom Rodwell has brought elements of his Blues career and a sense of the surreal to bear on the new album, which will be released on October 22 2021.
Rodwell is known for his revival of Blues music as a vehicle for dance and has supported acts like Otis Taylor, C.W. Stoneking, and Leon Russell. In a parallel career as a session player, he’s worked on albums with Lonnie Holley, Robert Lamm and Don McGlashan, as well as other Avant-Jazz projects.
Rodwell comments on the “feel” of his own songs:
“All the clues to a song are contained in the first bars of a primitive rhythm guitar part, it’s my job to inhabit that space and gradually tease the rest out. You just have to pay attention when a song makes a left hand turn.”
The percussion on the album is provided by Chris O’Connor and Jeff Henderson, New Zealand Free Jazz multi-instrumentalists. Improvisation is also a key theme of Wood & Waste.
Rodwell produced Wood & Waste alongside Raphael Mann (Frizz Records, Mr Hudson & The Library), with engineering by Jordan Stone and analog mastering and lacquer from Kevin Gray (Blue Note, The Beach Boys). The first run of the LP (care of Pallas, Germany) is the “end product of an entirely analogue signal chain”.
