Tuesday on the Tazday Twilight Blues Show: The Wind Woods

Words by Nick Kramer. Photo by James Lockridge.

This Tuesday, 12/13, Joe Adler and Emily Rozanski, who perform as singer-songwriter duo the Wind Woods, stopped by the Radiator to talk with Shannon and play a few tunes. The pair clicked after a late-night jam session spent playing, connecting, and writing songs. In fact, the band's name was born out of the session, taken from a short, sweet number with gypsy-jazz touches that Emily penned that very night. Inspired by the song, Joe called Emily the next morning and said, "we have to call the band The Wind Woods." Actually, the name of song is "Windward", named for the road on which Emily's grandparents lived, but the Wind Woods stuck.

The jam session turned into several, and those sessions turned into a rush of song-writing that after seven days of recording yielded the pair's first album "Greetings from Tokyo". Marvels Joe, "we're pulling things out of the air." For the Wind Woods, the songwriting process feels especially natural. Emily claims that, because the songs seem to flow together so easily, "I don't know if either of us can take responsibility [for the songwriting]." Joe notes that there is a "unique feeling" to writing songs as the Wind Woods and likens the duo dynamic to discovering someone you've known in a former life or a distant sibling.

While both Joe and Emily have a myriad of projects going all at once, they are working on another Wind Woods album and have several gigs on the horizon. On December 20th, at the Radio Bean the pair will host their Last Minute Thrown Together Christmas Spectacular at 8pm as part of star-studded line-up leading up to the Honky-Tonk Sessions. Joe warned listeners that, "if you're anywhere else [next Tuesday], you're foolish," and promises that the fun will go on, "All night long, like Lionel Ritchie." Then, on January 14, the Wind Woods will perform at Higher Ground as part of the Vermont music summit hosted by Joe, Justin Hoy of Halogen Media, and Jim Lockridge of Big Heavy World (much more info about the event to come, so watch this space).

The second Wind Woods album, called 'Valentine' after Joe's playing-card-covered guitar (which also bears the touching Latin inscription amo ergo sum), will be released this coming February, on Valentine's day. As Emily notes wryly, "Because we're all about kitsch here at the Wind Woods." Both agree that this next album will be "more produced" and potentially "fuller" than "Greetings From Tokyo". In the space between recording their debut, and beginning work on "Valentine", the Wind Woods have played with a variety of local musicians including many of the members of one of Joe's other bands, the Wee Folkestra. The collaboration has influenced their sound, as has Emily's search to get back in touch with her family's roots in Appalachian Tennessee. For the pair, the songwriting process continues to be electric. Joe likens it to taking a lengthy road trip and having, "a buddy along for the ride", while Emily draws on another image - the Appalachian tradition of sharing songs around a table, and seeking to pass on stories through music.

"Greetings from Tokyo" is available to stream and download for free on Bandcamp, and for news, info and an almost constant livestream of video clips courtesy of Joe's smartphone, be sure to look up the Wind Woods on Facebook. These sweet, blues-filled melodies are classic music that would be hard to pass over.