Willow & Wood

Willow and Wood’s music is transcendent: both a study of the geography of place, and the constant search for home. Each of the 11 tracks on the duo’s new album Tornadoes in My Head aches with hope and a broken heart. Those contradictions are at the core of what makes this band so special. Falling somewhere between indie pop and country, they have created a sound rooted in a West Coast reverb-drenched loneliness, dripping with southern humidity and darkness – and determined to find the magic.

Vocalist/songwriter Willow Scrivner met guitarist/songwriter Kevin Wood at small Seattle venue called the Dubliner. It was one of those moments every musician longs for, an immediate connection of lyric and music that left Scrivner rattled. (“I cried after the first time we played together,” she confessed, “no one had ever heard my songs that way.”) The two played their first show together at Bumbershoot, then immediately began touring. They began releasing music that made them critical darlings in The Seattle Times, Seattle Weekly, Performing Songwriter and many others.

They soon married – and found themselves growing tired of the grey of the Emerald City. With its rain and undercurrent of melancholy, the great Northwest set the stage for Willow and Wood’s otherworldly lyrics and gothic themes, but a 2015 relocation to Nashville gave them the breathing room to explore the more. Ironically, it’s still Scrivner’s childhood in Lawton, Oklahoma that haunts her the most. The eerie, honest title track is the album’s crucial moment: where destruction and home collide.

From the dreamscape of the opening track, “Blue Beneath You”, to the Music Row-hook genius of “Coming Down Hard”, Scrivner’s voice is part Stevie Nicks, part Kate Bush. She’s never afraid to wear her heart on her sleeve, most importantly in “Hanging from the Stars”, a metaphor of a marriage gone wrong when one person forgets to look skyward.

Wood follows close behind with Daniel Lanois-inspired guitar work, nudging the duo into a place somewhere between Emmylou Harris’ Red Dirt Girl and the best of Mazzy Star.