Woodenhead formed in 1975 By Jimmy Robinson and Danny Cassin. The two were students at the Loyola University music department is New Orleans. and were pursuing degrees, Robinson in classical guitar and Cassin in cello. Both had grown up playing rock music, and had played in bands since their early days. influenced by The Beatles,The Rolling Stones, The Byrds, Jimi Hendrix and Cream. In the 70's The Mahavishnu Orchestra had appeared on the scene, and now a music that combined it all, Rock, classical, jazz, seemed like a viable road to follow. The band performed original songs in a an instrumental format, with odd meters, complicated arrangements and improvised solos. The band played New Orleans clubs like Ford's Place, and the newly opened Tipitina's. They played at the New Contemporary Arts Center in multi-style concerts with rock and jazz groups.The band was soon hired for the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (by young festival promoter Quint Davis who club hopped into Ford's Place) After a series of personnel changes, the current lineup, guitarist Robinson and pianist fran Comiskey, bassist Paul Clement and drummer Mark Whitaker came together. The group has toured the U.S. and Central America and has played the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival for over 20 years. The band has been the opening act for The Dixie Dregs,The Mahavishnu Orchestra, Billy Cobham, Chick Corea's Elektrik Band, The John McLaughlin Trio, Bela Fleck and The Flecktones, Tuck And Patty, Hugh Masekela, Spyro Gyra, Robben Ford, Johnny Winter, Stevie Ray Vaughn, John Mayall, and has toured with The Steve Morse Band and Allan Holdsworth.
The Bands Discography includes:
WOODENHEAD
WOODENHEAD LIVE ,
HEARTPRINTS
THE BIG PICTURE MUSIC
FROM THE BIG GREEN WAREHOUSE
and the just released PERSEVERANCE
Liner notes for PERSEVERANCE:
I first heard Woodenhead when I was a student at Tulane in New Orleans in the 70's. They were a fairly new band I had heard about, and were playing in a tiny little uptown club.They were loud and raw like a real rock & roll band, but the songs were complex and sophisticated, and had a lot of improvised soloing, like a jazz group.They blasted out this impossible-to-play-sounding stuff as if they were playing"Louie Louie" It seemed like they were going to blow the walls out of this crowded, dilapidated room.My freinds and I loved it. Before graduation, i Iheard them open a packed show for the Dixie Dregs and also at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, both for howling hometown crowds. I moved home to Texas, and lost touch with the band. Fast forward 8 years or so, and I was assigned to review a concert by the Steve Morse Band in Dallas for a long-ago-defunct magazine called Dallas Music Scene. And to my surprise the opening act on the tour was Woodenhead. I heard them for the first time in years and was floored. It was as if they had steadily improved year after year. The musicianship and writing had grown by leaps and bounds. Throughout the 80's and 90's, I would hear them live on other occassions, like when they played in front of the reformed Mahavishnu Orchestra on a bizarre riverboat concert venue cruising up the the Mississippi river or with Allen Holdsworth in Lafayette Louisiana, or on my trips to New Orleans for Jazz Fest. The Each time they impressed me as being better and more adventurous than when i heard them last. I'm thrilled to be able to write something for this new recording. I have enjoyed watching this band grow through my entire adult life. Ignoring musical fads and trends has surely cost them in commercial terms but what they do is so obviously a labor of love. It has been an inspiration to watch them stick to great music for so long. I am looking forward to 25 more years.
Michael Lemann
