DUKE / WAND by Duke Garwood

Bringing together the dirty British blues of Duke Garwood and Wooden Wand's Kentucky-laced country rock, Fire Records released a special split 12" for Record Store Day 2012. Each artist responsible for one side of the disc, they have brought together a loose collection of tracks and a mutual respect for each other.

Duke Garwood's songs came out of a typically laid-back recording session with old reels and a nice big loop around a chair leg. Off to look for more tape, he also dug up a lost doom jazz classic original on a chewed up old reel, "The Sand, The Return", and there it was.

Master bluesmen are thin on the ground in South London, a landscape unsuited to the trappings and clichés of the genre. But it is down there, amidst the grey arterial routes, Victorian terraces and leafy parks that Duke Garwood makes his home. However his influence stretches beyond these shores and he has found kinship with American musicians such as Mark Lanegan (and Duke appears on his critically acclaimed new album Blues Funeral). The pair have recorded together several times and collaborated on a new album during a recent trip to Rome. Garwood has shared the stage with Lanegan many times and will appear on the bill for a forthcoming gig at Shepherd's Bush Empire (13 March). Duke Garwood also hits the road with Kurt Vile this month.

Wooden Wand's contribution is a selection of recent tracks, three of which feature a short-lived band out of Murfreesboro, TN called HP Witchcraft.

James Jackson Toth, known to the world as Wooden Wand, is a maverick, good-hearted troubadour whose blend of smoky Americana has been garnering plaudits for the last decade. Unafraid to mix psychedelic workouts with sweet and soulful country, his varied and prolific output has resulted in a wealth of lyrically rich songs; the kind whose lines stick in your head for a lifetime. Truly prolific, Wooden Wand's recent critically acclaimed album "Briarwood" is being re-released in a deluxe version featuring an extra CD of acoustic demo tracks from the album.

"Really psyched to be sharing a split with Duke Garwood, really dig his stuff..." James Jackson Toth on Duke Garwood
"two wood men on one album. should be a blast" Duke Garwood on James Jackson Toth

Duke Garwood's first paid musical job was back in the late 80s playing guitar on The Orbs seminal Perpetual Dawn taken from their debut album co-produced by Youth. Nearly twenty years and many musical wanderings later Duke Garwood completed a circle by releasing an album on Youths new label Butterfly Recordings.