Riverwind Blog

For those of you who don’t know, I am a huge fan of country music. When I learned that the Woodshed Band would be performing in the River Lounge, I jumped at the opportunity to interview them.

First of all, let me introduce you to the fun-loving, quirky guys that make up the Woodshed Band.
Justin Lowder – vocals and lead guitar
Heath Lowder – drums
Matt Johnson – fiddle and mandolin
Stacey Johnson – rhythm guitar
Matt Burris – vocals and bass guitar
For those of you that might not have noticed, there are two sets of brothers in the band. Crazy, huh?

Starting out, the Woodshed Band performed as live entertainment for Justin’s church youth rally. Justin said of the performance, “[that] the finished product of that performance was very interesting.” From there the band spent the next year fine-tuning their sound and abilities. Now, if you’re scratching your head asking where the band’s name came from, I can answer that. Whenever someone would ask when the band would be playing next, the answer was always “we are spending time in the woodshed learning new music right now.”

During the interview, I was able to ask the band a few questions:

C: Who are your musical influences?
Justin: If you stuck Brad Paisley, Garth Brooks, Merle Haggard, Alabama, Bob Seger, Hank Williams Jr., and Waylon Jennings in a blender, the finished product would sound similar to Woodshed.
Heath: Hank Williams Jr., Kid Rock, Alabama, and Led Zeppelin are some of my favorites. I have a love for rock and country, and when artists combine them together, it’s a magical thing.
Matt J: Most of my musical influences are from my bluegrass playing days. Ricky Skaggs, Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, and New Grass Revival are a few of my favorites.
Stacey: My influences are early pioneers of country music, such as Chet Atkins, Jerry Reed, Ricky Skaggs, and also my late grandpa. He would be proud to know that my brother and I are still playing music together after so many years.
Matt B: I’m a little bit country and a little bit rock-n-roll, with influences from T.G. Sheppard, Elvis, blink-182, and Jerry Lee Lewis.

C: Do you have any superstitious routines or quirks you do before a show?
WB: As crazy as it sounds, we don’t have any superstitions. I guess one of our quirks would be that we carry Snickers bars with us just in case Matt J. has a Betty White diva moment.

C: Where do you see the Woodshed Band in 5 years? How about in 10 years?
WB: In 5 years, we would love to be playing music while traveling across the country. In 10 years, hopefully continuing the same thing!

C: If someone is new to your music, what’s the one song they should listen to first and why?
WB: The first song someone should listen to is “Thank You.” It’s a song we wrote to thank our troops for the sacrifice that they make for us. We owe our veterans and troops as musicians, and we felt the best way to thank them was in the form of a song.

C: Where do you find inspiration for song writing?
WB: Most of our songs are inspired from life events or work experiences.

C: Is there something you’ve learned along the way that you wish you would have known when you first started performing?
WB: First of all, playing music is not cheap! Costs aside, one thing that we’ve learned along the way is that playing music takes a lot of dedication, but the reward makes it all worthwhile.

C: What does a typical day in the life of the band look like?
WB: Laughter, and lots of it. We are all best friends that love having a good time and making each other laugh. In our group, it’s common for pranks to be played on one other (all in good fun.) We strive to carry our laughter and fun to the stage with us, because when the crowd sees the band having a good time, they’ll enjoy the music that much more!

Getting to chat with the Woodshed Band was awesome, and heck, I feel like I’m part of the group now! They will be in the River Lounge this Friday, April 25 and Saturday, April 26, so swing by and check them out.

Caroline