Jesse Woods was a star wide receiver for Texas A&M before four surgeries in five years brought him out of the game and into making music, a detour he says many of his former coaches and teammates, while supportive, don’t necessarily “get.”
Ever since Jimmy introduced me to Woods’s music, a comfortable place of rest between The Fleet Foxes and The Tallest Man On Earth, ever since I first heard that refrain “I’ll be waiting in Northern California for ya,” I’ve been hooked on his Southern, almost saintly dreamfolk that’s tinged with regret, like an early morning beneath warm covers.
Off his 2010 EP Moon Rocks, “Neon Rose” revolves around the notion of really being present – learning to love what you have while you still have it (a novel idea), delivered by a raw vocal you want to believe in, as if still reeling from his own mistakes. Abbreviated track “Hounds of Heaven” comes to an indignant end just as you expect it take off, with all that resounds in your head its last lines, “It’s too late.”
There is something refreshing about a person going against what’s expected of them, straying from a path of least resistance – not out of spite but an unrelenting desire, an inside voice to create something meaningful. Take note, as the world is already too full of people who have stopped listening to themselves. Check out the two tracks below.
