Jeff Wood

Jeff Wood earned plenty of regional goodwill as the booming voice that powered erudite hard-rock act the Sound and the Fury, but the sleeve photo of him strumming a guitar while smiling at his infant daughter, Shelby, feels like a warning label: This album might contain bombastic, "With Arms Wide Open"-style fatherhood odes. His debut solo outing, Underneath Me, does include the joyous acoustic boogie "9 Months Away," on which Wood and his wife, Amanda, harmonize the phrase I'm going to be a daddy to him or her. There's also a "thank you for my family" tune and a romantic-getaway fantasy ("Tropical Bay") that probably went over well at Wood's Cheeseburger in Paradise gig on Valentine's Day. But even though portions of Underneath Me play like a talented songwriter's family-gift songs made public, this consistently melodic, emotionally delivered album also includes dark, minimalist autobiographical musings; a country-blues romp that casts Wood as the West's gentlest outlaw; and "Joseph Drag-You-Down," a genuine tearjerker of a folk fable made all the more poignant by the prospect of Wood pouring out his heart at, say, Cheeseburger in Paradise.

“Family” by Jeff Wood