The Wildwoods, a folk/Americana trio from Lincoln, Nebraska, join KGNU’s Dave McIntyre in the studio. The band shares details about their upcoming album, releasing in April 2025, and previewed several new songs, including “Footprints on the Floor” and “Sweet Niobrara,” which celebrates their home state (Interview date: 10/4/2024)
Dave McIntyre: Good morning to you.
The Wildwoods (Noah): Good morning, Dave. Thanks for having us on.
Dave McIntyre: You bet. From Lincoln, Nebraska.
The Wildwoods (Noah): Yes, sir.
Dave McIntyre: A fine Midwest town. What’s the scene like in Lincoln these days?
The Wildwoods (Noah): Lincoln’s great. It’s a pretty small but very tight knit music community. We’ve made so many great friends around the scene. There’s so many talented people and groups in the scene. It’s wild.
Dave McIntyre: Good venues to play at?
The Wildwoods (Noah): Yeah, definitely.
Dave McIntyre: Great. And last night you had a concert.
The Wildwoods (Noah): Sure did. Yeah, we were at Swallow Hill over in Denver.
Dave McIntyre: How’d that go?
The Wildwoods (Noah): Oh, great show. Great audience. People were very nice and responsive and it was great. Just a very fun show all around.
Dave McIntyre: What do you got planned for us musically this morning?
The Wildwoods (Chloe): The first song we’re gonna do is a new song of ours. It’s called “Footprints on the Floor”. We have an album coming out in April of 2025 and the song will be on it.
Dave McIntyre: Great. When you’re ready, go ahead.
The Wildwoods play “Footprints on the Floor”
Dave McIntyre: Very nice, thank you. Tell me a little something about the Wildwoods. How long have you guys been playing together?
The Wildwoods (Noah): Chloe and I have been playing together a little over 12 years now. We started way back in the summer of 2012, right after we were in 8th grade. We played all throughout high school. We met Andy when we were in high school, Mr. Bass Man here. He joined us shortly after high school. We were involved in our own respective music projects back then, but he joined us in 2017. We’ve had a few other members play with us, but we’ve mainly toured and branded ourselves as a trio over the last three years or so.
Dave McIntyre: I see. So sometimes you have a bigger band.
The Wildwoods (Noah): Yeah, we’ve gone through a handful of changes throughout the years but the trio thing is what we’ve been going with.
Dave McIntyre: Sounds great. You’ve been playing those instruments since way back when as well?
The Wildwoods (Noah): Way back when, yeah.
The Wildwoods (Chloe): Yeah, so I started the violin when I was nine. I was in third grade. What about you guys?
The Wildwoods (Noah): Gosh, guitar, I think I was maybe 10 or 11. I found my dad’s old Martin acoustic under his bed one day and he had a VHS tape inside of how to play the song “Pretty Woman”. I only learned half of the lick because an episode of Seinfeld was taped over the second half of it, but was I hooked after that. What about you, Andy?
The Wildwoods (Andy): I’ve been playing since I was about 15 years old. I guess I’ve been playing upright since about last year. It’s been just over a year now.
Dave McIntyre: So you used to play electric bass?
The Wildwoods (Andy): Yeah.
Dave McIntyre: I see. What else you got planned for us this morning?
The Wildwoods (Noah): This next tune we’re gonna do is called “Cherry Pickin’” and it’s just a fun little song that we released as a single a couple months ago. Felt like it was a good summer tune. It’s nice and a little poppy and a little jazzy, so it’s a fun one.
Dave McIntyre: While we still have a little bit of summer left. Let’s hear it!
The Wildwoods play “Cherry Pickin’”
Dave McIntyre: Oh yeah, that is a nice summer song. Nice and bouncy. Some great fiddle. Let’s let the people know. I looked at your website and your tour goes on and on, all through the spring and into the summer. You’re going to be out on the road for a while, aren’t you?
The Wildwoods (Noah): We sure are, yeah. I think pretty much all the way from the very beginning of January to the end of April, we’ll be out on the road. And then not sure what’s gonna happen in the summer. Hopefully some festivals, but yeah, we’ll be hitting most parts of the country between January and April.
Dave McIntyre: Do you like being out on the road?
The Wildwoods (Noah): Yeah, sure do. It has its pros and cons, but mainly pros.
Dave McIntyre: Where else are you gonna be while you’re here in Colorado ?
The Wildwoods (Noah): Yeah, so tonight we’re gonna be out at the Bluebird Music Festival.
The Wildwoods (Chloe): That’s in Fort Collins at Washington’s. I think tonight is sold out, but there might still be tickets for tomorrow for the festival. And then Sunday we’re going to be in Boulder at the Gold Hill Inn.
Dave McIntyre: Actually it’s not Boulder, but it’s up the hill from Boulder. It’s a beautiful old rustic building. You’ll like it.
The Wildwoods (Chloe): Cool. I’m excited. Someone said that last night at our show. They were like, you’re really going to like the space.
Dave McIntyre: Yeah. It’s deep into the mountains.
The Wildwoods (Noah): Oh, wonderful.
Dave McIntyre: Very pretty up there. You got another one for us?
The Wildwoods (Noah): Sure do. We’re going to do a new song called “Sweet Niobrara”. This is a song that we’re releasing as a single on October 25th. It’s the first single to be released from our album that will be coming out in April. This song is just about our love and appreciation that we have for our home state of Nebraska. We’ve been gone so much over the last few years and it’s really made us appreciate all that comes with living there.
The Wildwoods play “Sweet Niobrara”
Dave McIntyre: Nice. Very nice. I’m enjoying your stuff. Have you guys come from musical families or just happened on your own?
The Wildwoods (Chloe): So my mom and my brother in my family are musical. My mom used to sing in high school and a little bit into college. And my older brother plays the guitar.
Dave McIntyre: I see.
The Wildwoods (Noah): I didn’t really come from a musical family. My dad will sing in his free time around the house. But my mother enrolled me and my siblings in piano lessons. We were very young and I guess I was the only one who wasn’t defiant.
Dave McIntyre: How about one more? You got another one for us?
The Wildwoods (Noah): Sure do. Yeah. We’re going to do a tune called “Postcards From Somewhere:, which is our newest release that we had just last week.
The Wildwoods (Chloe): It’s one week old today.
Dave McIntyre: So you’ve got, what, four albums? And a bunch of singles?
The Wildwoods (Noah): Yeah, we’ve just been releasing a single a month over the last three months. We’re gonna continue to do that for the next three months. And then our album comes out in April so we’ve been trying to stay busy making music. We love writing tunes. This is one that didn’t make it to the album.
The Wildwoods (Chloe): But it should’ve. We just wrote it after the album was already done.
Dave McIntyre: For the next one.
The Wildwoods (Noah): Yeah.
Dave McIntyre: And it’s called?
The Wildwoods (Chloe): This one’s called “Postcards from Somewhere”.
The Wildwoods play “Postcards From Somewhere”
Dave McIntyre: All right. Nice harmonies. I enjoy the singing very much. Thanks for stopping by KGNU and bringing your music to us. You can’t go see them at Washington’s tonight ’cause it’s sold out. But you can go to the Gold Hill Inn Sunday. What time Sunday?
The Wildwoods (Noah): That’ll be, I believe, seven o’clock.
Dave McIntyre: That’s usually the time they start up there. Nice.
The Wildwoods (Noah): Andy’s double checking.
The Wildwoods (Andy): Seven o’clock.
Dave McIntyre: Beautiful. All right. Thanks again for stopping by here. We appreciate you.
The Wildwoods (Andy): Thanks for having us.
Dave McIntyre: Great music. Enjoyed it. Happy trails.
