Oliver Wood Releases ‘Kindness’ Single

Oliver Wood released a new single, “Kindness.” The song will appear on the singer-songwriter’s forthcoming debut solo album, Always Smilin’, due out on May 21 through Honey Jar/Thirty Tigers.

Wood heralded Always Smilin’ in March with the lead single “Fine Line.” The latest offering, “Kindness,” came to fruition during a pre-pandemic jam Wood had with friends Ric Robertson on Wurlitzer, Aaron Lipp on banjo, Ted Pecchio on bass and Nick Falk playing the chicken coop. Oliver’s The Wood Brothers band mate Jano Rix brought the tune together by adding a drum track.

“It’s a weird and fun song,” Wood said in a statement. “Capturing an improv like that and writing lyrics on top of it is a favorite way to write. It’s an idea that was adopted from the previous Wood Brothers album Kingdom In My Mind. It’s impossible to recreate that kind of playfulness and spontaneity when you’re trying to capture a take for a song that’s already been written.”

Oliver also spoke about the inspiration behind “Kindness”:

“The idea for the lyric ‘kindness is my religion,’ comes from the Dalai Lama who has expressed this sentiment in his teachings,” Wood explained. “There are a handful of people in my own life who inspire me and seem to live that way. I was really thinking about them when writing this one. In fact, they helped me make this record.”

“Kindness,” premiered by Holler.Country, arrived with an accompanying music video created by artist Joel Meeks using dry-erase animation. Watch it below: