Smoke Ring Halo

iTunes Review

Most country artists in the early ‘00s seem to believe that a cowboy hat and a few songs about fishing and beer are enough to establish their down home bona fides, but country rocker Zac Brown has proven that his local pride runs deeper than a few lazy gestures. Brown reinvested many of the profits garnered by his string of number-one country hits into Southern Ground, a label that features artists that hail from the same Georgia club circuit that Zac Brown cut his teeth on. Southern Ground’s roster includes young songwriters like Levi Lowrey and Sonia Leigh, but also more seasoned performers such as the Wood Brothers, who signed with Southern Ground to release their third full-length, Smoke Ring Halo, in the summer of 2011. As on all Wood Brothers releases, the deep, high lonesome harmonies of siblings Chris and Oliver command immediate attention, but on Smoke Ring Halo the two brothers have enlivened their Southern roots music with occasional jazz-inflected arrangements that recall Chris Wood’s work with the instrumental trio Medeski, Martin and Wood.