Oliver Wood describes his songwriting practice as something close to a therapy session — every morning, coffee at a window, writing without any specific goal in mind, without being self-judgmental about what surfaces. The songs that came out of those sessions became Fat Cat Silhouette, his second solo record, and the album he is bringing to Putnam Place in Saratoga Springs on Saturday, September 26.
About the Show
Wood is the co-founding member and frontman of the Grammy-nominated Wood Brothers, formed in 2006 and described as one of the top touring acts over the past 15-plus years. These September shows are a rare solo departure — five Northeast dates with Ric Robertson providing direct support throughout. Fat Cat Silhouette, released in 2024 on Honey Jar Records and produced by Wood Brothers bandmate Jano Rix, finds Wood deliberately stepping outside familiar territory. Collaborators include Seth Walker, Sean McConnell, Katie Pruitt, Steve Berlin of Los Lobos, and Marcus James Henderson of the Marshall Tucker Band. Wood put the impulse plainly: “I wanted to get outside my box and embrace the uncertainty of what’s out there.” The album has been described as abandoning convention and positioning Wood as “a roots-music innovator who’s every bit as interested in the process as the product.” The set is expected to draw on both solo records, Always Smilin’ (2021) and Fat Cat Silhouette, as well as material from King Johnson, Wood’s pre–Wood Brothers band that built a cult following on the Southern music circuit through the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Robertson brings his own particular world to the evening. He tours entirely solo, hauling an upright piano to every show with no backing tracks. His music sits somewhere his own site describes as “timeless folk wisdom and psychedelic backroom vaudeville,” and Robertson himself is characterized as “quietly radical, unabashedly grassroots, and fiercely human.” His latest album, Choices and Chains, is “a crooked little odyssey of transformation.” The connection between Robertson and Wood runs deeper than the bill: the two co-wrote “Somebody Blues” on Fat Cat Silhouette, and Robertson has collaborated over the years with Lucius, The Wood Brothers, and Sierra Ferrell.
Venue & Logistics
The show takes place at Putnam Place on Putnam Street in Saratoga Springs, a Capital Region club that keeps the room close for this kind of set. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for a 7:30 p.m. show. The event is 18 and older.
Tickets
Tickets are $32 in advance, $35 day of show. Tickets go on sale Friday, August 7 at 10 a.m. ET via Eventbrite. Buy tickets