Key to the Highway: The Wildwoods

The Wildwoods photo by S & J Photography

Americana Highways’ Key to the Highway series

Fans always clamor to learn more about their favorite, most beloved musicians and those who travel with them. There’s such an allure to the road, with its serendipity, inevitable surprises, and sometimes unexpected discomforts. This interview series is a set of questions we are asking some of our favorite roots rock Americana artists to get to know more about them and what they’ve learned and experienced on the road for music. We are sure they have key insights to share and stories to tell. Here’s one from The Wildwoods.

Americana Highways: How do you like your coffee or other morning wake-up beverage?

Andy: Hot yerba mate with a pinch of sugar

Chloe: Hot latte with a dash of sweet cream and almond milk

Noah: Hot Americano or cold brew depending on the day

AH: What’s the most interesting or strangest motel/hotel or place you have stayed (while on the road for music?)

The Wildwoods: A family offered their ‘guest house’ house to us one day one while on the road. Before the performance, we drove to their property out in the country and pulled up to a massive and beautiful home. At this point we’re thinking that if the guest house is even half as nice as this place, that we’d be living like kings for night! We called the couple and they told us to keep driving 30 or so more yards past the trees to find the guest house. We arrived at what was a literal SHED! This wasn’t just any shed, the inside was equipped with: cots, sleeping bags, a TV that couldn’t have been more than 15”x15” with the first season of Seinfeld on VHS! On the other side of the shed was an actual dentist chair surrounded by gardening tools… needless to say we said thank you for the offer and opted to stay elsewhere, hah!

AH: If one CD is stuck in the player in the van for the entire tour, what do you hope it is? And why?

Andy: I would give the copout answer and say Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life, a double album!

Chloe: Gillian Welch’s Time (The Revelator) album because she is my favorite songwriter, and her music is like a meditation. So soothing and full of depth.

Noah: I would hope it to be Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark. The layers are vast and the harmonies are complex and beautiful. Something new to hear with every listen!

AH: What’s one personal item you must have with you on your road trip?

Andy: The boring answer would be my phone or laptop.. aside from those, I would say my binoculars.

Chloe: Ha! I would also say laptop for the boring item, but other than that I always need to travel with my camera.

Noah: Chloe and Andy

AH: What is your relationship with food? How do you handle this on the road, and what’s your favorite dish on the road, (or restaurant, and what do you order there)?

Andy: When traveling in Noah and Chloe’s RV, I feel like I eat healthier while on the road than when at home! Having a fridge, stove and oven right there in our living space really inspires us to go to the grocery store more often rather than when we take other vehicles.. In those instances, let’s just say we’ve gotten really well-acquainted with the Applebee’s menu….

Chloe: I also love taking the camper for the fact that we can have fresh food and home-cooked meals. I really miss getting to eat homemade food when we are away from home, and it’s nearly impossible to do that while traveling in our car. I love having a good breakfast with my morning coffee, and my go-to morning meal usually tends to involve pancakes.

Noah: I’m a fiend for canned fish. Salmon, tuna, sardines…you name it!

AH: If you could pause your life for a few weeks and spend some time living in a place you only have passed through, which would you choose, and why?

Andy: Switzerland! Some of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen. Both in nature and the cities we were able to visit via train. I could spend months there.

Chloe: I would also say Switzerland. The landscape, the people, and just the overall beauty. Time seems to slow down there, which is something we could all use a bit more of.

Noah: Vermont was gloriously beautiful in the fall. The colors of the trees, the mountains, the winding roads, the smell in the air, ahh! I’d find myself a cabin in the woods and just stare out of the window.

AH: What quote or piece of advice have you gotten from someone on the road that has really stuck with you?

Andy: It’s not the most profound advice, but on one of our tours a few years ago when I had just turned 21, we stayed at a house where a musician that had toured most of his life was also staying. He said “just because venues give you free alcohol, doesn’t mean you need to always take them up on it” it only took a couple consecutive hangovers to realize how right he really was!

Chloe & Noah: Right after Noah and I graduated and started touring full time, we were really at a mental “back and forth” with whether or not we should be pursuing our music/the touring musician lifestyle full time. One of the first places we ended up touring was Tybee Island, GA, and we stayed with the mom and step-dad of one of our college friends. Her parents were very inspiring people in general, but that trip really gave us the clarity we needed. They both encouraged and inspired us to keep pursuing our dreams no matter what because life is too short. One thing they specifically said that really stuck with us: “Never ignore the open doors or opportunities you stumble upon throughout life.” From that trip and their encouragement, we ended up creating our new album and song “Thirteen Sailboats.”

Find more information about her new album and tour dates for The Wildwoods here: https://www.thewildwoodsband.com/shows

See other Key to the Highway interviews here: https://americanahighways.org/category/interviews/key-to-the-highway-series/ (click here for: Vince Herman Jimmy Smith Ben Nichols Bruce Cockburn Charlie Musselwhite Nicki Bluhm Jim White Danny Barnes Patterson Hood Jerry Joseph BJ Barham Rodney Crowell Todd Snider Elizabeth Cook Tommy Womack Eric Ambel, Dan Baird, Robbie Fulks, Malcolm Holcombe Jon Langford Steve Poltz, Lilly Hiatt Sarah Shook & the Disarmers Sadler Vaden )