Nashville quartet Blackwood has issued Release Me, seven hard hitting tracks to warm your modern rock heart, including a stunning cover of The Cult‘s ‘Rise’.
Once upon a time, when you heard the name, “Nashville,” what immediately sprang to mind was the creme de la creme of country music; Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, et al. The 2020’s have brought about a change in Music City, however. Rock bands are found on every corner, in every nightclub, and honing their wares all over town. At the forefront of this revolution is the wrecking machine known as Blackwood.
Blackwood was born out of the Great Pause of 2020, when drummer /producer David Dicks, guitarist Keith White, and bassist Steve Burgess (The Screamin’ Cheetah Wheelies) began writing together again after years of collaboration. In April 2021, Dicks reached out to former co-worker Chris O’Brien for a fresh vocal take on a new track. He sent over a full instrumental with the note: “Go wild.” Just 45 minutes later, Dick had a completed song in his inbox. That track became their first single, ‘Inundated One’, and the chemistry was immediate.
David invited Chris to join the project full-time as lead vocalist and co-guitarist – Solidifying the lineup and officially forming Blackwood.
O’Brien recalled, “David had posted about being in the studio, and at the time, I was stuck in a metal band that wasn’t going anywhere – And in a really dark place, both personally and musically. I reached out hoping to maybe lay down a solo or a few vocal lines. Instead, I got sent the track ‘Inundated One’, and shortly after, an invite to come jam with the guys. From that first session, I knew I’d found my musical home. I wasn’t actively looking to join a new band, but Blackwood filled a void I didn’t even realise was there. I genuinely owe this band more than I can put into words – They pulled me out of one of the deepest depressions of my life.”
Initially envisioned as a digital-only studio project, the band quickly gained underground traction following the release of ‘Inundated One in January 2022. Buzz around the track led to a near sold-out debut show at The Mockingbird Theater the following month, and Blackwood soon found themselves performing across Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alabama. In 2023, the band won the multi-genre Battle of the Bands at Kentucky’s River Festivus, earning a coveted slot opening for Diamond Rio in front of nearly 3,000 attendees. “We weren’t trying to start a band, we were just having fun writing and seeing where it went.” Related Dicks. “But after a few months and several songs, a friend of mine invited us to play a show at The Mockingbird Theater. Everyone was in, so we booked it – But we didn’t even have a band name yet. Naming the band took weeks, but we finally settled on Blackwood just before the show. That night was the first time we’d ever performed together live—and the first time any of us had been on stage in a long while. The energy, the crowd’s response… It lit a fire. From there, things just took off.”
Though the group had originally planned to release standalone singles, a clear emotional throughline began to emerge in their writing- Centred on love, identity, betrayal, and resilience. Recognizing the connective tissue between songs, the band started sequencing them into a cohesive narrative in 2023. The result was Release Me, a debut album that captures both the grit and heart of Blackwood‘s sound.
The opening number, aptly titled, ‘Deliver’ is a kick in the teeth. Riff heavy and driving, you’re immediately pulled in only to be hit by the groove oriented ‘Sidechick Vampire’, that’s a powerful metaphor for a toxic, erotic bond where control masquerades as devotion, and pleasure is tangled with surrender and pain. Tearing into ‘You Said’, a brutal cry of betrayal and emotional collapse, the song captures the torment of clinging to false hope in a toxic love – Where survival feels like a curse, and devotion decays into self-destruction. The emotional ‘Used to Be’ slows things down a bit, delivering a visceral dive into guilt, addiction, and co-dependency, where fleeting highs clash with the crushing weight of self-destruction, a lead-in to the deeply personal ‘Best I Never Had’ – A raw reckoning with betrayal and longing, it captures the pain of broken promises and toxic desire, haunted by a love that can’t be fully forgiven or forgotten.
The band’s take on The Cult‘s latter-day single ‘Rise’ came about when, during a session of tossing around cover ideas, Dicks played the track, and vocalist O’Brien immediately fell in love with it. Closing the record is the moody and powerful title track, a raw reflection on the pain and confusion of a broken father-son relationship, grappling with identity and the need for release.
