A hard rocking riff kicks off only to smoulder in the background come the first verse on Wood Burnt Red‘s new single ‘Fire Me Up‘. As it sits there on a low heat, vocalist Tom Franklin’s deepish drawl takes precedence, stoically listing a series of mishaps, modern day bad luck phrases escalating towards a cathartic release once the title words are sung, with the music rising to become a veritable forest fire each time the chorus comes around.
Lured into a sense of safety by a steady grinding bass, orchestrated guitars join the fray anthemically in a self-empowering manner, even as there’s a tincture of old school funk and soul to this southern blues rock. It’s music Steve Earle might’ve written had he been born in an English high-rise flat, and you can take that to the bank.
“It’s the first song we co-wrote with our incredible producer Tyler Spicer. This collaboration felt like something special from day one,” says Wood Burnt Red singer Tom Franklin. “‘Fire Me Up‘ is a big, heartfelt message to everyone who ever told us we were wasting our time chasing an unrealistic dream. Tyler brought us this idea he had written with us in mind. We instantly loved it, rocked it up, and everything fell into place. The melody and lyrics came naturally. It was one of the easiest songs we have recorded, and we genuinely think it is one of the best.”
Currently clocking up several weeks of airplay on Planet Rock, the UK’s biggest classic rock radio station, the single is out now, and you can watch the official ‘Fire Me Up‘ music video below here at RAMzine. It’s taken from what will be Wood Burnt Red‘s debut album Hold On Tight, out 4th September.
Rooted in country, driven by rock and roll, and forged from real-life stories that don’t need embellishment, Wood Burnt Red may sound like they come from the USA but they’re British.
Aside from Tom Franklin (lead vocals, guitar), Wood Burnt Red feature Rob Graney (lead guitar), Russ Staples (bass guitar) and Ed Baldwin (drums), with songs for the album written by the band and producer Tyler Spicer. Hold On Tight features ‘Best Things‘, ‘Fire Me Up‘, ‘Count My Blessings‘, ‘Bartender‘, ‘Drifting‘, ‘One Chance‘, ‘Every Road‘, ‘Time’s A Healer‘, ‘Simple Place‘, ‘To The Moon‘ and ‘Where You Are Now‘.
Some songs have been roadtested live already, ‘Bartender‘ not only becoming a fan favourite but spending eighteen months on Apple Music’s prestigious Today’s Country playlist and racking up over 600,000 streams. Wood Burnt Red are building serious momentum, with award-winning singer and radio presenter Elles Bailey describing them as “The UK’s equivalent to The Brothers Osborne.”
Apparently, they didn’t set out to make a polished record; they set out to make an honest one. And the difference is everything. Hold On Tight takes listeners on a journey through love, loss, resilience, and the moments that define us, described as an album that sounds like a band firing on all cylinders, loud when it needs to be, vulnerable when it has to be, and utterly themselves from the first note to the last.
