Biography
Born around 1952 in Oakland, California, Wood grew up as the son of beat poet Paul Tulley. He first picked up a guitar at eleven and soon shifted his focus toward the blues. By twenty he had joined John Lee Hooker’s Coast To Coast Blues Band, remaining on the road with the veteran bluesman for two years. His bandmates during that stint included Elvin Bishop, Don ‘Sugarcane’ Harris, Van Morrison, Charlie Musselwhite and L.C. Robinson. One of the Hooker sessions he appeared on was the 1972 album Never Get Out Of These Blues Alive. Once the tours ended, Wood returned to the Bay Area, where his group the Bridgeburners built a loyal local audience through regular appearances at the Monterey Blues Festival and through work with various rock-leaning outfits. In the mid-1990s he moved his base to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and spent several years performing across Europe; toward the close of the decade he came back to the United States and settled in Memphis, Tennessee.
Wood began issuing recordings under his own name in the late 1990s, steadily enlarging his audience over the following years while also starting to compose original songs that reflected his long-standing immersion in traditional blues. Among the musicians who passed through his bands were Al Gamble on keyboards, guitarists Jack Holder and Dave Smith, blues harp player Lyn Jones, and drummers Richie Hayward and Steve Potts. In 2004/5 he took first place in the JBL Blues Icon Contest.
Wood began issuing recordings under his own name in the late 1990s, steadily enlarging his audience over the following years while also starting to compose original songs that reflected his long-standing immersion in traditional blues. Among the musicians who passed through his bands were Al Gamble on keyboards, guitarists Jack Holder and Dave Smith, blues harp player Lyn Jones, and drummers Richie Hayward and Steve Potts. In 2004/5 he took first place in the JBL Blues Icon Contest.
Albums
