Wilder Woods

Bear Rinehart, frontman of Needtobreathe, shapes soulful pop under the Wilder Woods name, weaving in introspective folk shading alongside R&B accents. The South Carolina singer/songwriter introduced the solo outlet through a self-titled album in 2019 before returning with the similarly shaded Fever/Sky in 2023.

Alongside brother Bo, Rinehart steered Needtobreathe’s soaring, faith-tinged pop/rock toward broad commercial reach; both the 2014 set Rivers in the Wasteland and the 2016 album Hard Love peaked at number two on Billboard’s Top 200. In 2018 he began tracking his first solo material with producer Gabe Simon (Kopecky), drawing from songs that chronicled his life as a father and husband. Combining his sons’ names to form Wilder Woods, he released the singles “Someday Soon” and “Sure Ain’t” in April 2019. Issued under that alias with no overt clue to the vocalist’s identity, the pair generated widespread notice and conjecture. Once a third track, “Supply & Demand,” joined them on a short EP, listeners recognized Rinehart as the artist. Issued that August, the self-titled full-length was later characterized by the singer as an “open letter to his children.”

The year after its arrival he rejoined Needtobreathe, which delivered albums in both 2020 and 2021. He also kept developing solo songs and shifted to Dualtone for the next Wilder Woods project. Fever/Sky, released in April 2023, continued exploring Stax-era soul together with thoughtful roots rock. ~ Timothy Monger