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Joe Woodard steps out of the shadows and the back lines of bands to unleash his second solo guitar album, The Fine Art of Forgetting. The newest solo guitar chapter in Woodard’s musical cabinet of wonders and oddities first went public with Wedding Album (On this Day), released in 2022 and mostly comprised of noodly pleasantries performed at the wedding of his daughter Claire and her now-husband John. Voila, Woodard, a guitarist/songwriter/sometimes singer/record company micro-mogul (Household Ink Records)/situationist embarked on a new series of albums under the “ambient dinner music” banner.
The Fine Art of Forgetting is a collection of compact guitar pieces both vintage and freshly-cooked, connected by a loosely-spun theme of inspirations drawn from dreams and memoryscapes.Some tunes come from the mysterious creative ether. Others have more specific origin stories. “Song with a View” was written on the mountain/distant ocean-endowed back patio of Claire and John’s remote house above Pescadero, California. The view was to die for and to write about. (Claire’s conceptual handiwork is at hand with the tweaked music box bookmark tracks, Music, Boxed.”)
“Thought-Gathering Mission — ” and its psychedelic doppelganger “Re-turned” track-concerns the transition phase after disorientation or lucid dreaming. “Four Nights of a Dreamer” refers to the dreamy Dostoevsky-inspired film by Robert Bresson. “Sweet Time” banks on its apparently sweet disposition. “Words Escape” bears a title which describes the sounds.
Speaking of which, never mind the words, here comes another blue plate special of “ambient dinner music.” Enjoy safely, or otherwise.
Joe Woodard’s list of bands and situations over the years has included Headless Household, flapping, Flapping, Dudley, Lucinda Lane, Tableaux Sonique, A Mother Country, a growing body of work under his own name, and other side tripping. Most albums are the Household Ink Records label. By day, he’s also a writer/journalist, for papers, magazines, and more, and with three books out–jazz books on Charles Lloyd and Charlie Haden, and the satirical novel Ladies who Lunch.
The byline “Josef Woodard” will be familiar to longtime JAZZIZ readers. Joe’s been a treasured contributor to the magazine for decades and continues to pen album reviews for our Auditions section. In addition to sharing his critical acumen and deep knowledge about jazz — he’s written books about Charles Lloyd and Charlie Haden — the Santa Barbara, California-based Woodard’s also an accomplished guitarist and composer. He released his first solo album, 2022’s Wedding Album (On This Day), which celebrated the marriage of his daughter, Claire, to her now-husband, John, and follows it up with The Fine Art of Forgetting, another set of self-penned solo pieces for guitar. In his typically deft way with words, Woodard describes the album as “a collection of compact guitar pieces both vintage and freshly cooked, connected by a loosely spun theme of inspirations drawn from dreams and memoryscapes.” However, the quietly effervescent “Song With a View” was developed more consciously, inspired by the view from Claire and John’s back patio in Pescadero, with mountains and ocean providing a beauteous backdrop. Woodard articulates emotions beyond words with his impassioned finger-picking, as he impressionistically limns the landscape and the feelings it conjured within him.
Track listing:
(all songs by Joe Woodard, except “Music, Boxed,” by Claire Woodard)
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