Hollow Wood

Two years ago, Hollow Wood frontman Adam Jones texted friends and family with an idea: The Capital High graduate had written a song, "Little Bird," and hoped to merge its folk sensibilities with a big choir sound. Would anyone like to spend a weekend singing it for a YouTube video?

More than a dozen young people wound up contributing to the moving, 9-minute performance. Nearly a year later, it found its way to the eyes and ears of Mark Cunningham of Red Light Management, which handles acts ranging from Dave Matthews Band to Phish and My Morning Jacket.

Cunningham remembers watching "Little Bird" 15 times in a row.

Hollow Wood, a Boise band with members still not old enough to perform in bars, now is signed with Red Light. They're hooked up with Paradigm, one of the country's largest booking agencies. A deal has been inked with Songs Music Publishing, which handles international sensation Lorde, among others.

Looking for the next Boise act to make a name for itself outside Idaho?

Hollow Wood has the backing - and quite possibly the songs.

This week, the group's stirring single, "Oh My God," was put in rotation at 94.9 FM The River.

Hollow Wood's debut EP, "Seasons," was released Aug. 5. The group will perform a free in-store show at 6 p.m. Aug. 19 at the Record Exchange. A second, already-finished EP, "Wallflower," is slated to be released in November.

Meanwhile, Jones and the other Hollow Wood members - co-writer, guitarist and singer Hayden Jensen, 20, bassist Jeff Bull Jr., 21, and new drummer Bryan Konkol, 20 - are just smiling and enjoying the ride.

"This is all we want to do," says Jones, 21, whose happy-go-lucky demeanor belies the band's unison-chanted choruses about personal and religious dilemmas. "We want to do everything we can to make Hollow Wood our full-time jobs."

Hollow Wood traveled as far east as Chicago opening nine dates this spring for Oregon indie-rock band Typhoon. Several weeks this summer were spent touring out of state playing venues such as the High Sierra Music Festival in Quincy, Calif.

Four members have exited Hollow Wood since April, which isn't entirely unusual for a group of college-age musicians. Jones feels confident that keyboardist-singer Ruby Somoza (of local band Calico), who recently started practicing with Hollow Wood, will wind up rounding out a quintet.

While that's being settled, Cunningham - whose main job is to manage Seattle folk-rock singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile - is learning not to rush things.

The first EP is out. Opportunities await - from tour or label possibilities to song licensing on television.

"They're such a young band," he says. "We're taking a breath. We're being patient."

Tim Johnstone, program director at The River, doesn't hide his enthusiasm about playing Hollow Wood. "What I like about 'Oh My God' is it takes some of the best elements that the band does, throws in a little Modest Mouse, and in less than 3 minutes I get to share some really great local music that doesn't sound local."

Listeners might hear other influences ranging from The Head and The Heart to "The Lion King" musical score, which helped inspire "Little Bird." Others will hear Mumford & Sons - "We get that quite a bit," Jones says - though Mumford & Sons arguably has grown too popular to be considered cool, right? No matter. "If all of a sudden we got the opportunity to open for a band like Mumford & Sons, I would totally jump on it," Jones says with a laugh.

There's no guarantee that the rest of the world will find Hollow Wood's sound as magical as Cunningham, Johnstone and I do, but it's hard not to dream big.

"I can see this band playing these songs with these big chanting choruses and these powerful moments in clubs and theaters for 1,500 or 2,000 people singing along," Cunningham says. "I think these songs are that good."

Hollow Wood is thrilled to perform them for anyone who will listen, but Jones admits that the EPs feel like a time capsule. He was 17 to 20 years old when the songs were written and recorded.

That's one of the reasons Cunningham is optimistic about Jones and Hollow Wood's future.

"This guy is a monster writer," he says. "Nothing is certain, obviously, but there's probably a good chance that he's not doing his best creative work at 18 years of age." - Idaho Statesman

The first solid act I encountered was Hollow Wood, straight from Boise. I wasn’t sure if they would be just another Americana/Folk group complete with seven members and the same tired feel Seattle has been saturated with over the past couple years. Don’t get me wrong, those bands are among my favorites, but I’m parched for something fresh and different. Thankfully, in Hollow Wood’s music there’s a beauty and intensity that makes it more like a mashup of soul, emo and folk than the bluegrassy style we’re used to here. Singer/guitarist/percussionist/lyricist Adam Jones plays with abandon as the words spill forth, and you can tell his heart is wrapped up in every syllable. The rest of the band creates the swelling and dissipation that makes the music so powerful. Even now, I can remember being wrapped up in it as the crowd (seemingly half made up of the band’s family and friends) cheered, danced and clapped their way through the set. It’s probably no coincidence they’ll be playing with Hey Marseilles in mid-April as our hometown boys’ tour runs through Idaho. - KEXP

My only prior experience of Hollow Wood is this fantastic live recording of ‘Little Bird’, a rather epic singalong that falls somewhere between Typhoon and folk-pop acts like Mumford & Sons and The Lumineers.

Well the band have now put out an EP, Seasons, and I’m pleased to say that ‘Little Bird’ was not a one off. ‘Memento Mori’ and ‘Spirits’ shows that the band are capable of big songs on record too, with similarly powerful sing-/shout-along moments where the chorus of voices takes over the instrumentation for a stirring climax. The title track shows that the band have other strings to their bow, this a slower, more mellow song infused with melancholy.

There’s something special running through these songs, a seam of courage or determination or passion that makes them really stand out from a genre that has been flooded with inoffensive, radio-friendly mediocrity. They have all of the capabilities to make something good, but Hollow Wood are not happy to settle for merely good. Instead they clap the hands and raise their voices and push for more. - Wake The Deaf