Kipori Baby Wolf Woods Blues Band

"He might be called 'Baby' but there's nothing infantile about the way Kipori Woods handles the electric guitar." offBEAT Magazine. - offBEAT Magazine

"Hear this local young gun blues guitarist this evening." Keith Spera - New Orleans Times Picayune

"The future looks bright for [Kipori Woods]..." - Living Blues Magazine

Last year I was walking down Bourbon Street on my way to meet a friend when I was stopped in my tracks by a distinctive blues guitar sound. I walked into the club and there was Kipori Woods delivering a sleek, flashy solo that stood out from the rote-copy-band music of Bourbon Street like a diamond in the gutter. I had lost track of Woods and was struck by how instantly recognizable his style was. It’s nearly impossible for a young blues guitarist not to sound like a past master anymore, as almost every conceivable way of playing electric blues guitar has been fully plumbed. Most young guitarists stay away from blues playing for this very reason unless they insist on plowing the Stevie Ray or Buddy Guy terrain for its own sake. But Woods showed up in 1999 with the self-released Blues Man from Down South and followed in 2000 with his first Louisiana Red Hot release, the impressive Big Black Cadillac. The pair of albums allowed Woods to lay a strong claim to being the future of New Orleans blues guitar.

Blues Gone Wild is the much belated follow-up to Big Black Cadillac. It should have been released six years ago, but like so many other musicians, Woods lost his house and part of his life in the federal flood. Now that he’s got himself back together, Blues Gone Wild is a welcome, if not entirely complete, update. “Meet Me with Your Black Drawers On,” once a staple, sounds dated now. It’s the only cliché on the album, but since it opens the proceedings it could give some people the wrong impression about Woods.

The rest show Woods to be his own man, deftly wielding a range of blues tropes for maximum impact. Aside from 10 originals, there’s a rarely heard Earl King cover, “Ya Mama.” King’s trademark riff closes out each verse, but Woods brings his own personality to the solos.

Woods sticks to basics, concentrating on well-turned melodies in service of lyrics that cover the blues waterfront and offer fast-paced showcases for his soulful vocals and high-intensity guitar playing. “Rolling Man” showcases Woods at his best, playing a fast-paced shuffle, celebrating life on the run with a saucy vocal and gunslinger solo passages. “Playing My Axe” is a more Albert King-style statement of purpose featuring some great playing with a touch of wah-wah for texture. “Get on the Floor” shows off his rhythm-guitar playing in an old-school R&B mode, while the road song “Full Circle” sets up one of the album’s best solos.

The album includes a bonus track, “Back in New Orleans,” a diaspora saga whose uptempo rhythm backs up Woods’ vow to “have myself a ball.” It’s a bit of a strange fit on an album of electric blues, because it sounds like Woods is accompanying himself on acoustic guitar and there’s no solo. But if you take this track on its own, you can see that Woods is actually a more developed singer than he was six years ago. If you’ve seen him live recently, you know there’s more new material as well. I’m betting his next album will be the breakthrough effort, but Blues Gone Wild is a strong place holder for a unique New Orleans voice. - offBEAT Magazine

BABY WOLF - Kipori Woods stood outside the Durango Blues Train last month. Woods will perform throughout the Telluride Blues & Brews Festival and at Montrose's Oktoberfest. (Photo by Adam Smith)
BABY WOLF – Kipori Woods stood outside the Durango Blues Train last month. Woods will perform throughout the Telluride Blues & Brews Festival and at Montrose’s Oktoberfest. (Photo by Adam Smith)
WESTERN SAN JUANS – Every single musician who comes to the Western Slope from New Orleans knows the man Kipori “Baby Wolf” Woods. Although he is a beast on the six-string, don’t let the name fool you. Woods has an uncanny humility you wouldn’t expect from such an accomplished player birthed by the greatest music city in the country. That rare level of modesty, on top of his ability to win over crowds with smooth blues vocals and flawless dexterity on the fret boards, has made him a must-see for live music supporters and musicians from Grand Junction to Durango.

Now a fixture in a scene of die-hard music fans who don’t always have a local talent pool to draw from for their music fix, Woods has played noteworthy shows in a range of unique venues, from intimate breweries to the Durango Blues Train, in a change of pace from the Big Easy. And while he’s pleased with how warmly the region has embraced him, it doesn’t mean we get to keep him all to ourselves.

A few weeks ago Woods returned home to Montrose after a stretch of nationwide touring with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, the renowned New Orleans outfit that’s played Telluride many times. “This last tour I had the chance to play with those guys in Canada, down the West Coast, over on the East Coast, some dates in between, and during that time we opened for great bands like Widespread Panic and Lettuce,” Woods recalls.

Canada wasn’t the only international stop during his most recent time on the road. While in Australia he did a solo gig at the Byron Bay Bluesfest that featured the likes of Aaron Neville, Buddy Guy, Elvis Costello, Gregg Allman, and a seemingly endless list of other top shelf performers. “For that one I went alone, but I did get to play with Terrance Simien,” Woods said of the Grammy award-winning zydeco player. Simien isn’t the only person of note he crossed paths with at Byron Bay; Woods managed to bump into Dave Matthews backstage, with a prized photo to prove it – you can check his Facebook page if you don’t believe me.

Although his reputation is that of a righteous bluesman, playing with a funk and jazz-oriented Dirty Dozen Brass Band seems effortless to him. “I love it! I like to play different stuff anyway. I don’t get booed that way,” he says, laughing. “So that helps a lot. You know, even when I am solo, I can’t play a straight set of just blues, I have to throw in things like R&B, but when I get to play that kind of jazz with the Dirty Dozen, that is really awesome.”

Taking no time off from gigging now that he’s home, Woods is just off his his second Durango Blues Train gig of the summer, and slated for a few sets at the Telluride Blues and Brews Festival. Support via bookings from Telluride’s SBG Productions has been instrumental in Woods’ exposure to destinations and audiences around the region. “To be on a coal-fueled train, which is a part of that area’s long history, and have people I had not met yet come up to me and say, ‘We know you,’ because they had somehow heard of me before they got there. That was nice, man,” Woods recounts of his first experience on the train in May. Playing on a streetcar in New Orleans is the closest thing he had ever done to the Durango Blues Train. He says he can’t wait to do it again, “because the people come to really listen and dance.”

With this year’s Telluride Blues and Brews lineup drawing from many of New Orleans’ finest artists, Woods will have a piece of home visiting him in the mountains, with whom he shares a history with.

First Woods digs into his interaction with headliners the Meter Men. “When I first started playing during high school, I got to play with George Porter, Jr. a lot, and most recently I played a solo show with him, the last time I was in New Orleans. He asked me if I was working a lot out here in Colorado, and I had to say yeah. He is always the same, just a positive guy and great player. I also played a Dirty Dozen gig recently that Leo Nocentelli shared the bill with, and then he sat in with us, too. Man, he gave me a solo, so it was on! When I saw those guys were on the Blues and Brews, lineup that was a wow moment. That is the Meter Men, you know?” he says, of the band’s rare appearance Telluride.

Continuing his recollection of upcoming headliners, Woods says, “I caught George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic about a year ago at the House of Blues in New Orleans. Those guys are all night, man, different people coming on and off stage the whole time, and they are just steady, bringing it!”

With the funk in check, Woods moved on to some of the blues representatives of the festival’s lineup. “I once opened for Buddy Guy, when he was touring with George Thorogood,” he says. “That was a lot of guitar going on, and it was incredible. I actually got to play drums at that show, something I came up doing in high school.

“When I first started playing blues, I had Strat, everywhere I would go people would tell me I sounded a lot like Robert Cray. I have seen him do his thing at Tipitina’s, so I know how good he is, so that is a set I am looking forward to, for sure.”

Woods has matched wits with Telluride favorite, Dumpstaphunk, too. “I have a few recordings with their bassists Nick Daniels, and some other work with Tony Hall, and I would always run into Ian Neville when he was younger and playing all the time.”

With his biggest performances in the region on the horizon, including on the brand-new Blues Stage, an exclusive Campground Session, and late-night at the Sheridan Opera House, Woods is finding time to take it all in. “Being here has allowed me to meditate, learn, observe people and pay attention to what is going on in the world, which is different than just going from gig to gig like I am used to, and it can drive me nuts,” he says, laughing, “but it also provides a lot of stuff to write about.”

About new material, he says, “I started writing when I first got here, and I hope to get focused and make it happen pretty soon. When I was living in New Orleans, I was in the studio once a week, with guys helping me along, so I need to find a situation like that out here. Finding a regular band to build with would be great, too, but these next few shows are the focus for sure.”

Looking forward, hearing what Woods and the rest of the deep well of Telluride Blues and Brews talent can potentially produce this year, expect a notched-up level of entertainment for the final music festival of the season. - Daily Press

Festival goers at this year's National Folk Festival have been unexpectedly blown away by an American blues band whose music is so contagious no one can get enough of it.

Folk festivals are by nature mostly acoustic events, but the Kipori Baby Wolf Woods New Orleans Blues Band are every bit electric - and turned all the way up to 11.

"They call me a baby wolf and I've come a howling in your town," said front man Kipori to an appreciative crowd during the band's Good Friday set at the festival.

Lightning fast guitar licks and the classiest of blues harp, bass and drums from this four piece outfit had the audience cheering for more.

Because of time constraints and schedules, encores are not the norm at the National. But no one was letting these guys off the stage without insisting they come back for one more number. Standing ovation all round.

Kipori is the grandson of legendary blues bass player Luscious Lloyd Lambert. Granddaddy would be proud.

Kipori is an over-the-top crowd pleaser - even passing out fake pearl necklaces to the adoring crowd, playing lead guitar with his teeth Jimi Hendrix style, and venturing into the audience while playing.

But above all, he and his band mates are exquisite musicians who are getting people up off their seats and dancing in the aisles over this Easter festival in the nation's capital. The band have more sets on Saturday and Sunday at the National. - The Sydney Morning Herald - Chris Johnson