Wood & Wire

Tony Kamel (guitarist) and Matt Slusher (mandolinist) met in 2010, while they were playing with different mutual friends.[3] Wood & Wire formed in 2011 when Dominic Fisher (bass) joined Slusher and Kamel's jam sessions.[4] They started as a trio. And later that same year, they added Trevor Smith on banjo, and they began their career as a quartet in Austin, Texas. They toured in early 2013 with the band, Yonder Mountain String Band.[3] They released their self-titled album, Wood & Wire, on February 5, 2013. The album is compiled of songs that the members wrote individually, then rearranged them as a band and songs they wrote (with the band in mind) while they were still in their developing stages. Brittany Haas plays on the record. They recorded the album in Nashville, alongside producer and sound engineer Erick Jaskowiak, after being recommended by friend, Carl Miner, guitar player for The Greencards. Kamel said of Erick, "he did the perfect amount of production advice and he wasn't try to change what we were doing. We all hit it off really well."[5]

At the time of recording their second album, The Coast, the members in the band were Kamel, Fisher, and Smith.[6] The album was released on February 3, 2015.[7] On this album they had special guests, Jason Carter and Andy Leftwich, playing fiddle. They collaborated with Erick Jaskowiak in Nashville again. All of the tracks on the album was written within the band.[8]

In 2014, they added Billy Bright on mandolin to their group, which made them a quartet again.[9] Billy has known Smith since 2007 when they were in different bands touring together, Kamel since 2009 because he was giving him mandolin lessons, and Fisher because he was played Bass on album Billy was producing.[10]

On April 8, 2016, they released their first live album, Live at the Historic Scoot Inn.

They recorded their 3rd studio album, North of Despair, at The Zone in Dripping Springs, Texas. They cut the tracks to mostly live tape, with little editing.[11] This is their first album with Billy Bright added to the lineup.[4] This is also their first album to be released by the local Austin record label, Blue Corn Music.[12] They released the music video for, Just Don't Make 'Em, on March 21, 2018, the video was shot at Austin's Graffiti Park and around town. The song is about Kamel's grandfather and their piece of family property in Llano.[13] The band was inspired after seeing Willie Nelson perform at his ranch in Luck, Texas, and they created, Kingpin, as a "traveling tune." They made a music video for the song from video footage from a show at one of their favorite Austin music venues, Mohawk.[14] North of Despair was released on April 13, 2018. It earned them their first Grammy Award Nomination for the 2019 61st Grammy Award ceremony for Best Bluegrass Album. The same day of their nomination, they were also awarded a $20,000 at the Black Fret Ball.[2]

The production process of their 4th album was being wrapped up at the end of February 2020, they were “pretty much done with it.”[15] The album was recorded at The Zone in Dripping Springs, Texas.[16] They decided to wait to release the album due to the COVID-19 pandemic and decided to release it on August 28, 2020.[15] Like their last album, it was released through Blue Corn Music.[12] The lead single is called, Pigs, and was released on July 9, 2020. The track is “social commentary for sure — mostly around money. Money, divisive profit-driven news cycles, profits over people, constant consumption and waste — you know all of those uplifting modern hypocrisies.” They had to scrap plans to make videos and they reached out to their friend, Danny Barnes, who draws comics to draw some pictures. And Kamel started to make a video with lyrics around the pictures and added basic animation to it.[16]

• Tony Kamel - Vocals, Guitar (2011–present)
• Dominic Fisher - Bass (2011–present)
• Trevor Smith - Banjo (2011–present)
• Billy Bright - Mandolin (2014–present) [4]

• Matt Slusher - Mandolin (2011-2013) [3]