On this installment of the podcast, I’ll be digging into the work of James Toth, who’s perhaps best known to most listeners out there for the music that he has created under the name Wooden Wand. With a vast discography that stretches beyond that moniker and back into the mid-’90s, Toth emerged from the U.S. fringe music underground to become pound-for-pound one of the best songwriters these past two decades have seen, a claim I don’t make lightly.
In recent years, Toth has moved on from Wooden Wand but has continued making music with a cast of veteran underground musicians in the group, One Eleven Heavy. This year was slated to be a busy year for the group, with plans for touring and recording in place, but those plans, of course, had to be cancelled due to the global pandemic. With extra time on his hands because of this, Toth began working on a book that chronicles his all-consuming obsession with music. From this, it was the stories from his childhood growing up in Staten Island, New York that formed the basis for the first season of the podcast series that James launched this fall called The Toth Zone, where he details how, in his words, his music obsessions gave him a reason to live but also wrecked his life.
I recently had a chance to speak with James over the phone, and we discussed the circumstances that led him to start the podcast and we went into some further details about the stories that were featured in the first season. We also discussed some of the music and albums that James has made over the years. You’ll hear those interview segments throughout the show, along with several tracks from James’ various solo and collaborative projects. Hope you enjoy this episode. Feel free to get in touch if you have any comments or questions. As always, thanks for looking and listening.
- ~Introductory Music: Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice “Didn’t It Rain”
- Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice “Owl Fowl” Buck Dharma CD (5 Rue Christine)
- ~Interview segment with James Toth~
- Golden Calves “Mod Bacteria (For Fred Neil)” Collection: Money Band + Century Band 2LP (Woodsist)
- Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice “Paper Trail Blues” XIAO LP (De Stijl)
- Wooden Wand “Perch Modifier” Harem of the Sundrum & The Witness Figg CD (Soft Abuse)
- Wand “Dark Pocket” Born Bad LP (Mad Monk/People In the Position To Know)
- ~Interview segment with James Toth~
- Wooden Wand “Southern Colorado Song” Blood Oaths of the New Blues LP (Fire Records)
- Wooden Wand “The Mountain” Death Seat CD (Young God)
- Wooden Wand “Sacrificial” Clipper Ship LP (Three Lobed Recordings)
- Wooden Wand “Hall Of Mirrors” Brooklyn Blizzard (The Thump Sessions) DL (self-released)
- ~Interview segment with James Toth~
- One Eleven Heavy “Wild Hair” Desire Path LP (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond)
- Hagerty-Toth Band “Sunset Dust” Qalgebra LP (Three Lobed Recordings)
- James Toth “I Have Loved You All My Days” Toth’s Law DL (self-released)
- James Toth “Paralyzed” Toth’s Law – Volume 2 DL (self-released)
- Wooden Wand “Goodbye To Romance” Wooden Wand Steals The Covers, Vol. 1 DL (self-released)
- Amelia Courthouse “Murphie 1” (excerpt) Ruby Glass DL (Spinster)
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