About the Band
NEW SINGLE OUT NOW!
“Badlands Buskers” is the first Damon Wood's Harmonious Junk release in 11 years. It tells the story of a dystopian society steeped in immorality, corruption, corporate greed and religious hypocrisy. In the corner the band plays on, and occasionally riffs on what they see around them. Next single, “I Get Offended” drops March 22nd!
Harmonious Junk was formed in Las Vegas, in 2001, as a side project for Damon Wood, then touring guitarist with the Godfather of Soul, James Brown. Traveling the world with JB's Soul Generals since summer ‘99, Wood wanted a band to write and perform with when not on the road with the "Hardest Working Man in Show Business".
Twenty-three years later, he's still going strong with a new lineup, new songs, and a fresh approach to composing. Damon’s bio includes five year stints with National Touring Acts, Jimmie Van Zant Band (1991-1995) and WhiteWater Ramble (2014-2019), as well as several international tours with The JB's (2017-2019). Topping the list is seven years and four hundred shows with the “Hardest Working Man in Show Business” (1999-2006). Wood's Harmonious Junk has over 1,000 shows and three albums of original material under their belt, with a fourth album now in the works!
Damon co-wrote a book on his JB experience with author and fellow music enthusiast, Phil Carson, entitled, "Working for the Man, Playing in the Band, My Years with James Brown". ECW Press.
The current lineup consists of Damon Wood on Guitar and Vocals, Kirk Kuykendall on Bass and Jeff Brink on Drums and Vocals. Expect well crafted originals, classic covers, and high quality musicianship.
Music Player
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Badlands Buskers 3:270:00/3:27
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Queen of My Dreams 4:160:00/4:16
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My Friend and Me 4:190:00/4:19
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Get Real With Me 3:560:00/3:56
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About Damon Wood
Founder of harmonious junk
Damon started playing guitar at age 14, in Las Vegas. Within a few years, he'd help form the bands "Barrage" and "Retinal Circus". The latter gave Wood a taste of live performance and both dabbled in original scores. He later joined forces with Jimmie Van Zant (kin to Lynyrd Skynyrd) and helped him build into a National Touring Act, closing each show with "Free Bird" and a nine minute guitar extravaganza.
A few years later, Wood was invited to play a showcase set arranged by The Godfather Of Soul, James Brown. This led to the call! Wood toured for eight years with James Brown and his 20-piece Soul Generals performing at classic venues from London's Royal Albert Hall and Harlem's Apollo Theater to L.A.'s Hollywood Bowl and a slew of major festivals including Woodstock '99, Glastonbury, Bonnaroo, etc. You can read the full story in his memoir, Working for the Man, Playing in the Band, My Years with James Brown (ECM, 2018).
Around 2001, while between tours, he started a new side project, Harmonious Junk, to keep his chops up for the big shows and work on his own music. 23 years later, he has started work on his fourth album and plays live shows with a rotating cast of Denver area favorites.
In 2014, Damon jumped onboard with WhiteWater Ramble, an eclectic national touring Jamgrass act. He did extensive touring with the group and collaborated on the songs that would make up their 2019 release, Pseudonymous, contributing five original songs to the album.
The new release, "Badlands Buskers" is out NOW!
WORKING FOR THE MAN PLAYING IN THE BAND
About the Book
A young, long-haired rock guitarist finds the funk on stage with the Godfather of Soul In this unvarnished account of toiling under one of popular music’s most notorious bosses, Damon Wood details his six years spent playing guitar for James Brown’s Soul Generals. In a memoir certain to fascinate Mr. Dynamite’s millions of fans, as well as musicians and industry insiders, Wood recalls how a chance encounter with James Brown led him to embrace soul and funk music under the tutelage of its greatest progenitor. Numerous interviews with bandmates provide multiple perspectives on James Brown’s complex character, his leadership of his band, the nature of soul and funk, and insights and sometimes harsh lessons learned along the way. This is a sideman’s story of the gritty reality of working close to the spotlight but rarely in it. Damon Wood describes life on the road ― often on James Brown’s infamous tour bus ― with one guitar, a change of clothes, and two dozen comrades-in-arms as they brought the funk to clubs, theaters, and the biggest music festivals on earth. Working for James Brown could be fear-inducing, inspiring, exhilarating, and exasperating ― all in the space of a single performance.
“Listen, I’ve read a lot of books about James Brown, but Damon Wood's Working For the Man, Playing in the Band goes right onto the top shelf. Wood’s relaxed, honest, delightful account of signing up for a tour in JB’s world is the most persuasive snapshot of the lived reality of life on the road and on stage ― a picture of a band and entourage in constant orbit around a permanent supernova of a human being. Musicians and fans alike will soak up his brilliant descriptions of his own "coming to the funk"; for me, after years of listening to the mysteriously direct and deep grooves of Brown’s bands, I feel I understand them in some ways for the first time. And his portrait of Brown had me laughing constantly with the thrill of true recognition. Bravo.” - Jonathan Lethem