Rinehart lives outside of Nashville — the center of country, Americana and the Christian music businesses in the U.S. — but grew up in South Carolina, not far from the Black Crowes’ home of Atlanta. Rinehart was surrounded by “a well-rehearsed, very talented” church band with “all kinds of great gear,” he recalls. He picked up the music of great soul singers like Joe Cocker, Ray Charles and Otis Redding too.
A youth spent listening to bluesy roots music and uplifting church music comes through in Rinehart’s second solo album,, released on March 24 by Dualtone Records under the name Wilder Woods. No Depression called“a party in a bottle, an ode to the sweaty intensity of old-time rock and roll.” Across its 11 tracks,“It always felt like you’re trying to sing songs that you can lean on, you know what I mean?” Rinehart says. “I feel like that’s where gospel comes from.
Wilder Woods opens for the Avett Brothers on July 8 at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colo., and will perform at the Moon River Music Festival in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Sept. 10. NEEDTOBREATHE will play three dates in mid-July before starting a string of dates on Aug. 11 in Green Bay, Wis., that concludes at the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson, Kan., on Sept. 8.