Both Ways Donovan Woods

• 1Good Lover03:01
• 2Another Way04:11
• 3Burn That Bridge03:27
• 4Truck Full of Money03:50
• 5Our Friend Bobby04:02
• 6I Ain't Ever Loved No One03:14
• 7I Live a Little Lie03:44
• 8Easy Street03:16
• 9I Don't Belong to You03:59
• 10Read About Memory03:57
• 11Great Escape04:34
• 12Next Year04:17
• Total Runtime45:32

Info for Both Ways

The Other Way brims with inspired interpretations that are intimate yet startling in their urgency. For a producer, Donovan enlisted ace guitarist Todd Lombardo, who recently played most of the guitar work on Kacey Musgraves’ GRAMMY winning juggernaut Golden Hour. Donovan gave Todd artistic license not only to change the chords and song structures but to overhaul the arrangements.

Today, Donovan shares the reimagined version of “Truck Full Of Money”, one of the most dramatically reimagined cuts off The Other Way. Rolling Stone says of the track, “In its original form, ‘Truck Full of Money’ was almost a study in contrasts — it married dramatic, sweeping production to Toronto-based Woods’ meditation on the frequently lonely, unhealthy aspects of a touring musician’s life and the yawning gaps that exist between the few minutes of glory on stage. His new acoustic rendition is slowed down, with 12-string guitar replicating the soaring string melody from the original and mandolin providing some subtle rhythmic counterpoint to Woods’ vocal melodies."

Tenille Townes, a rising country star signed to Columbia Nashville, also joins Donovan on The Other Way via the tender duet “I Ain’t Ever Loved No One”, their voices entwining like a flip side to Tammy Wynette and George Jones.

“It’s always been an interesting idea to me, especially when you’re an artist like me who inherently disappoints some people anytime your sound gets bigger,” Donovan explains. “But a really good song is a good song in any arrangement. It’s like a beautiful hardwood floor. You can put any furniture in there, and it’s going to look good.”

The Other Way comes on the heels of Donovan’s first JUNO Award win; the release of “Go to Her”, his first song of 2019, which The Fader called a “heart-wrenching story of being away from a loved one”, and his five-part Live At Southern Ground Studios video series, which American Songwriter said “captures Woods’ soulful passion, studied craftsmanship.”

Donovan Woods is a singer/songwriter from Sarnia, Canada, now also based in Nashville. As well as being a recording artist he is also a notable songwriter with credits by Billy Currington, Charles Kelley (Lady Antebellum), Tim McGraw and Charlie Worsham. His new album Both Ways is a study in contrasts. He has received nominations for Canada's prestigious Polaris Prize and the Juno Awards, and his catalog has accrued over 60 million streams and has been featured on over 60 thousand playlists.

Donovan Woods

Donovan Woods
In 2019, a decade into his recording career, Donovan Woods pulled back the curtain on both sides of his artistry. He went unplugged for The Other Way, an acoustic and nuanced reimagining of 2018’s Both Ways that captured the Canadian artist in miniature and at his most vulnerable.

Cutting right to the bone of his intimate songwriting and spectral vocals, the album showcased why Woods has become an in-demand songwriter across folk and country music, nimble enough to collaborate with both vanguard artists (Tim McGraw, Lori McKenna) and rising ones (Tenille Townes, Katie Pruitt).

Released on Woods’ Meant Well label, Both Ways finally scored Woods a Juno Award (contemporary roots album) after a handful of previous nominations for songwriter of the year, along with a Canadian Country Music Award (roots album). Woods followed up The Other Way with a series of songs that added even more color to his palette. Pulsing with an electro-acoustic heartbeat, “Way Way Back” paid homage to the long shadow that old lovers often cast and the ways they creep back into our memories.

“While All the While,” co-written with ace singer-songwriter McKenna, was a portrait of quotidian life that swelled into a poignant meditation on how we sit with and reconcile our conflicted feelings.

Perhaps without even knowing it, Woods has explored that feeling with quiet grace throughout his celebrated career, starting with his 2009 debut, The Hold Up. To date, his work has been recorded by McGraw (“Portland, Maine”), Lady Antebellum’s Charles Kelley (“Leaving Nashville”) and Billy Currington (“Sweet Love”), while racking up over 200 million streams.

On his latest song, “Grew Apart” (released on March 6), Woods lays bare yet again his penchant for showing us the soft underbelly of love’s vagaries. “ ‘Grew Apart’ is about all the things we tell ourselves a breakup is about when perhaps the truth is just that the two people didn't like each other enough,” Woods says.

“I think men tend to speak about breakups in this way so their pride doesn’t get wounded, when in truth, they’re hurting. When I wrote the song, I liked it, but I didn’t think I could sing it,” he adds. “I loved to sing it, and even though it didn’t feel like it was about me, I know the guy in this song, I know what he’s trying to say.”

Audiences tend to feel the same way about Woods’ songwriting. They might not know the characters, but Woods paints his themes – of heartache and joy, connection and redemption – in such vivid hues that we all see ourselves in his narratives.

This album contains no booklet.