Wood & Wire and Danny Barnes Join Forces for “Just Don’t Make ‘Em (Remix)” (premiere)

It’s been a long past year for Wood & Wire, having ultimately led up to a Bluegrass Grammy nomination for their latest album, North of Despair. Teaming up with iconic banjoist Danny Barnes, the band’s newest single release is a remix of one of their North of Despair tunes, “Just Don’t Make ‘Em”. Blending bluegrass with funky electronic influences isn’t something that happens everyday, but in the hands of an artist like Barnes, the song is given a new life that peacefully coincides with its zippier original arrangement. Barnes’ remix of the Wood & Wire track is crafted around a dutiful respect to atmosphere, with newfound undulating beats and a softened tempo painting a whole other world to explore through the same song.

Wood & Wire tells PopMatters, “About a year before we began tracking for the record, we recorded this slower version of the tune with banjo great Danny Barnes producing (which ended up being a stepping stone to him producing our project, woodshed sessions, vol ii.). He took it back home with him and remixed it using some beats and samples in a style he’s become known for and cleverly calls ‘barnyard electronics’.

“Danny is fearless in his approach to creativity. We’ve always admired that about him. In working with him, we found an inspirational kindred spirit of sorts that tends to leave us thinking, ‘Hey why didn’t we think of that?.’ In the spirit of that fearlessness and fun, we wanted to share something different with our fans and show them something totally out of the box. The tune is an ode to Tony’s grandfather and his friends, and a piece of property in Llano, Texas that Tony, his father, and his brothers learned to maintain and work on under the guidance of stubborn old men.”