Blues for Liberty

Guitarist Joe Wood, a member of seminal Orange County punk band TSOL, moved to Leucadia last year. He says he legally acquired the TSOL name with drummer Mitch Dean in 1988 or ’89, as other members left the band. (Wood joined TSOL in 1983, four years after the band formed.)

Wood says he has allowed a reconstituted TSOL to use the TSOL name to tour and record.

“Every six months or so they do a farewell tour like they are never ever gonna play again. Then after six months or so they run out of money and get back together. The last time they announced a farewell show, my phone started ringing off the hook. I was offered $5000 [by an agent] to play under the name TSOL, and I turned it down.…

“When you go back and play as TSOL, all anybody wants to hear is the old stuff. I wanted to play more eclectic blues and mix it up rather than play the same old songs. That’s why I bowed out of the whole TSOL thing.”

Wood has fronted a bluesy roots-rock trio called the Lonely Ones for five years. The three-man project includes Wood’s music mixed with blues classics. He describes the trio as a cross between Stevie Ray Vaughan and the Doors.

Joe Wood and the Lonely Ones appear every Wednesday at the Flying Elephant in Carlsbad (free admission, all ages).

– Ken Leighton