Who said what, 1975-2023
Woodenhead has emerged as probably the most important and certainly the most fascinating musical unit New Orleans has seen in years...adamantly original, almost spiritual.."
Eddie Allman, BATON ROUGE MORNING ADVOCATE
"Ya'll suck!" audience member, Laplace Speedway, 1979
"Jimmy Robinson is a major talent who could easily become one of Austin's guitar heroes.."
Michael Point, AUSTIN-AMERICAN STATESMAN
"Why Ya'll play dat music dat make people fight?" Audience member, 1978 after huge brawl breaks out among frenzied Bridge City Gumbo Festival attendees during Woodenhead's set
"A great band. Really great feeling"JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, 1985
"They've been around forever. They're not really happening" Editor of defunct New Orleans music magazine at meeting for defunct music conference. 1986
"Woodenhead is not for the faint-hearted, musically or in spirit...they play a hard-driving, challenging music that will literally rock you out of the comfortable cradle of Jazz, R&B and rock and roll into which life in New Orleans has lulled you." Rock AdamGAMBIT
"The guitar is way too loud" audience member, Cat's Cradle, Chapel Hill, N.C. June 15, 1985
"I can't hear the guitar at all" audience member, Cat's Cradle, Chapel Hill, N.C. June 15, 1985
"Robinson is a killer guitarist, capable of removing the heads of most head banging metal freaks. He is also 'tasty' in the old-fashioned sense, rarely letting speed overtake the essentials."
Mark Bingham, WAVELENGTH MAGAZINE
"You boys need some uniforms" Jimmy Robinson's grandfather repeatedly
from 1975 until his passing in the mid-eighties.
"At the New Orleans jazz festival, Woodenhead gets a standing ovation for teaching traditional jazz fans just how far imagination and electricity can push the form" ESQUIRE MAGAZINE
"An innovative band of extraordinary instrumentalists"... TRIANGLE LIVE, Winston-Salem, N.C.
"A band dedicated to creating music of the highest integrity, and not compromising during their three decades of performances and recordings." MJ BradyPROGNOSIS
"It's kind of painful to my ear" Audience member,Tipitina's, 1980
Rolling Stone MagazineNew Orleans Jazz Fest 2018: The 7 Best Things We Saw
By David Fricke
New Orleans Guitar Masters, Lagniappe Stage
There are more than three guitar masters in New Orleans. But this Friday afternoon session was a rare chance to catch as many – Cranston Clements, who plays with Cyril Neville; the blues and jazz stylist John Rankin; and Jimmy Robinson of the long-running New Orleans fusion band Woodenhead – in such intricately arranged, jubilantly soloing proximity. There was no rhythm section. The interplay came with its own propulsion, in an acoustic-electric blend that recalled the three-way dynamics of John McLaughlin’s early-Eighties collaboration with Paco de Lucia and Al Di Meola. A Ventures medley, in memory of their late guitarist Nokie Edwards, rolled like flamenco surf; a cover of Dave Brubeck’s 9/8 jazz classic “Blue Rondo a La Turk” was closer to the storming prog-rock of the 1968 version by the Nice – with extra spirited quoting of Led Zeppelin.