Bill Wood stepped away from the music industry machine around 1991, walked off into ordinary life, and came back in 2007 with an album called Take It. Since then he has released seven records on his own terms, refusing to chase the pop formula that defined his work in the 1980s. Before any of that, he was the lead vocalist for Juno-nominated band EyeEye, and the roots of his current band stretch back even further than that. He and bassist and producer Mark Shannon have been making music together since the early 1970s, the kind of friendship Wood describes as being like brothers. Together with guitarist Chris Bennett, whose tasteful soloing has drawn comparisons to Mike Campbell of Tom Petty’s band, and drummer Dino Naccarato, the Woodies have now been playing together for fifteen years.
Same Old Hurt arrives six years after their last record, and Wood has been candid about why now felt like the right time. “I’m definitely not getting any younger, and the band has been playing together for 15 years,” he said. “I love my band, and it felt like the right time to honor everyone’s efforts with a full album, as opposed to the single releases I’ve been putting out over the last few years.” The nine-track record splits cleanly into two sides, the first running from “Dance All Night” through “Liquor Store,” the second shifting tone from “Wasting Time” through to the closer, “It’s My Show.” Check out the track by track below!
Track by Track
1. Dance All Night With Me
Wood has said plainly that this one exists purely for fun and entertainment, and there is nothing wrong with that. It opens the record with warmth and a seductive charm that proves, even on an album largely about old wounds, there is still plenty of room left for joy.
2. Same Old Hurt
The title track is the album’s emotional anchor, and Wood describes it as being about life’s pain and challenges in the broadest sense. “As a band, I think we’re survivors, and as an artist, I know I’m a survivor,” he said. “I’ve gone through many different incarnations throughout my career, but I’m still here.” That sense of hard-won endurance comes through in every line.
3. Lightning In A Jar
One of three songs Wood specifically pointed to as capturing the album’s balance of energy, nostalgia, and introspection. The title fits that description well, an attempt to hold onto something electric and fleeting before it slips away for good.
4. Burn Inside
Wood places this one alongside the title track as one of the record’s more introspective moments. It ignites with real intensity, channeling genuine emotion into something that feels urgent rather than performed, with Chris Bennett’s guitar work giving the track its sharpest edges.
5. Liquor Store
The closing track on the album’s first side, rounding out a run that the Indie Dock Music Blog described as a sequence announcing its intentions with the confidence of a band that has nothing left to prove. It carries the same grounded, specific storytelling that defines Wood’s best writing.
6. Wasting Time
Wood has grouped this one with “Dance All Night With Me” as a song meant simply for fun, a deliberate change of pace before the album’s back half turns more reflective. It opens the second side with the kind of loose energy that keeps the record from ever feeling too heavy.
7. I Remember Everything
Wood has explained this track directly: it is about becoming a little forgetful with age, a wry and honest way to think about memory rather than a purely sentimental one. That self-aware humor running underneath the nostalgia is exactly what makes it one of the album’s more quietly clever moments.
8. It’s Enough
A title that suggests acceptance after a record’s worth of struggle and reflection, the decision to call something sufficient rather than keep reaching for more. It fits naturally into the album’s back half as a moment of hard-won peace.
9. It’s My Show
The closer brings the record home on a note of ownership, a fitting way to end an album that Wood made, in his own words, out of love and appreciation for his band. After fifteen years together and six years since their last release, claiming the stage outright feels completely earned.
Final Thoughts
Same Old Hurt is the work of a band that stopped trying to prove anything a long time ago and just kept showing up for each other instead. Mark Shannon’s production keeps the sound rooted in roots rock tradition without ever feeling like a museum piece, and Wood’s songwriting carries the quiet authority of someone who has lived every line he’s singing. This is a deeply human record from one of Canada’s most quietly formidable outfits, made by people who know exactly who they are and who they’re making it for.
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