the Golden Dregs

From piano-man, bar-band, karaoke-crooner to an all-singing-all-dancing seven piece, all guises of the Golden Dregs serve as a platform for Benjamin Woods’s different musical output. Under the moniker he has released two albums in quick succession, “Lafayette” (2018) and “Hope Is For The Hopeless” (2019); the third one, “On Grace & Dignity”, will be released on 10 February 2023 by 4AD records. 

Golden Dregs’ Americana atmosphere sounds at times peaceful at times psychedelic, but the songs always unfold at a graceful pace and are grounded by Woods’s deep baritone voice. 

The lyrics of his latest single, Sundown Lake, and his upcoming record focus on his childhood and growth in Cornwall, getting strength from their contrast. Woods sounds sarcastic and optimistic, while he spins subtly interweaving narratives about survival, desperate acts of violence, loss and the limitations of community in the face of rapacious gentrification. 

“I really like story-telling,” he says. “It’s something that I admire and respect, and it directly influences my music making process more so than listening to music. It is lovely if someone can say that they can detect an influence of Raymond Carver” INTERVIEW WITH “LOUD AND QUIET”

“’American Airlines’ rolls ahead with understated warmth and beauty, buoyed by the convergence of piano, brass, and percussion.”SINGLE REVIEW BY “STEREOGUM”