Wood Burnt Red have announced their debut album Hold On Tight, set for release on September 4.
The UK Southern-rock four-piece will release the eleven-track album on CD, vinyl and digital formats, with the new single Fire Me Up out now. The record was produced by Tyler Spicer and features songs written by the band.
Rooted in country, driven by rock and shaped by real-life stories, Hold On Tight is presented as an honest statement from a band still early in their recording career but already building serious momentum.
“Wood Burnt Red’s new single, Fire Me Up,crackles with blues‑soaked urgency, its gritty vocals and smouldering guitar lines locking into a groove that steadily raises the temperature. It’s a fierce, full‑bodied statement from a band leaning confidently into their sound; proof that when Wood Burnt Red strike the match, the spark becomes something impossible to ignore.”
Colin Campbell
Rather than chasing a polished, overly refined sound, Wood Burnt Red have leaned into the grit, emotion and live energy that define them. The album moves between foot-stomping anthems and more reflective moments, touching on love, loss, resilience, addiction, depression, regret and renewal.
The lead single Fire Me Up captures the band at their most direct. Built on driving riffs, a big chorus and frontman Tom Franklin’s powerful baritone vocal, the track is a full-throttle statement of intent.
It also marks an important first for the band, as their first co-write with Nashville-based producer Tyler Spicer. Franklin says the song came together quickly and naturally.
“We can’t wait for this track to come out,” he says. “It’s the first song we co-wrote with our incredible producer Tyler Spicer. This collaboration felt like something special from day one.
“Fire Me Up is a big, heartfelt message to everyone who ever told us we were wasting our time chasing an unrealistic dream.”
The album also includes Simple Place, which helped build the band’s recent momentum, alongside Bartender, a fan favourite that spent eighteen months on Apple Music’s Today’s Country playlist and has passed 600,000 streams.
Elsewhere, Count My Blessings tackles addiction and the reality of recovery, while Drifting explores depression from Franklin’s own experience. One Chance began life as a song intended for his wife and has grown into one of the album’s most personal moments.
That mix of hard-driving Southern rock and open-hearted songwriting sits at the centre of Wood Burnt Red’s appeal. The band, made up of Tom Franklin, Rob Graney, Russ Staples and Ed Baldwin, have built their sound around friendship, shared history and songs that speak plainly.
Praised by Planet Rock’s Elles Bailey as “the UK’s answer to The Brothers Osborne”, Wood Burnt Red are carving out their own place in the Southern rock and modern country rock scene.
With Hold On Tight, they have made the album their story has been building towards.
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