Wayne Bledsoe
Fox recently contacted Woodward to tell her that a contestant in the top 20 on "So You Think You Can Dance" had danced to one of Woodward's songs called "Eleanor." Another song showed up in the trailer for the Australian TV show "The Wall."
"It could've been like a Viagra commerical or Wal-Mart. I'm glad it turned out to be used for something nice and artistic," says Woodward in a phone call from her home in Greenville, S.C.
A former law student, Woodward started playing guitar and writing songs while she was attending Gordon College in Wenham, Mass.
"It really wasn't until I found the banjo that I got serious about it," says Woodward. "I was home one Christmas and I found this banjo under the bed. I just started playing it and fell in love with it."
Woodward's father, documentary filmmaker Stan Woodward, bought the instrument on a whim, but never really learned how to play it.
"It's a Gibson from the early '60s, beautiful instrument," says Woodward. "I just started writing almost exclusively on it."
The results can be heard on Woodward's recent album, "Speck." Rather than going for bluegrass banjo rolls, she opted to play pretty melodies or strum simple rhythms.
Woodward says she put a lot of thought into whether her energies would be best used as a lawyer or a musician.
"I have to say that music has connected me to people in a way that very few other things have. Just as a human being I feel very grateful to take part in that. Being out on the road, all the times we broke down, we've had the opportunity to experience so much hospitality and generosity from strangers. It's an encouraging thing."
There have been times, though, that Woodward questioned a future in music, including a tour in which her 1984 VW van "broke down in seven states."
"There was a night in Colorado," says Woodward. "We had just been stranded in New Mexico for four days. We'd broken down in the desert. The ignition had caught on fire. That had all been fixed and was very expensive. And the day we left and got to Mesa Verde National Park where were going to camp for the night and just before we got to the top of the mountain the van died again. We're in a 'Danger! Falling Rock' zone and we're looking down into this vast horizon. There's no guardrail and the van's emergency brake didn't work so someone had to sit with their foot on the brake so it wouldn't roll away while we were working on it. Eventually, we're paying to have it towed from the side of this mountain in the middle of the night. I just felt kind of hopeless. And we'd just played a series of shows that hadn't paid that well ... that was, like, the worst."
But then there are good surprises.
"I've (performed) in random towns on the West Coast and had people come up and tell me they've listened to my songs for the last three or four years and they're glad I came out. It's very surreal. You never know how it works."
