Dorothy Wooten kept trying for a daughter, but five times pushed out boys destined for the stage. Victor Wooten, the youngest and perhaps the most well-known Wooten bro, has five Grammys as the bassist for Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. Roy Wooten (also known as Future Man) shares those accolades as the Flecktones’ percussionist. Keyboardist Joseph Wooten, a member of the Steve Miller Band since 1993, has a trio of Grammy nominations. Saxophonist Rudy Wooten passed away in 2010, leaving the family band a quartet helmed by oldest brother and guitarist Regi Wooten, who put a bass in Victor’s hands before he could speak full sentences.
“Regi showed Victor how to play one note so that he could play along right away,” recalled Roy on the phone from his home in Nashville, the city where all four brothers reside.
Growing up in a nomadic military family, the brothers leaned on each other for consistent friendships. It wasn’t a competitive household.
“We were more of a team concept,” Roy explained. “Music really kept us together. We had our own language.”
Victor, speaking with the Charleston City Paper before a performance in Berlin last week, says that their brotherly bond means there’s never an off night when they perform together.
“It’s like having a conversation with somebody. Even though some conversations are better than others, they always work,” Victor said. Half a century of experience doesn’t hurt. Even if they took the stage with no rehearsal or planning, Victor claimed the audience wouldn’t know it.
“It’s not bragging — it’s just what happens when you’ve played together for 50 years,” Victor laughed. “Even on a bad night, we can entertain you.”
In their early years, the Wootens opened for Curtis Mayfield, War and the Temptations. But as each brother took gigs with other groups, their family band became an occasional side project. Victor turned 60 on Sept. 11, and Regi is almost 70. With the four living brothers all in their 60s, the time was right to reunite.
“We’ve already lost one brother (Rudy), and we just decided we didn’t want to wait any longer,” Victor said.
Dubbed the “Forebrothers of Funk,” the Wooten Brothers setlist draws from the Flecktones (including the song “Sunset Road” and the 1998 seminal album Left of Cool), each brother’s solo catalogs and funk classics.
“We switch it up,” said Roy, who mostly plays a drum set with the Wooten Brothers, as opposed to the handheld Drumitar he invented to play with the Flecktones. “There are some funky James Brown–type of things and a lot of the songs that we played growing up.”
The reunion was encouraged by the rediscovery of a never-released studio session from when the brothers were teenagers. “It’s a gold mine of recordings that we’d forgotten about,” Victor said. The brothers isolated Rudy’s saxophone parts and worked them into new arrangements. “We’ve been taking these old songs and freshening them up,” he added. The resulting album will be released in 2025.
On stage, without Rudy — who was known for playing two saxophones at once — Joseph doubles up horn parts on his keyboard.
“Rudy’s spirit is with us,” Roy said.
Already bonded by blood, the Wooten Brothers’ connection extends into the spiritual realm, as well. They refer to Regi as “The Teacher,” and each brother incorporates an ethereal quality into their playing. Joseph shares his excitement for sacred geometry with the family, while Regi draws connections between literature, religion and the unspoken side of music.
Roy offered an example: “Everybody has heard of King Arthur and the sword and the stone. If you take the “s” at the beginning of each word and put it at the end, ‘swords’ becomes ‘words’ and ‘stone’ becomes ‘tones.’ The word is mightier than the sword, and art is king.”
Victor accumulated these insights and wordplay into two novels, The Music Lesson and The Spirit of Music, which he narrates along with friends like Keb’ Mo’ and India.Arie. A key message is that we’re losing our connection with music in a world where sounds can be created digitally and we choose to absorb music in isolation through tiny speakers in our ears. Victor doesn’t completely forgo listening to music through headphones, but he emphasizes the importance of the live experience, shared with friends.
“Music is life. This is how I grew up,” Victor said . “When I’m on stage with my brothers, I’m in my happy place and I’m not thinking about this stuff. Music is medicine, and I know that the audience is receiving it.”
The Wooten Brothers perform at the Refinery in downtown Charleston on Sept. 27. Tickets start at $30 at therefinerychs.com.
Help keep the City Paper free.
No paywalls.
No subscription cost.
Free delivery at 800 locations.
Help support independent journalism by donating today.