Photo: JM Collective

Last Friday, Feb. 7, 2025, NEEDTOBREATHE co-founder and frontman Bear Rinehart and his Wilder Woods outfit delivered their third full-length studio LP, Curioso.

In their first official move since publicizing the set, the band and its maestro, Rinehart, have invited viewers to the living room for a stripped-back performance of their old-school, braising soul output, “Time On My Hands (The House Sessions).” 

Today’s video premiere centers around the Curioso track, which initially featured My Morning Jacket’s Jim James as a guest. The intimate video takes a similar approach to the studio recording, evoking a family-matters attitude elicited by a shared enthusiasm for the sonic magic the eight-piece creates when they come together. 

There is a seamlessness to the performance, rooted in comfortability and sonic understanding for one another. The environment plays a part in the ease with players seated on leather furniture. The oversized river rock fireplace hosts a blaze, mimicked by the band, who sizzles in retro flair, harmonious excellence, and an aptitude for soul-stirring magic.

“The house sessions are a look into the way the band sounds stripped back in a comfortable environment. Thankful we had a chance to showcase some of the songs on Curioso in this intimate way,” Reinhart told Relix. 

Reinhart’s ability to reinvent the wheel is what makes “Time On My Hands” and Curioso stand-out, considering the musician’s effortlessness in co-opting his own brand of nostalgia using varying genres that takes the listener out of the moment and to a place of corduroy bell bottoms, feathered hair and circular sunglasses. 

The LP title is derived from the curio cabinet, a piece of furniture used to house knickknacks and other important items. Reinhart cites his grandmother’s cabinet as the inspiration for Curioso. 

“It was a china cabinet where she’d store her keepsakes, like her first Bible, some porcelain dolls, and football memorabilia,” he remembers. “As a kid, I always thought it was a strange thing to keep around… but now, I think a curio cabinet can tell you a lot about a person. I love the idea of collecting the pieces of your past, creating a little assortment of things that you really enjoy.”

The album also includes guests like songstress Maggie Rose, who adds her chops to “Wild Fire,” and Ana Graves on “Offering.” Stream Curioso now.