The realm of modern troubadours is that of a long list that includes names no so familiar. Afton Wolfe is a name that deserves immediate attention with his gravelly aching soul that is Americana at its most heated & earnest,
Wolf recently released ‘Twenty-Three,’ the follow-up to his critically-acclaimed debut LP, Kings for Sale, (Grandiflora Records. The epic 9-song opus made waves on both sides of the Atlantic, spawning indie rock treatises, “Cemetery Blues,” “Fault Lines” and “Mrs Ernst’s Piano.” The songs on Twenty-Three signified a newfound growth for Wolfe as he gelled together his inspirational singer-songwriter anthems with his own brand of fervently emotive song deliveries.
Spending his musically formative years in and around New Orleans, where the humidity of the Mississippi combined with the Cajun seasonings, the jazz, zydeco, creole, and gospel music, his Mississippi roots coalesce to add resonance and depth to his blues/country/rock influences.Wolfe moved to Nashville in 2003 and quickly ingratiated himself into the burgeoning East Nashville music scene. Aside from being a regular fixture at the Basement East, Five Spot, Grimey’s, Dee’s Country Lounge and The Bowery Vault, he’s been invited to partake in all 17 of the annual Tom Waits Tribute shows each December in celebration of Waits’ mid-Sagittarius arrival into the pantheon of music history.
Wolfe moved to Nashville in 2003 and quickly ingratiated himself into the burgeoning East Nashville music scene. Aside from being a regular fixture at the Basement East, Five Spot, Grimey’s, Dee’s Country Lounge, and The Bowery Vault, he’s been invited to partake in all 17 of the annual Tom Waits Tribute shows each December in celebration of Waits’ mid-Sagittarius arrival into the pantheon of music history.
To promote the release of Twenty-Three which reunited him with frequent collaborator Seth Fox and producer Brett Ryan Stewart at Wirebird Productions, Wolfe embarked on tour across the Eastern U.S. and he was so kind as to share an exclusive tour diary with Glide.
Some basic lexicon and background, before I go through the day-by-day. Cry to the Moon, April Twenty-Three was a 16-show run, from April 13 – April 30, 2023. It included myself singing and playing guitar, Seth Fox playing guitar, flute, saxophone and clarinet, Madison “Mad King” George on drums and percussion, and Erik Mendez on the bass guitar. We were all packed up into a 2013 Chevrolet Express 3500 passenger van that belongs to the great Lauren Morrow and her husband Jason. Her name is Phyllis, and she courted us on this tour while Lauren and Jason were touring Europe. We also had a stencil that was made by the great David Noel (a fantastic artist who has done commissions for me, including the album cover for Petronius’ Last Meal and the single artwork for “Dirty Girl” for which the stencil was created) with which we attempted to tag as many locations as possible during the tour.
Thursday, 4/13 – First day of the run – finished packing, worked a little on some non-music revenue sources.
Double check packing – guitars, amp, chord bag, merch suitcase, backup records, CDs, stickers, shirts, posters, clothes, toiletries, snacks, two gallons of cold brew, simple syrup, almond milk, computer, power sources, books, pens, *********, extra glasses, snacks, watch, smokes, lighters, Daisy May Hat Company Magic Hat, …
Text guys to make sure plan is right – same page. Pick up Seth in East Nashville. Madison picked up Erik, and Seth and I go pick them up from Madison’s place in Hermitage, which is en route to Knoxville. All loaded up – discover that Erik is also talented at the Tetrisesque task of loading the van.
Head out to first show. Preservation Pub in Knoxville, Tennessee. Set is 11pm. Stop by the place we’re crashing to unload suitcases. Heidi Gilson hosted us. Lovely human, fantastic songwriter and guitarist. Arrive at venue around 9, as The Cancellations are starting their set. They’re great and a cool hang. Their set is reminiscent of late 90s post-grunge with hints of Fleetwood Mac, Pretenders, and Replacements with two crazy-arm inflatable dancers labeled “Dance” and “Depression.” They’re almost done with their run, going the other way to Nashville.
We played two hour and five-minute sets with one break in between. Solid first show. Madison and Seth know most of the songs from playing together the last year. Erik is super adaptable and a fast learner. Long day. Load out pretty quick and head to bed.
Friday 4/14 – Wake up at Heidi’s. Her and her wife make breakfast and coffee. They are so lovely we don’t want to leave already. Heidi and I sing “Least Complicated” by the Indigo Girls over breakfast, then we say goodbye.
Show is at Mountain Valley Brewing in Axton, VA. Backyard bar venue. Very chill and out of the way. Small PA. Rain picking up, and lightning in the distance. Show delayed because the bar is basically open air. Crowd rained into the bar. We added “Make It Rain” by Tom Waits after the lightning passed.
They thought I was solo. So, they only had one air mattress to crash on. Guys have two air mattresses. We hang out and play board games and records in the venue and eat some food Seth’s mom packed. I suck it up and nap in the van, but we leave early to get more sleep at the next spot, where we have more coordinated accommodations.
Saturday 4/15 – Get up super early (too early to admit) and head towards the next town, Jessup, Maryland. Arrive at Edith May’s Paradise, which is a house concert hosted by Georgie Jessup. She has a couple of beds for us, so once we get loaded in and take in the awesome space, I take a nap. Wake up. Shower. Get ready for the show.
Venue is breathtaking. Georgie’s family owned a retail storefront in a hotel in the Baltimore area, and the basement/venue is a museum of antique toys, pictures, memorabilia, and furniture, with a stage in the corner. Georgie opened with a lovely cello accompaniment, then we played to a great crowd. There was fun fellowship pretty late into the evening with food and conversation that the lovely crowd brought. But we were all still pretty tired with an early hit the next day. To bed.
Sunday 4/16 – Wake up. Pack up. Seth and Madison go for a jog. Hugs to Georgie. Off to the next town.
Sunday afternoon in Jersey City, NJ. We go straight to the venue for a 3pm hit. Cool brewery. Open air on a pretty day. Kind of industrial gentrification project. Beer was good. Crowd was good. Our friend from the area who we met on the last run, Emily Gabriele comes by to hang. Staying at a nice, but very small Airbnb. Madison makes other arrangements with a friend in NYC.
After the gig, we all go back to the Airbnb in Elizabeth, NJ. Then we walk to the Elizabeth train station just in time to miss the train. We wait a half an hour. I should’ve gone to Hoboken. Train comes. Madison goes to meet his friend. Erik, Seth and I go to the city. We can’t get too far from Penn Station. We go to Korea Town. First place is stupid expensive and empty and awkward. We leave. Next place is cool. We eat and have a drink. We stop by a dispensary. Things are better.
Take a train back to Elizabeth.
Monday 4/17 – The guys have the day off. The show that night is a solo acoustic hit in the city. Seth gets booked for studio time, because of course he does. Madison is going to meet us in the city sometime. Erik and I wander around until then. Stop by Washington Square Park. Play chess. Erik wins. Left my queen open.
Madison meets us there. I win. Forced checkmate with some pretty aggressive knight play. I leave them in the park to go get ready for my set.
The great Emily Duff lets me play for a half hour solo acoustic before her and her badass band play. Show is at Cowgirl (AKA Cowgirl Hall of Fame) in West Village. Awesome crowd, which is crazy in NYC for a Southern boy like me. But it makes sense when you see Emily and her band. They were stunning. People flew in from all over to see it. They were attentive and respectful. It was one of the best show experiences I’ve ever had. Just magic. Otherwise, impossible to describe.
After the set, watch Emily’s band play for two straight hours and party. Meet lots of folks. Have a couple extra beers. Catch up with old friend Craig Schenker. One of the guys will have to drive to Woodstock. We get to Woodstcok around 2am, just as our host Billy Pearson was getting back home from his own social engagements. We drink tequila and hug and catch up.
Tuesday 4/18 – Wake up and start warming up the voice and fingers immediately. Got a stop at Radio Woodstock at 10am with Greg and Aja. Love those guys, so hangover is secondary. Woodstock is magic, so there’s an obligation to tap into that whenever there. Had a great time and rang the bell at Radio Woodstock. Then went back to Billy’s and rehearsed a little with Billy for the show that night.
Show was at The Station Bar and Curio. Cool place, for and by weirdos in the best way. Stage is outside. It’s cold. Billy does a great set. Then Seth, Erik and Madison play a set of Seth’s songs. Crowd is light due to weather, but they’re attentive and digging it. We play “This Must Be the Place” with Billy, and Billy plays “Melissa” with us. Pack up, head back to Billy’s, drink a little more. Crash.
Wednesday 4/19 – Wake up, drink coffee, head out. Show is in Buffalo at 7pm. We’re staying with my dear friend Kathryn Koch, who I’ve known for fifteen years. We go by her place as she’s leaving for work (at the venue we’re playing that night). We decompress after unpacking. The guys wander the neighborhood for coffee, and I crash on Kat’s couch until we get ready and go up to the venue – Jack Rabbit.
Great spot and my second time here. Layout is unusual, but crowd is vibing and cool. Kat open’s up and is phenomenal as usual. Her songs are biting, intellectual, funny and passionate, and her voice is nuclear powered. She’s incredible. Our set was fun, and the band is definitely getting tight at this point. After the set, we see that a large spider had hitched a ride inside my guitar case. Definitely happened at The Station, and I don’t blame the little dude for looking for a warm spot that night. But his ride with us had to come to an end, so Seth took the case outside and released it into a slightly more urban area than Woodstock, so it could start over in a new town. Crashed hard after getting back to Kat’s.
Thursday 4/20 – Woke up, gave Kat a hug and graffiti tagged her porch. Then we’re off. Hoosick Falls next. Unihog. Great spot and another repeat appearance. Made friends with the owner, Jasen vonGuinness in Mexico at the Tropic of Cancer Fest a couple years ago. Everyone there is so cool, and the little shire of Hoosick Falls is so idyllic. And it being 4/20 in a legal state, there was some fun to be had for sure. A local cannabis farm, Scarp Farms, set up a table and was just selling it in the bar. The future, right?
The lovely Shannon Roy opened up the show. She normally hosts the open mic for local artists on Thursday nights, but she graciously allowed me to come through touring to play a show and hang out with my friends, not to mention getting graced with her beautiful voice and wonderful songs. Seth played his originals with the guys again. Sounded great. The crowd was in the groove the whole night, and the energy was conspicuously chill and happy. Then we partied – first at Unihog and then afterwards at Jasen’s place, where we were crashing. But again, we had an early morning, and so did our hosts.
Friday 4/21 – Eased out of Jasen’s place as we awoke. Seth and Madison went on a walk, and we got coffee and breakfast from our friend Mike’s coffee shop in Hoosick Falls. Then we’re off to Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
In Portsmouth, we played at The Button Factory Stage, which is part of WSCA, a local independent radio station. Tiny spot and a cool spot with some old friends. Our pal from last year’s run, George Barber, played. His new record came out that day, and it’s brilliant. Minimalist production with maximum impact. George is one of the funniest humans I’ve ever known, but he can write a song that will rip your heart out with sadness. Rachel Berlin, a young brilliant songstress, played, and she was amazing as well. My friend Rich Russo showed up and took some great pictures. After the show, we had some food and drink with George and another Dead Archer Records friend, Andrew Johnson. Still exhausted, though, and had to drive an hour to where we were crashing that night, with our beautiful friend Wyn Doran and her husband in Nashua.
Saturday 4/22 – Woke up in Nashua. Wyn made delicious breakfast. Coffee. Load up. Back on the road. Short drive to Norwood, Massachusetts, just outside Boston. Going back to The Fallout Shelter there. Great venue and amazing people there. They got us hotel rooms. Erik and I in one (because we snore) and Madison and Seth in another. Get settled. Shower and change and get to the venue as soon as we can, because we can’t wait to see those folks again, and we know they got the backstage hooked up.
The opener for the show is Anna Ferrari, accompanied by Liz Stone. She apparently blew the crowd away at an open mic there recently, and it was apparent why she was invited. The two were incredible – light but soulful melodies and beautiful songs and lyrics, played and sang perfectly. I love it when an opening act gives me imposter syndrome. It’s a motivator.
The band was hitting the stride that night, and the venue records everything – video and audio – very well. So, I’m looking forward to viewing the performance once I have time. Seth did a couple of his songs. And, it was my wife’s birthday, so I gave a shout out to her from the stage before we played her favorite cover song in my repertoire – Mac Miller’s “Good News.” I love that place, and I can’t wait to get back there. After the show, we tagged the inside of the building, and then we went to our hotels and crashed.
Sunday 4/23 – Another short drive, but an earlier show time. Rainy day, so we didn’t get to really enjoy Keene, New Hampshire as much as we’d have liked. Seemed like a beautiful little shire, though. Parked near venue and walked around. The guys had some pizza. I went to a little bookstore and got gifts for my nieces. Then we went back to the venue and loaded in. Very cool spot that doubles as a food court when not hosting shows. Jon Stephens, of the local band Modern Fools up there, opened the show acoustic but also had his wife join vocals for a couple of songs. His music and playing were very good, and we watched from the side of the room while he warmed up the crowd. Again, our set felt good. Everyone was on the same page. The crowd was a little sparse due no doubt to the rainy Sunday, but they were tuned in and having a good time. The room and sound were great, and I’m excited to get back to that spot, too.
Monday 4/24 – You could call it the first day off of the tour (Madison and Erik had the day off a week prior in NYC), but we had to get all the way down to Charlottesville, Virginia for the next day, so the day was spent in Phyllis, listening to podcasts, music, news, and notably a good bit of silence as I drove and the guys slept. Since it was their day off, I wanted them to be able to rest, so I took the whole drive that day. We arrived at a small Airbnb on the way in Culpepper, Virginia pretty late that evening. It was nice and quiet and out of the way. There was one TV in one of the bedrooms, so we crowded in there and watched Bob’s Burgers and ate junk food until we all succumbed to exhaustion.
Tuesday 4/25 – Refreshed, we headed over to Charlottesville to play in the WTJU studio there. That one is on video, too. Peter and his volunteers were very gracious. We got set up and played a very good hour – every set becoming more automatic, with more flow. Sold a little merchandise to the kind attendees, and we packed up. That night’s accommodations were courtesy of my Marriott points – two queens and two air mattresses in between.
Wednesday 4/26 – I would call this our actual first day off, at least mine. The drive to the Airbnb was only three hours. It was a beautiful spot that seemed to double as a wedding venue. Lovely view, nice yard, several random monuments seemingly for picture taking. Seth, Madison and I took a walk into the woods, which we could have stayed in for hours, but by the time we got there, there were only a few more minutes of sunlight, which is when the park closed, reasonably. When we got back to the spot, Erik was practicing his bass, because of course he was. I kind of did my own thing for a bit, then we reconvened and watched Howl’s Moving Castle from Erik’s extensive digital collection of entertainment options. That was the day off I needed finally.
Thursday 4/27 – Headed to Asheville to play The Grey Eagle, but weather becomes a problem. Show is on the patio, and there’s no indoor contingency. We head that way anyway, because I was offered some time at a new rehearsal space in Asheville – SoundSpace@Rabbit’s Music Rehearsal Studios. And, though we really don’t need to rehearse at this point in the tour, I have a plan to use the time and space to get some video of Seth’s original songs, which I am convinced are incredible and the world needs to hear. So, since we’re going to be there anyway, we wait a bit to make a call on canceling the show. Sadly, though, the rain and radar don’t show any indication that we will be able to avoid the cancelation. The obligatory apologetic social media posts are made, and we make our way to our friend Keith Harry’s place to hang out and make a new plan. The guys are invited by friends of theirs in town to go see a Balkan Jazz group – The Black Sea Beat Society. I really should go – and I want to, but I’m old and tired, so I hang out at Keith’s place and get a little non-music work done before watching The Office for a bit with Keith and his partner Brittany and then going to bed just as the guys arrived from their awesome experience at the concert that night. They got lots of video. They show me, and I feel regret. But I’m happy for them.
Friday 4/28 – Still raining. Another long drive, and by this time it’s definitively in the wrong direction, headed back north. We actually have to pass through Tennessee on the way. And, while I’m having a great time, a part of me is tempted to just keep going deeper into Tennessee, make up some bullshit excuse, and cancel the last three shows, so I can get home to my lovely wife. It’s a fleeting thought that was never seriously considered, and the robotic maps guide me to our destination – Silver Spring, Maryland. We’re playing in a spot called Silver Strings, put together by my friend Dave Gallinsky. The room is gorgeous, and the sound is full, even though it’s a small system. Our new friend Georgie, from Edith May’s Paradise, comes to the show with some friends from our set at Edith May’s Paradise (which was almost two weeks ago at that point, but felt like it had happened earlier that day). Like at Edith May’s, Georgie gets up with us and plays “Ooh La La,” “Cry,” and “Paper Piano on the house’s keyboard.
Not a huge crowd, but very cued in. In the running for best crowd per capita, cos they bought lots of merch. If you don’t know, that’s pretty important to a touring band. Georgie offered to let us crash at her place in Jessup again, so we did. The next day is the longest drive of the run, so we try our best to get in and go right to bed.
Saturday 4/29 – Early bus call. 9 am. We drag ourselves to the van. Coffee. Cigarette. Repeat until conscious. Drive. Coffee. Cigarette. Drive.
We arrive at our crash spot – the downtown Charleston abode of friend Mark Bryan (founding member of Hootie and the Blowfish and a great dude). He’s not home, but he’s arranged for us to use his pad while he’s in Mexico doing his thing.
We can’t stay long, so we unpack the suitcases and toiletries and head over to Isle of Palms, a beach suburb of Charleston, South Carolina. My friend AJ is bringing a PA for us to borrow, which I will ultimately offer and arrange to buy from him after the show and take with us. But first he has to deal with the fact that he was sideswiped by another car on his way to bring it to us. So, while he’s dealing with cops and insurance about 5 minutes away from The Dinghy (the name of the venue), Seth, Madison, Erik and I do twenty minutes of instrumental jamming. It’s pretty good really, but it definitely had a Spinal Tap – free form jazz exploration – feel to it. But the show must go on, and we’ve got a job to do, and all that cliché.
AJ arrives twenty minutes into our bluesy jazz jam, in which I am trying to do something without getting in the way of the other three guys who are all music school-educated serious jazz players in addition to being well-rounded musicians of all genres. Once we get the PA plugged in, I’m back in my comfort zone, safely hidden behind a microphone, open chords and my pack-a-day growl.
It’s a busy beach bar. Some folks were into the music; many were not. That’s the way it goes sometimes, and that’s fine. Not every show is a listening room, and I do what I do for the song before anything else. The connection will come if I do that, I truly believe.
Almost done with the show, though, and some bros who look like they probably partied with the Murdaugh family at least a few times, started getting a little drunk and clumsy. One crashed into me. In those cases, it’s important not to stop the song, because that’s when things have the space to get awkward. So, I shoved the guy back into his friends and kicked the fallen barstool (that knocked over my vodka ginger ale) into the crowd of future South Carolina state senators without stopping the song. After the song, the fella who fell into me apologized. I’d already forgiven him, but we didn’t linger long after to get to know them any better.
We went back to Mark’s place and had a couple of beers on his balcony while watching coeds from College of Charleston wander the streets well past their bedtimes. And we stayed up well past our own bedtime, because a dear friend who lives in Charleston was coming over to hang after he got done bartending. But that meeting was never going to last very long, as tired as we were and still having one more show to do, a short drive away but the earliest show on the whole run.
Sunday 4/30 – Last show of the run is in Columbia, South Carolina at Steel Hands Brewing. It’s a 1pm hit. The plan was to have it outside on their stage, which would have been great, but again we were thwarted by the weather. If you’re not familiar, it occasionally rains in South Carolina. We were able to set up inside, though. And we played a really fun final show. Three sets of pretty much everything we’d planned to play and then a few more. The beer there is delicious, and though I usually don’t drink beer while I’m singing (because burping), I made an exception for this finale and for that Raspberry Stout they were slinging. Yum.
Very cool crowd, kids dancing and vibing, which is always fun, and the weather lightened up. They offered to let us finish out the show outside, but there was no chance. We would have had to add at least an hour to the set, and we were already planning on making the long drive to Nashville that night as it were, instead of any more sleeps before returning to my beautiful wife and crazy cats back in Nashville. And I was not going to have a happy gang if they had to reload all the gear fifty yards away to play the last hour. So, we chugged on, now with the windows open and the crowd still digging the Music. It was another good merch show, which really helped out, especially to close out the run. By the end of the set, I was singing like Slim Harpo meets Groucho Marx, just trying to laugh my way through the rest of it, because I was so truly happy to be on the way home and delirious/deliriously proud of what me and the boys had done with this great run.
We loaded back into the van. The pants I’d worn weren’t very comfortable, and the drive was long. So, we found a Dollar General, and I bought some cheap pajama pants to finish out the drive.
Dropped Madison off first in Hermitage. Then Erik to Brentwood. Then Seth and I rode back to East Nashville, where I helped him unload and “dummy check” the van. I arrived back in my house at around 2am Monday morning. The cats weren’t as happy to see me as my wife, but they’ve come back around since.
Conclusion
It was a really fun trip, but it was exhausting. We worked out a few new songs for an upcoming release (keep your eye on the Fall of this year, when the Harvest is coming in), and Seth’s Music was a real revelation. I learn some things every time I go out. That’s why I brought two gallons of my cold brew this time, probably saving $70-$80 and having much better coffee. This run taught me, among other things, that I need to schedule more and more restful days off and that I’m never going to read all four books I bring with me on the road. If anything, I read less because it’s overwhelming trying to pick which one to start that I know I won’t finish. Next time: ONE book. But I think we made some great connections and friends with new folks who will hopefully keep digging the tunes. I’ll be back out there as soon as I can figure out how again.
