You certainly don’t have to be born in the south to sing the Delta blues, or raised in Appalachia to master bluegrass. If you are though, and can bring that personal touch to the genre, it’s icing on the cake. Such is the case with current Nashville resident Afton Wolfe, who can call an arc stretching from Memphis to New Orleans, home. While not a blues album, you can hear that Mississippi soul oozing from his latest EP, Twenty-Three.
The first thing you notice when you listen to Wolfe is his unfiltered-cigarettes-and-cheap-whiskey vocals, reminiscent of Tom Waits. They’re highlighted on Late Night Radio, a ballad that starts slow, but picks up speed and saxophone along the way. That sax also plays a part on The Moon Is Going Down, where Wolfe’s oral delivery of the snare drum part add a little home studio flare to a song about viewing today’s crazy world from perspective of your front window. The beacon song on the record has to be Cry. Featuring the legendary Regina McCrary on background vocals, the anguish in Wolfe’s voice tells you all you need to know about trying to find the words to console a friend beset by tragedy.
I don’t know what to call Afton Wolfe’s music besides Americana. He picks and chooses pieces of blues and folk, country and jazz, and stitches them together in a sound that’s uniquely his own. Twenty-Three showcases that in all its glory.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.