Winter
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Luna finds her home
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Rambles.net review
Carley Wolf
Set Sail (independent 2009)
by Jerome Clark
One phrase comes to mind when one hears Set Sail -- "amiably eccentric" -- and another when one seeks to describe Carley Wolf's persona -- "hippie chick." I mean them both in the most generous possible way.
Judging from her photos, Wolf cannot have been born when the first generation of hippies roamed the Earth. Still, she must have something of the experience in her genes. A native Texan, she writes that she was "raised in the country with a loving musical family and a pack of wolves." Given her last name -- if that is indeed her birth name -- that can be read other than literally. Still, one of her videos shows her cavorting with ... well, they look rather like wolves, albeit with the friendly domestic character of dogs.
In any event, what matters for our purposes is that Set Sail is well above the usual singer-songwriter fare. Wolf has an impressively inventive musical imagination, in which she integrates multiple genres (jazz, gypsy rhythms, folk, pop) into a distinctively personal style. Her voice -- both literal and metaphorical -- is rich, supple and hard to resist whether it is waxing philosophical, gloomy, erotic or playful. Here and there, the songs turn lyrically and emotionally complex, but they are always accessible, resounding with a range of influences which ordinarily one doesn't expect to emanate from a single disc. I don't recall, for example, hearing anybody else who seems -- on occasion anyway -- like both Rickie Lee Jones and the Incredible String Band.
Multi-instrumentalist Wolf gets able backing from a four-piece band. One member is the ubiquitous fiddler Katy Rose Cox, and there's cello player David "Deemo" Moss. Jonathan Konya and Steve Collins handle mostly percussive instruments. Together, they create a shimmering, atmospheric sound while leaving the singing very much up front. I'm not sure you could call this "folk-rock" exactly. Perhaps the title song comes closest, and "Rocking Chair" is at least vaguely reminiscent of something traditional, maybe the Carter Family in an alternate reality. But whatever else it might be, Set Sail is among the most beautiful and intelligent -- and, in its own highly idiosyncratic fashion, rooted -- acoustic-pop records I've heard in the last year.
Interview in Champaign IL
Catching up with Carley Wolf and The Howls
By Justine Chan - Buzz Writer
Carley Wolf is both adorable and incredibly talented. Her voice has the plunge of high pure sweetness and her music is a captivating volcano of the crazy, the witty, the catchy, the eclectic, the honest and the ineffable. With the recent release of her album Set Sail, she and her Howls are themselves setting sail from Austin, Texas, for the first time as a fivesome, on a tour across the country to share their music and see the world.
buzz: What is the story behind your band name, Carley Wolf and The Howls? Is that your real name?
Carley Wolf: Yes, it is my real name. I chose “The Howls” because howls are my favorite sound in the whole world, and it just seemed to fit.
buzz: You play a number of instruments, including the banjo and the mandolin. How are you able to incorporate each of their sounds into your music?
CW: When I was recording, I was able to layer the different instruments in the songs and that was neat, but it is so much different when we’re playing live. My bass player, Gary James, can actually play guitar as well. During the show, we switch off so that sometimes I’m playing guitar, and sometime he will and then I can play all my different instruments. It works out nicely that way. I’d actually really like to play piano too. I have a piano at home, just no keyboard to take to shows.
buzz: How would you describe your sound?
CW: My sound is a mixture, I would say, of American roots music to jazz to folk to Appalachian music to gypsy music. I try to blend it all in a unique way so that sometimes it sounds like pop, and other times it has a darker, even classical sound.
buzz: You have played with other bands in the past. How is it different for you now that you’re with The Howls?
CW: It’s a really exciting time for me because I have my first album out and this is going to be our first big tour as a band together. For the first time, I’m in charge, and I love it — it is like my baby. It is such a dream come true to have my own band playing all my own music because I’d always wanted to do it my way. In the other bands, I was playing a lot of old time music but now, our music is a lot closer to me in that I feel I can be so much more invested in the music and the creative process.
buzz: How is the tour going? Do you have anything special in store for the Champaign concert?
CW: Right now, we’re still in the preparation stages — getting merchandise and contacting radio stations, trying to get the word out, basically. The past month we had a bunch of local gigs in Austin and to be touring outside of Texas is awesome. Do we have anything particularly special for the Champaign show? I guess just come and find out! I know we’ll be selling a lot of handmade stuff — I’m a very handmade person. There are screen printed tees, little zines that I’ve made, and other silly stuff like that.
Be sure to catch Carley Wolf and The Howls on Thursday, Dec. 10 at 8:00 p.m. at Mike ‘n’ Molly’s. Carley is joined by special guests Hathaways and Megan Johns.
Review in Des Moines IA
CD REVIEWS
By Michael Swanger scenescribe@mchsi.com
Carley Wolf
“Set Sail”
Independent release
Texas music is a melting pot of musical forms, as we’re reminded by Austin-based singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist Carley Wolf’s new album, “Set Sail,” a stylistic mix of gypsy, folk, Mexican and Americana music. She and her band, The Howls, jangle their way through “Gypsy Soul Blues” and “To Bee” with the spirit of an itinerant group of musicians playing their way through the world for tips. But true to Wolf’s eclectic musical form, she and The Howls are equally at ease downshifting and gracefully gliding through tender ballads like “Cold Dead Fingers” and the chilling “Funeral Pyre.” Wolf’s acoustic sound has been compared to the likes of Tom Waits, Norah Jones, Lucinda Williams, Cat Power and Feist. But her lilting and breathy vocals remind me of Iowa’s own Iris DeMent.
