Well, it’s officially summer because I finally reinstalled the air conditioner.

Sorey I’ve been out of the loop so long — school work turned into wedding planning which turned into honeymooning; I finally feel like I’m getting my proper bearings on this fine here city of Brooklyn.

I’m not gonna get too comfortable though because my beautiful new wife & I are heading upstate to play the Old Songs Festival at the invitation of our good friends Dan Costello & Rachel Devlin. We’re being featured in a newly-created “New Artists Program,” where we each play a few songs showing the old folk upstate how the new folk does it in the city. Check it out:

http://oldsongs.org/festival/newartists.html

In the meantime, I’ve (finally?) entered the 21st Century & started a blog:

http://american-wolf.blogspot.com/

So far it’s provided an outlet fer my thinking & writing about my three favorite things: America, music, and history — as if the three could ever be separated.

I’m in the works of putting together a few summer dates (at least one of which I’m hoping to make full-band), so definitely be on the lookout fer those.

Until then, take it easy, but take it.

Eric.

Hey Kids — I’m pleased to announce that I will be playing my first full-band show since I started law school last summer & it will be at WEBSTER HALL!

It’s all going down on April 21st, Wednesday night at 9:00 PM. I’m part of an AMAZING bill including the likes of Isaac Gillespie, Elizabeth Devlin, Don McCloskey, & the Godfather of Antifolk, LACH! All of this fer a measly FIVE BUCKS at the door & a no-drink minimum.

You should totally plan to check it out — Webster Hall is the BIGGEST venue I’ve ever played & this could prove to be my ONLY full-band show in the better part of a year.

You’ve been hankering to hear some of my tunes live & in person?

THIS is yer big chance.

See you there!

Eric.

This Saturday night, August 8th, will be my last musical performance for quite some time.

A little over a week later, I will begin taking classes at New York Law School. This is not a denial of my artistic ambitions, but rather a natural extension of them. I first began considering law when I was studying painting at college in Pittsburgh, where I noticed a large divide between artists and politicians. It was a mutual standoff from both sides. As a presidential painter, I saw myself in a unique position to bridge the gap between the two. I kept this in the back of my head as I wrote an early draft of my manuscript in Pittsburgh, joined an artists’ group and began showing my paintings around Boston, and finally, when I began performing my music as part of the Antifolk scene in New York City.

After a few months of playing various sets at the Sidewalk Cafe, I got my first great show. On August 16, 2006, I played an 8:30 slot in the Summer Antifolk Fest, opening for Suzanne Vega. It was a half-hour solo gig, but Vega’s name recognition garnered some press around town, and that - along with a chance picture of myself in a New York Times feature story on Antifolk - made me feel as though I had arrived.

Now, nearly three years later to the day, I will be playing another half-hour solo slot as part of the Summer Antifolk Fest. And then, in the weeks that follow, I will begin embarking on a journey that will hopefully end with the painters, writers, musicians, and artists of all other fields having an ally working for them on the other side of sociopolitical sphere.

But first, I will hoot and holler about graveyard girls and sucker’s games, and I will feel proud.

It is one of the true honors of my musical career to have my good friend, fellow songwriter, and existential spiritualist/poet/philosopher J.J. Hayes compose an essay inspired by one of my songs, Upon the Significance of Eric Wolfson’s Ann Rutledge Blues: A Response to Barry Schwartz, which he submitted and has been published online at the Lincoln Group website.

Check it out:

http://www.lincolngroup.org/literary-article-hayes.html

And if yer unfamiliar with my song that inspired this epic contemplation of the mystic chords of memory, it’s the first song up on my Myspace page:

http://www.myspace.com/ericwolfson

“Ann Rutledge Blues” is a song about a muse and the type of impact a muse can have, even when they are entirely unaware of their influence. This idea has always been at the core of the Lincoln/Rutledge myth - that Rutledge’s premature death was necessary to

fueled Lincoln’s rise to greatness - and to think that my song about a muse can in turn become a muse for another thought-provoking creative study is the greatest compliment my work could receive.

Thanks so much to J.J. and hope you all enjoy.

Eric.

PS: Fer those of you who want the historical truth - as best we can figure it out - check out Joshua Wolf Shenk’s 2005 book Lincoln’s Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness; for those of you who want the romantic dream, check out John Ford’s 1939 film Young Mr. Lincoln, featuring a young Henry Fonda in the title role. (And fer those of you who don’t have the time - or the Netflix - to actually watch the whole thing, here’s a YouTube clip of the pertinent Abe & Ann material, at least until someone takes it down: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcuUvtenx6w&feature=PlayList&p=677F2711E3202F96&index=1.)

Barack Obama is going to be the next president of the United States.

To write these words still feels a bit surreal, and perhaps will for a while yet - after the stolen victories of 2000 and 2004, many of us practiced what can only be described as cautious optimism going into election day and far into election night.

But let there be no doubt: Barack Obama is going to be the next president of the United States.

This marks the triumphant end to an epic journey: it’s been four months since Obama became the official Democratic nominee, ten months since he pulled ahead of the pack in the Iowa caucus, 21 months since he announced his candidacy, four years since he was elected to the national senate, twelve years since he was elected to the state senate, twenty years since he entered Harvard Law, 47 years since he was born, 54 years since the Supreme Court passed Brown vs. Board of Education, 145 years since Abraham Lincoln passed the Emancipation Proclamation, 389 years since the first slave boats arrived in the New World.

“It’s been a long time coming,” the new president-elect said in his acceptance speech, paraphrasing the words of an old Sam Cooke song, “but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment, change has come to America.”

While his words cap the end of one journey, they also mark the beginning of a new one, which is where Obama has been all along. For all of the things that his victory represents both literally and figuratively, it is most importantly a new beginning, one that the likes of this country has not seen for a generation. For many of us who were born too late to experience them firsthand, Obama seems to be spiritual son of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - a vibrant, charismatic, and inspiring young leader, who, to paraphrase one of these men, is not afraid to dream of the way things never were, and ask why not.

I believe that Barack Obama has the potential to be a great president and I cannot wait until he is sworn in early next year. When it was first announced that he was the projected winner, a cool rush filled me that felt contagious but I couldn’t quite describe. And then it hit me. After eight long years in the desert, my faith in America had returned.

Here’s an amazing new video for my “Obama” song shot by Josh Litwhiler!

Check it out & share it with friends!

Go Obama!

Fer those of you who haven’t run into this yet, Creaky Boards’ frontman Andrew Hoepfner (who plays organ on my record and often plays bass with me live; I, in turn, play bass fer Creaky Boards) has caused quite the sensation with his YouTube clip alleging Coldplay of stealing his song. The story’s been picked up by many places in the past few days, including Rolling Stone online, MTV news online, the Wall Street Journal Online, Pitchfork Media, and even Perez Hilton. It also was ranked yesterday at #6 in the E! Channel’s Daily Top 10, where it aired on television.

Did Coldplay steal from Creaky Boards? Judge fer yerself:

And, in the live clip of the band, you can see yers truly rockin’ out on bass (stage left in an orange shirt)…

Almost a year ago I released my first album, State Street Rambler, which was a big and fun rock and roll record to make in the studio. As things wound at the start of this year, I found working on a project quite different than State Street Rambler — a quiet, modest song-cycle recorded entirely in my room on a cassette tape 4-track recorder.

It’s a song-cycle I’ve been working on for years, literally — some of the songs were new since I’ve been in New York, but most are from when I lived in Boston, or even earlier than that, when I lived in Pittsburgh long ago. Combining my archaic 4-track technology with my state-of-the-art iPod technology, I kept the whole thing feeling free and low-key, as I recorded little pieces of songs and then arranged and rearranged them like cars in a train, taking ones out and adding ones in until I found a running order that suit the project.

The result is Lighthouse, a 10-song, 20-minute EP that contains music written and performed by myself in my room; they were then mastered with loving care by Brian Speaker at SpeakerSonic Studio. No punch-ins, no vocal overdubs, no electric guitars, no bullshit.

To celebrate the release of Lighthouse, I am playing a special show at the Delancey on Friday, May 2nd, with Pittsburgh’s own Triggers (which is only appropriate because the bulk of the Lighthouse song cycle takes place in Pittsburgh). Check ‘em out though cuz they’re well worth yer time: www.triggersmusic.com or www.myspace.com/triggersmusic

The show is 21+ and $8.00, which includes a copy of the Lighthouse EP.

Hope to seeya there!

It’s now officially Super Tuesday and I hope yer all planning to go out’n vote.

This is the most incredible campaign I’ve ever witnessed and I feel so lucky to be alive for it.

As many of you know, I’ve been supporting and working for Barack Obama. Many people have asked me why.

For me, it all comes down to one thing: the war in Iraq. Unlike Hillary Clinton, who initially voted for the measure that initiated the war, supported it when it was popular, and now is calling to end it now that it’s unpopular, Obama has ALWAYS spoken out against this war. He spoke out against it when he was first elected to the U.S. Senate, back when that was considered political suicide, and he is still speaking out against it now.

Furthermore, Obama has won the respect of my four favorite politicians: he has been endorsed by George McGovern, John Kerry, and Ted Kennedy; he has also been highly praised by Jimmy Carter (who doesn’t officially endorse candidates out of respect for his non-profit organizations).

And for those who say that Obama is too inexperienced, I say this: counting his time in the Illinois State Legislature, he has served as a senator for over twenty years; also, as Obama himself has said, this is his time - another 100 more votes over the next four years won’t prepare him any more for this office.

And for those who say that Obama is too young, I say this: at 46, he is already three years older than JFK was at inauguration, four years older than Teddy Roosevelt at inauguration, and the same age as Bill Clinton at inauguration.

These are exciting times to be an American; as John F. Kennedy once spoke of a torch being passed to a new generation, I believe that with Barack Obama, the torch is being passed once again.

Eric.

My good friend Jesse Miksic just finished a video he shot of my song “Sleeping Is a Sucker’s Game”!

Check it out right here:

A special thanks to all of my friends and bandmates who took part in the project, as well as to the kind and supportive people at the Sidewalk Cafe!