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.

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.

• Annie Crane
• Dan Costello
• Ben Godwin
• Creaky Boards
• Soft Black
• Lach
• The Bowmans

Boston & Beyond:

• The Family Township
• Mittens
• Triggers

Et al:

• Home of All Things Antifolk
• Band in Boston

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.

North Country Girl Blues
Cross the River
Graveyard Girls
Ann Rutledge Blues
Sleeping Is a Sucker’s Game

Links to buy “State Street Rambler”:

• Apple iTunes
• CD Baby
• Antifolk.net (home of all things Antifolk)

See what (anti)folks are saying about “State Street Rambler”:

“‘State Street Rambler’ is a glorious mash-up of swaggering rock’n'roll that sounds just like you immersed your head in a bucket of 1969, simple, evocative balladry, and loony truth-to-power talking blues…It’s an unbridled wild horse of a record, with a fat streak of goofy humor and not a little social outrage.”

• Urban Folk Magazine (to check out the whole issue online, featuring yers truly on the cover, click here)

“‘State Street Rambler’ is a swaggering, poignant procession down an imagined highway 61 running through the heart of New York. On it Wolfson captures the beautiful chaos of the city - its passions, histories, fairytales, corner bars, clear skies and dirty underground with a startling precision.”

• Pop Headwound (to read the entire amazing article, click here)

And, of course, the obligatory link to my MySpace page: www.myspace.com/ericwolfson

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.)

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.

Check it out & share it with friends!

Go Obama!

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)…

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!