Born: 1979 Primary Instrument: Composer/conductor/leader
In era of dwindling attention spans, it is something of a shock to discover a musician who doesn’t want to shock, who doesn’t want to drive a dagger into the heart of modern music for fifteen megabytes of fame, who simply wants to write beautiful, timeless songs. But that’s precisely what you hear when you listen to Henry Wolfe’s refreshingly tasteful new record Linda Vista (Undermoutnain 2011). A loose, dressed down affair, it captures the sound of real people in a room, playing together in real time. In making the record, Wolfe and producers Nico Aglietti and Aaron Older (Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes) abided by the approach used to make their favorite classic albums: get out of the way and let the songs and performances speak for themselves. The result is an assuredly understated record that plays like a mash-up of Chet Baker and Neil Young. Inspired by the past, and informed by the present, the tunes on Linda Vista have a swing, a swagger and, most of all, a soul.
After fronting the New York-based art pop group Bravo Silva from 2004 - 2007, Wolfe (born Henry Wolfe Gummer) relocated to Los Angeles. As a going-away present, a friend gave him two records”Paul McCartney’s Ram and Harry Nilsson’s Nilsson Sings Newman”that would become guiding lights in his new journey as a songwriter. After releasing two solo EPs, Linda Vista is Wolfe's debut full-length. The first single, a gentle rocker about life changes entitled “Someone Else”, will be featured in the upcoming indie film Terri, starring John C. Reilly (in theaters July 2011) and an early demo of the pleading, slow-trotting break-up song “Stop the Train,” can be heard in the 2009 film Julie & Julia.
