WELCOME TO WOLFE COUNTRY
For this musician, country music has always played a central role in his life, and still does.
Iam what you might call a pure country singer, songwriter and entertainer. I’m the first born in a family of five, having three brothers and one sister. My father is of german descent and my mother has Irish roots. When I was a preschooler growing up in Holland Landing, Ont., just south of Barrie, Mom played the piano and always sang to us children, three of us at the time. Dad worked as a truck driver in Toronto and would come home on the weekends. After a few years living in Holland Landing, we moved to Toronto when I turned six years of age.
I started school at Rose Avenue Public School, and joined the school and church choirs, as I enjoyed singing so much. Meanwhile, Mom continued to share her love of music at home, and taught me to harmonize to just about any type of music. And so the combination of Mom’s passion for music together with my singing in the choir served as my early education in music. In Grade 6, I met a few friends who played guitar. I told them I wanted to learn how to play, too. By that time, I had already asked Mom and Dad if I could have my own guitar, and they got me one. I tell you, I never put it down, and after school, my new friends showed me how to actually play it. Next thing I knew, we were playing and singing together every chance we got. When I moved on to high school, I started my first band at age 15—as a drummer. After a while, our bass guitar player moved away, and I got to play my favourite instrument of all for the very first time. When I turned 16, my Aunt June (Edmonson-richards) bought me my very first bass guitar. By then, I had started writing my own songs and I amassed quite a few. I wasn’t yet 20 years old when my Uncle Barry (Edmonson) told me about a lead singer he knew, Stan Mazda, who sang in a band called “Eclipse.” That’s when I first grew my beard, because I wanted to join their band and you had to be 21 to get into the bars. I’m not sure if the beard helped,
but I got into the band and played with them for two years, mainly rock and roll.
I found myself missing my roots though, so I left rock and went back to my first love, country. After jamming at clubs and getting known around Toronto’s Queen Street circuit, playing all the barrooms from east to west, I met up with someone who became my collaborator and life-long friend—percy Allan Kinney.
Percy is a singer, songwriter, producer and engineer, and we soon formed a new band called “Water’s Edge” with Danny Gratto and Dan (Boone) Vautour. Over the band’s years together, we recorded three eight-tracks with PAK Productions and one 45 vinyl record at Para Sound
Records in Newmarket, Ont. We also backed up many fellow artists, especially from 1972 to 1980. It was around this time that I first met my friend and mentor —“Canada’s Singing Newfoundlander,” Michael T. Wall. It is a source of pride and honour for me to have worked with and played alongside Michael. He taught me so much about the music business and has promoted me for some 25 years.
In the early ’80s, I formed my first road band and we played all over Ontario. I have many great memories from that era. Winning the Battle of the Bands competition in Ajax, Ont., in 1983 and being invited to perform on Global News at Noon with Bob Mcadorey on three different occasions rank highly among them.
I moved to Vancouver in 1993 and toured extensively throughout British Columbia right through to 2009 when I returned to Ontario. The Cloverdale Rodeo, Williams Lake Stampede, Merritt Mountain Fest, Whalley Days Festival and the Sechelt Festival were just a few of the wonderful venues I played out west, some of them multiple times. I also had the honour of going to Nashville six times, and participating in the Buster Doss Festival. I also had the pleasure of recording three CDS at Bear Creek Studios with my good friend Ed Molyski.
Here we are in 2020, and I am humbled to see various awards and accolades are still coming my way. Being inducted into America’s Old Time Country Music Hall of Fame in 2004 is still my all-time favourite, but each tip of the hat is special in its own way. I now have five CDS on the market and my tunes are getting airplay around the world—australia, New Zealand, Poland, Sweden, Germany, Belgium, France and the good old U.S.A. My long-time association with my record company, ECHOTA Records USA, headed by President Ed Gowans and CEO Donna Ray, is going strong, as are my current recording sessions in Mississauga, at Val’s Abode Studio with producer and engineer Val Lablanc.
Also closer to home, one of my songs topped the charts in Toronto in 2019 on the Radio Alliance TOP 20 hosted by DJ Kool Breeze.
And music runs in my family: my granddaughter Shantel May is a back-up singer for Toronto’s very own superstar, Drake, and my nephew Cory Marks has recorded and shared the stage with the legendary Travis Tritt, among others.
Music has been a God-sent blessing to me throughout my life. The list of friends, fellow musicians and industry people who have encouraged and supported me is too long to present here (or so the Our Canada editors tell me!), but I am thankful to each and every one of them. Of course, I would not be the musician and person I am today if it were not for my parents, my wife and kids, and our grandchildren—who are the sweetest music of all to my ears.
For more, visit Wolfemilestone.com.