Ri Wolf Is Living Right

 

Photo by Alan Mercer

2021 proved to be a chance for resurgence in Rī Wolf’s music career. After spending the last 14 years as a collegiate track and field coach in Texas and almost 9 years away from music, Rī Wolf is bursting back into the music scene with a Grass Roots Americana sound reminiscent of a West Texas Troubadour making his way back home. 

Rī is returning with a sound that’s rooted in great songwriting, unforgettable melodies and rugged authenticity. With an acoustic guitar driven mix of country, soul, blues, and rock, Rī brings these elements together for a unique, but familiar sound laced with stories true and familiar to those who call Texas and the Great Plains home.

Photo by Alan Mercer

Alan Mercer:  Ri, I heard you used to be a coach of some kind. What can you tell me about that?

Ri Wolf:  I was. I got into music in my early twenties. I was working with Cary Pierce of Jackopierce. He produced one of my records. I was going around the country performing at colleges, but ultimately at that time, it wasn’t paying the bills.

AM:  A reality for many musicians.

RW:  I had always had an interest in athletics. I had been an athlete my whole life and I thought maybe the next step for me was to pursue a career in coaching. I decided to finish my degree and I got a job offer at Texas A&M University as a graduate assistant. I went out there and finished up my masters and soon after I was hired as a head coach of the division 2 track & field program. This is when I’m 28 years old. At that point I was still playing music sporadically. It was more of a hobby than anything, so I went full force into coaching.

AM:  How long did you coach?

RW: Almost fifteen years.

AM:  All this time keeping music as a hobby?

RW:  Actually, I let it go completely. I stopped writing and stopped playing. I’m the type of person who doesn’t like to do anything half-assed.

AM:  OK, you want to give all to whatever you are doing.

RW:  Yes, I felt like I would be pulling away from my career, which I was doing really well at. We won a national title at West Texas A&M while I was there. Every once in awhile I would pull my guitar out and play some songs that I liked, but I wasn’t writing, and I had no intention of getting back into performing.

AM:  Before you decided to drop out of music had you been writing?

RW:  Yes, I was writing a lot.

AM:  Are any of those songs part of your repertoire today?

RW:  Only one and I’m looking to bring that song back on a live album I’m going to record here pretty soon.

AM:  So what happened to get you focused on music again?

RW:  Personally, I was getting burned out on the way the politics of college athletics was working. To be honest I really didn’t like the way coaches were being treated. I felt like at the collegiate level we were becoming the middlemen. It was all about saving face with student athletes, who have been given a lot of power. That’s great for them, but the whole discipline aspect of it and coaching to develop young men and women, for me it was much harder. My hands were tied, and I felt like we weren’t getting a lot of help.

AM:  I’m sure you weren’t getting much help.

RW:  I was coming to the end of my contract with the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley down in South Texas near Mexico. We were five miles from the border. I was in my fourth year there and covid hit. The whole university shut down. So, we found ourselves at home wondering what to do and wondering what was going to happen. Because of covid I started dabbling in playing some of the Blues stuff that influenced me so long ago. I would post videos of my playing the guitar. I wasn’t writing or singing, just playing.

AM:  What convinced you to start singing again?

RW:  I did an interview with a sports podcast, and they knew my history with playing music, so they asked me about it. They asked me to play a song on the show. I hadn’t performed in years. One of my big influences was Bob Marley. He is a master of melody.

AM:  So are you.

RW:  He has been my staple for how the message doesn’t get across if the melody doesn’t stick. The melody can carry your message. That’s the avenue to say here is how we connect. Anyway, I decided to play ‘Redemption Song’ on this podcast. I have video of it since it was live on air, so I looked back on it and watched it and thought to myself, “Man, I need to do this again.” That was a turning point for my life. I just started diving in. I was at home and not doing a lot so I started playing the guitar six to eight hours a day. My wife would leave and go to the gym and run some errands and when she returned home, I would still be in the same spot playing. I felt like I had a newfound voice and a renewed sense of what I wanted to say and do. I was feeling this gritty, bluesy, folky, country stuff that I had grown up with, start to come out of me.

AM:  I love that.

RW:  A few months after that interview, my wife came in and I was writing, I had started to write again, and she said she thought I needed to do this and give it a shot.

AM:  Did that give you a boost of confidence?

RW: Oh, tremendously, it’s always a risk. This business is tough. The thing is, I know who I am. I knew what this meant for me. It’s something that I believed in. Her giving me the nod let me say let’s go for it. South Texas didn’t shut down as much as the whole country did during covid, so I found myself a little gig on South Padre Island once every other Friday. There were tourists coming in every weekend, and I really started to sharpen up. I was working out some of the new songs I was writing. I started getting some popularity out there and developed a bit of a following and some excitement.

AM:  Why did you decide to move to West Texas?

RW:  We wanted to be closer to family, but also so I could pursue this career in music. I fell in love with West Texas. I love the solitude out there. I grew up in central Oklahoma.

AM:  For being sparsely populated, the area sure does produce a lot of talented people.

RW:  It’s not easy to live under the harsh conditions out there, but the people are resilient.  It’s a great place to be.

AM:  When did you start releasing songs?

RW:  I started releasing songs in 2021. I was just recording in my bathroom. I had a crappy little mic. I didn’t really know where to go because it was the middle of covid. I couldn’t find a studio that fit what I wanted to do so I decided to do it myself. I’d been around enough producers to know how it works and the engineering aspect of it. I started putting songs out on my own and got into a music community on Twitter. I came across some great artists and I thought why don’t we collab on some songs.

AM:  You do have some nice collaborations.

RW:  Yeah, I would send them a demo and say let’s do this. They would do the work in the studio wherever they were at, and I would do my work at home. In a round about way, we put together this project from distances apart. I found all these new avenues to get music out.

AM:  What made you experiment with different musical genres?

RW:  I did that on purpose because I know where I come from. I grew up listening to a lot of Soul music and add to that a lot of Blues and old time Country and Bluegrass music. That comes from my grandparents. I was pushing myself into different spots.

AM:  It all sounds natural, never contrived.

RW:  No, it all felt true. I just wanted to see what stuck.

AM:  Which genres have stuck?

RW:  I would say it’s Americana, but I bring a little bit of a different twist to it. I feel like a lot of my Soul and Blues background pushes into the stuff I do. Although it’s labeled Americana and a lot of my writing is geared that way, I always find Soul and Blues rolling into what I’m doing.

AM:  I love your cover of the Bill Withers classic ‘Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone’.

RW:  I recorded that one live in my family room.

AM:  It’s the same as your video.

RW:  Yes, I just took the audio from the video and mastered it. I thought it was raw and it’s what I did during covid just to get it out there.

AM:  You probably aren’t real big on doing covers since you write such good music.

RW:  No, you are exactly right. I’m glad you noticed that. A lot of people who don’t know my music only want to hear covers. They don’t understand the extensive background and how hard I’ve worked at writing my own songs. When they do sit down and listen and hear my stories they start to understand.

AM:  You also covered the old chestnut, ‘Fly Me To The Moon’ and you do a great job with that one too.

RW:  I’ve always been a Frank Sinatra fan. Willie Nelson kind of came from that background. There’s just something about Frank Sinatra and his voice and demeanor that I’ve always admired. When I play live, I like to do cover songs as tributes to artists that I’ve pulled a lot from. I just started messing around with it and I realized I really love that song. My daughter was singing it with me as well. I felt like if I could sing the song my way, I would do it justice.

AM: Those covers let me know you could interpret other songwriters’ music.

RW:  I did a jazz collaboration with a great piano player out of New York titled ‘Cinnamon Morning’. Her name is Charu Suri.

AM:  I love that song. It’s so beautiful.

RW:  I wrote the song with her in mind. I had this soulful music, and it is about when I spent some time in Albuquerque. I knew she would be perfect for this song. It’s not really the genre I’m known for, but I thought we could make something special.

AM:  I hope you continue to record some unexpected gems because they really shine.

RW:  That’s the beauty of being an independent artist. People ask me if I want to be signed to a label, but to be honest with you, I really like making my own music. I like having the control. I’m producing everything.

AM:  I know you have a new album out now. ‘Randall County Reverb’ just came out. Do you have plans for recording anything else right now?

RW:  I want to do a live acoustic album. I’m going to take some of my old songs and record them live acoustically. I also have quite a few new songs that I’m going to put together. I want to keep it real simple. It’s something I’ve never done, but I think it would give folks a different perspective about the stuff I do.

AM:  You are in an enviable position as an artist.

RW:  I’m a true believer that life imitates art. Art is a direct reflection of how you live. The focus is never about what music I’m going to put out, it’s about the way I’m going to live. The question is, am I living right?

Graphic art by Alan Mercer

To learn more about Ri Wolf visit his web site https://www.riwolfmusic.com/

 

Will Carter Has A Passion For Storytelling

 

Photo taken at the Downtown Cowtown Isis Theater in Fort Worth by Alan Mercer

 

Will Carter is a country singer and songwriter from Katy, Texas whose talent and commitment have earned him over a dozen singles on the Texas music charts. Three of these songs have crossed successfully over to Nashville’s Music Row Chart, extending his fanbase nationwide. For the last three consecutive years, Carter has been nominated Male Vocalist of the Year and awarded Songwriter of the Year at the Texas Country Music Association Awards.

Texas born and bred, Will Carter was raised on his family’s farm with a day-and- night work regimen. It’s where he learned to respect hard work and traditional values. This environment provided Will a gateway to country music.

Carter’s love and passion for storytelling infuses his songwriting with compelling narratives. An even more intimate relationship with music developed when Carter was a teenager. When his father became severely ill, Carter created a playlist of his father’s favorite songs to share with his dad, providing both with renewed comfort and joy. Carter sold the same playlist on CD to help raise money for his family which, in turn, landed him on the Debra Duncan television show when he was just 13. These songs were played for his father every day until he passed. The peace, comfort, and inspiration made possible thru heartfelt lyrics and simple melody continue to guide Carter’s songwriting, consistently landing Top 20 singles on the Texas charts. 

Carter has been actively touring with his band, performing over 150 shows a year. Will Carter’s high-energy performances offer a country music tour de force that appeals to music fans of all ages. He currently boasts over 17,000 social media followers, has opened for Cody Johnson, Randy Rogers, Bart Crow, Jack Ingram, Larry Gatlin, Saints Eleven, Josh Ward, Cody Canada and others, and has been featured on podcasts such as The Troubadour, The Sports Guys, and Scenes Live. His catalogue of music can be heard on radio stations nationally with particularly heavy airplay in Texas and surrounding states. Be sure to catch the next Will Carter show when it comes to town!

Photo taken at the Downtown Cowtown Isis Theater in Fort Worth by Alan Mercer

Alan Mercer:  Will, you have had such great success the last couple of years. Why do you think this is happening for you?

Will Carter:  I’ve been writing a long time and I’ve had the pleasure of writing with some fantastic songwriters. Clay Mills and I wrote ‘Started With A Whiskey’ together. He’s had hits with tons of great artists like Diamond Rio and Darius Rucker. Shane Stevens is a very close friend of mine and also one of my favorite writers. He had his first hit with Lady A called ‘American Honey’. He has enjoyed a lot of success. We started writing together and we click real well so we write together a lot.

AM:  So, you credit your songwriting partners?

WC:  Also, I didn’t grow up like a lot of my peers. I grew up on a self-sustaining farm in a very small town. We were a very poor family. I milked goats every morning and gathered eggs and had a three-acre garden. My dad was diagnosed with cancer when I was very young and as part of that, we had to get all of the alcohol out of the house. You would be amazed by everything that has alcohol in it. We made our own soaps and toothpaste. It was crazy. I grew up almost Amish. We still have the property but I don’t live out there anymore. We do go out there a couple times a month to shoot skeet or ride dirt bikes.

AM:  Don’t you live in Katy, Texas now?

WC:  Yes, We moved to Katy, and I graduated from Katy high school and then I went to Texas A&M. I have my own construction company now. I live a very different life than I did back then. I would say I have a ton of different perspectives.

AM:  It’s a broader perspective.

WC:  Sure, as a writer you write what you know. The more things you’ve seen just gives you that much more material.

AM:  Do you write a lot of the melodies?

WC:  I do write the melodies and I co-write the lyrics.

AM:  When I hear your melodies it’s an instantaneous like.

WC:  I like hearing that. When I was growing up, we used to say that my dad was country, and my mom was country club. My mother was born in Pasadena, Texas, but her father was in sales, so they moved around a lot. They moved to Ohio and California and then back to Texas. My dad had only been here, and he was always so country. I grew up listening to every Chris LeDoux album with my dad. My dad didn’t care for Chris LeDoux’s double live album because he said it had too much guitar. He liked the more traditional stripped-down style. My mom was more into rock & roll. We had a little bronco four-wheel drive that we used on the farm. My mom took it to town one day and when she came back, my dad and I get in the car and the radio was blasting Aerosmith. I like both styles of music.

AM:  You can hear that in your albums.

WC:  If you look at the three albums that I have put out, you will hear everything from very traditional, almost Johnny Cash style music like ‘Laredo’ and ‘Wishful Drinking’ and then you’ve got your more contemporary nineties-two thousand kind of country like ‘Undeniable’ and ‘House of Cards’ and then we have ‘Siesta, Fiesta, Tequila, Repeat’.

AM:  I love that song!

WC:  It’s crazy but the best feedback I get about that song is from kids. They can’t sit still when they hear it. Some people hate that song but then they like the other styles. I have something in there for everybody. I’m not married to any one style or genre. I grew up listening to a diverse selection of music.

AM:  I like the fact that much of your music is upbeat and fun. It’s good time music.

WC:  I grew up listening to Garth Brooks because of his high energy live show. I was picked up by a dancehall band called the Emotions, that have been around since the late 1970’s. I got hired on as one of their lead singers right out of high school. We had wireless mics; ear monitors and guitar pickups and we were all over bar and the dance floor getting the crowd engaged. I learned how to put on a high energy, interactive live show. If you go to see a concert you are going there to be entertained and you want to have fun. I place a lot of focus on that.

AM:  I think it’s obvious for anyone who has been to one of your shows.

WC:  Tom Jackson is arguably the most famous live show producer in the world and we flew his team down three times to work with us one on one for forty hours a week, taking the songs and stripping them down to understand what song fits in to what place in the set and how to get the most out of it. What we are doing on stage is not an accident. We have a lot of thought, time and practice to get there.

AM:  Yet it looks like you are just casually having a great time.

WC:  He has a book called ‘All Roads Lead To The Stage’ and the theory behind it is to create moments. You want to take the audience on a journey by bringing them way up and then bringing them down. You create a moment when you bring the lights down and sit on a stool and sing a ballad. People remember that. It’s not so much scripted or choreographed as it is giving you the parameters while allowing you to the freedom to let the audience kind of guide you a little bit. You have a homebase, but you are allowed some flexibility to be spontaneous in the moment.  No two shows are the same, even though the general outline has been premeditated.

AM:  What made you decide to dedicate a song to the first responders?

WC:  The song is called ‘What About Love’. Back in March 2020 when all the craziness was going down with covid. My wife is a doctor, and she was in the thick of it. She said we would come out of this but there would be all this hate and division and she was right. People either went real far right or real far left and we see all this bickering and hate. At the end of the day, it’s ok to think differently and feel differently, but it’s not OK to be unkind to one another. The purpose behind the song is to remind everybody to choose love over hate and be kind to each other regardless of what your personal thoughts and beliefs are. It’s also a thank you to the heroes that sacrifice so much so the rest of us can enjoy the freedom and liberties that we do.

AM:  You have lots of good quality videos. Is that something you enjoy making?

WC:  Videos are an absolute blast. I like to write in a way that leaves the song open to interpretation. I want the listener to be able to make it their own and relate to it in their own way. However different we may all be, we are also very similar at the core. I like to make videos that show my take on the song because it can be interpreted differently.

AM:  Do you have a favorite video?

WC:  The current single, ‘Had It All Wrong’ is my favorite to date because it was my chance to somewhat capture the unique way I grew up. To be able to capture that and tell my story as well as have my band and some friends in it, all filmed on the property where I grew up. It’s special and personal to me.

AM:  How much time are you able to put into your construction business?

WC:  Monday through Friday, 8 to 5 and then music is Monday through Friday 6 to 10 and on weekends all day.

AM:  That’s a lot. Do you enjoy working this much?

WC:  Absolutely! I lost my father when I was 13. I was the oldest of four. My mom had only ever been a mom. She had 4 kids, with one being autistic, so she had her hands full and no work experience. We were very poor. I’m the one in charge and I have to provide for everybody.

AM:  Does your family help you now?

WC:  My mom works for my company and my sister works for both jobs, like I do. She handles all the marketing and social media. I’m very blessed to have a very strong team so I don’t have to be in the weeds all the time. It’s the same with my music. I have a fully staffed label. I have management and booking, I have social media teams, radio promoters and publicists.

AM:  Looks like everything is going good for you. What are your goals for 2023? Is there a new album coming?

WC:  The first two albums I put out; I did like everybody else. You write the songs and go into the studio, you hire a producer and they use session musicians to build the tracks and then your live band goes and performs them. I’m also blessed that the guys in my band are all studio musicians as well. When you come to see my show live, I want it to sound like the record, so we are halfway through recording the new album and we are going to finish it in February and March. And release it this Summer. This will be the first full length album with “the band” going into the studio the old school way and press record and do what we do on stage live. That all kind of started with the song ‘Wrong Side Of Town’ that I’ve been playing for nine years. I’ve had it produced several times because when people hear it live, they ask for it. Everybody asks for that song, and I’ve tried to have it produced but it just wasn’t right. It wasn’t what we do in a show. So, I thought, let’s just bring the band into the studio and do it the way we do. That’s the song everybody likes and asks for. So, we did and I absolutely love the way the track sounded. I knew that going forward this is what we were doing. The guys are unbelievably talented, and I knew I would be happier. I love every track we have recorded. I’m super excited because when you go to a show you will be seeing the exact same guys who recorded the album playing live.

To learn more about Will Carter visit his web site https://www.willcarterofficial.com/