Afton Wolfe is Mississippi. Born in McComb, and growing up in Meridian, Hattiesburg, and Greenville, Mississippi, the roots of American music are in his DNA. Mississippi is the birthplace of at least three American art forms: country music, blues music, and rock and roll. Wolfe spent his musically formative years in and around New Orleans, where the humidity of the Mississippi combined with the Creole seasonings, the jazz, zydeco, creole, and gospel music and his Mississippi roots coalesce to add that extra resonance and unpredictability to his blues/country/rock influences.
Recording and performing with various acts (Red Velvet Couch, Dollar Book Floyd, RootMan, The Relief Effort) since the late 90’s, with a short break to get a doctorate, Afton released his first EP, Petronius’ Last Meal, to critical acclaim in the summer of 2020. His upcoming release Kings for Sale is even more ambitious. It defies genres while still being distinctly Mississippi and Afton. The new record, slated to be released in Spring of 2021, was produced by Oz Fritz (Bill Laswell, Tom Waits, The Ramones, Bob Marley, and many others) and featuring an enviable assortment of great musicians, including but not limited to Cary Hudson (Blue Mountain, Taylor Street Grocery Band), Daniel Seymour (David Olney, Tommy Womack), Adam “Ditch” Kurtz (Great Peacock, Carrus and Kurtz), Ben Babylon (SpoBro, Sir Please), Laura Rabell, Kristen Englenz, Blaise Hearn, Rebecca Weiner Tompkins, and even more, if you care to believe that.
One of the tracks off the album, “About My Falling,” is a Waits-style monologue of failure — though Wolfe applies his own signature wry humor to the lyrics. In this one, Wolfe’s lyrics take center stage: a litany of failure and frustration with too many breathtaking turns of phrases to latch onto just one. Wolfe’s facility with songwriting shines here — and the corners of your mouth will lift just enough to hide the echoes of your own heartbreak while you listen.
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