Biography
In 1997 Wolfenberger's band the Marshwiggles released their first and only album Stone Soup on the local Cincinnati label Blue Jordan Records. It was played nationally and the band toured regionally to sizable crowds but broke up during the recording of their second album just prior to its completion and release. This album has never been released although tracks from it have shown up on Blue Jordan compilations. Wolfenberger then formed the band Thom Scarecrow with acoustic guitarist Jason Dennie and fellow Marshwiggles, Tony Moore and Joshua Seurkamp. This would be a short lived ensemble lasting just over a year.
In 1999 Wolfenberger's first solo album, Tales From Thom Scarecrow was released and won him Artist of the Year in his hometown at the Cincinnati Entertainment Awards as well as notoriety abroad from such notable media as the Corriere della Sera in Milan, Italy which stated that "Wolfenberger puts forth folk with dark nuances, the grand introspective songs are illuminated with emotions in this exhibition of his life."
In 2000 he joined iconoclastic songwriters Mark Olson and Victoria Williams as a touring and recording member of the Original Harmony Ridge Creekdippers. In 2001 while still touring with the Creekdippers Wolfenberger recorded his second solo album with his band entitled World of the Satisfyn' Place. This album was decidedly more roots oriented than his first (a return to his style with the Marshwiggles and Thom Scarecrow) and swung wildly from raucous to thoughtful on a song to song basis., It was even more well received by the critics. The Detroit Metro Times stated that "Wolfenberger ambles between homespun Appalachian traditions and classic pop and country forms with an unwavering dedication to simple, gorgeous melodies that are alternately uplifting and devastating." While in Britain, Americana-UK called it "a 100% solid gold classic". and his hometown Cincinnati press named it "one of the best albums (local or national) of the year".
In the following two years he would appear on two Creekdipper albums, release a free folk gospel album under the pseudonym Sunrise for Someone and eventually in 2003 stop touring and recording with the Creekdippers although maintaining a close relationship, which would become apparent with the release of his third solo album entitled Portrait of Narcissus in 2006 which featured fellow Creekdippers, Victoria Williams, Joshua Grange (by then a regular member of Dwight Yoakam's band), and fellow independent folkie Michelle Shocked. This would be Wolfenberger's first album to be distributed beyond America and Europe into Asia and Australia due to its release by recently revived Fundamental Records. It would even end up at #12 on the independent Euro Americana Chart
In July 2008 Wolfenberger recorded and made available another folk gospel project under the pseudonym Sunrise for Someone entitled Summer Lake Champion. In August of the same year he released Just Burned Upon The Page a live and mostly solo recording of 7 songs. The proceeds benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
Read more about this topic: David Wolfenberger
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“There never was a good biography of a good novelist. There couldn’t be. He is too many people, if he’s any good.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“The death of Irving, which at any other time would have attracted universal attention, having occurred while these things were transpiring, went almost unobserved. I shall have to read of it in the biography of authors.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A biography is like a handshake down the years, that can become an arm-wrestle.”
—Richard Holmes (b. 1945)