June 1, 2017:
Red House Records is happy to welcome ACTUAL WOLF to
its roster and announce his new album, Faded Days. Lush and expansive, Faded Days conjures the
classic cosmic country albums of the past with its layered vocals and
sweeping choruses. A recording and touring musician for such
artists/bands as Nikki Lane, Sun Kil Moon and Retribution Gospel
Choir (featuring Alan Sparhawk of Low), ACTUAL WOLF is premiering his
cover of fellow Minnesotan Haley's "Hometown"
today at tastemaker station The Current; listen to it HERE. Faded Days will be released
via limited-edition cassette and through all digital providers on June
2; the LP will be released on September 15.
The album plays out
like a vintage record store find, with a care to storytelling and
payoff choruses that are in scarce supply these days. Album highlights
include the Springsteen-esque "Be My Love," which segues into
the hazy vintage Neil Young and Crazy horse vibe of the first single,
"Baby Please." "Little Runaway" is a classic rock
radio cut (if you grew up in the 70s, that is) and the wistful title
track speaks of lost opportunities and old relationships, with the
chorus asking "Can you still get high?"
As to how he became
the "Actual Wolf," he recounts: “My friend, who is a junior
high gym/health teacher, came up with the name while we were riding in
his truck. He said, “ya know… there are a lot of wolf bands but you,
you’re the Actual Wolf.” A native of Minnesota's Mesabi Iron
Range, Actual Wolf made the move to Oakland, CA following federal
charges in Minnesota on a cannabis bust (they were reduced). He's now
one of the leading extract/hash makers in the Bay Area,
working for a boutique provider for Harbourside Health
Center growing rare/hard-to-cultivate strains.
Statement from
ACTUAL WOLF:
Faded
Days has been cultivated, cut and cured with the same patience
as that of the grower. The album was written over two years in a
spectrum of locations that Actual Wolf has called home at one point or
another — Duluth (Minnesota, not Georgia), Brooklyn,
Nashville and currently Oakland — the rich oils and aromatics resting
in darkness and appropriately aged to bring them to a perfect
state in a year-long distillation by engineer Brad Bivens in
Minneapolis. The album is subtly informed by that breadth of different atmospheres
as much as it is richly colored by the array of
collaborators: Jeremy Hanson (Tapes 'n Tapes, Tungsten), Jake
Hanson (Gramma's Boyfriend; 12 Rods; Alaska), Steve Garrington (Low,
the Erik Berry Duo), Ditch Kurtz (a pedal steel guitarist from Nashville),
with additional vocals by Al Church.
After all of that
time, Faded Days is
ready. Its distinctly emotional alkaloids are blissfully intoxicating,
palliative and healing. And now that it is finished, a sort of finely
crafted goodbye to the Faded
Days of all of those other places and those people and
events, it will only be a matter of time before ACTUAL WOLF cultivates
and distills the more recent days of his current Oakland existence,
though who knows how long this will take: you cannot put a timeline
on true craft.
ACTUAL
WOLF dates:
TH
6.08 St. Paul, MN - The Turf Club
SA
7.22 Shafer, MN - Franconia Sculpture Garden
much more to come!
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