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Thursday, June 1, 2017

ACTUAL WOLF signs to Red House -premiere his cover of Haley's "Hometown" today at the Current New album



ACTUAL WOLF JOINS THE RED HOUSE RECORDS ROSTER 
New album "Faded Days" out 9/15 on vinyl and 6/02 via limited-edition cassette and all digital providers 
Pre-order at iTunes and Amazon  

"a mix between the spirit of the Rolling Thunder Revue & Thunder Road era Springsteen w/ a little nod to solo Gene Clark & CSNY thrown in, Faded Days encapsulates an echoey brooding open-heartedness over twangy sensibility and 70’s folk purism" - GLIDE MAGAZINE


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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