Jon Wolfe Discusses His New Album, Dos Corazones

CE: Can you share your back story and how you got started playing music?

JW: I was born and raised around Tulsa, Oklahoma. Born in Tulsa, raised in a small town called Miami, Oklahoma. Growing up we went to church a lot, so my early influences were from a great band at church. Believe it or not, as a young kid, I was a big Frank Sinatra fan. So I fell in love with the crooners, sort of my first thing. And then, of course, growing up in Oklahoma, Garth Brooks was really big when I was a youngster. So, Garth was sort of my first entrance to country music. From Garth Brooks, I discovered George Strait, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings. So I’ve always been a traditionalist, really, from the beginning. Between Frank Sinatra and those sort of old-school country singers, that’s what really laid the foundation for my musical interests and career, I guess you could say.

CE: Your new album Dos Corazones has just been released. What do you want our readers to know about the project before they hear it?

JW: I hope people can understand that this was a huge collaborative effort. I have a great producer, Dave Brainard, who is Grammy-nominated. So, me and Dave and Tony Ramey– Tony Ramey is one of my favorite songwriters of all time. Tony was in Nashville for 15, 20 years and he lives in Texas now. The project was really born out of the pandemic, I guess you could say. I’ve been on the road for over 10 years and out of nowhere, we couldn’t go on the road in 2020. We found ourselves really at a loss for what to do with our careers. I mean, we worked really hard for many years to build what we have and had, and suddenly, it stopped. So I think when I decided to put this project together, I had this idea to take a crew of people out to Big Bend, Far West Texas, Terlingua, the Chihuahuan Desert, and pull up in an adobe casa and write songs. And the idea was to film it and photograph the process.

I guess the idea was a risky one, because you never know if you’re going to write a song or not. But, it really turned out magical. We all got out there, and in 11 days, we wrote the majority of a 16-song album, filmed 13 and a half hour’s worth of footage, and 5,000 photos. So the entire project was born in Terlingua, Texas. I think it’s a magical project, and I put a lot of faith in my co-creators. So Dave Brainard, my producer, got free reign on production. We wrote what we felt, and Mason Dixon did an amazing job of the videography and sort of capturing how it was created. I feel like it’s a storybook, and I’m encouraging my fans and listeners to dig into it and treat it like a bit of a journey.

CE: Did you do all of the instrumentation, or did everyone there help you or contribute?

JW: The pure creation of the project was done in Terlingua. But when it comes to recording the full-length record, we recorded at the Sound Emporium in Nashville, which is Jack Clement’s old studio and has a lot of great history. The musicians for the sound recording were really hand-picked. When you hire a producer, I think it’s important to give them the creative freedom to sort of lead the charge on the recording process. So it was all eventually recorded at the Sound Emporium in Nashville, and I just told Dave I wanted it to be beautiful.

CE: What would you say is your creative process in general? For example, what comes first, the lyrics or the melody and how and where do you like to create?

JW: Well, the lyrics and the melody kind of come together for us. And after creating in Terlingua, Texas, I’m all about creating further records, future records in really cool places, because it’s also kind of like a vacation, ha!

CE: What artists or kinds of music do you listen to just day to day and where do you draw your inspiration from?

JW: I think at the core of what I do, I love Crooners. I’m a huge Frank Sinatra fan. I listen to Frank all the time. I watch Frank Sinatra concerts. I guess some things haven’t changed for me since I was a teenager. I can never get enough of Frank Sinatra. I love George Strait. I know him personally, and I’m such a huge fan of George. And in today’s current music, I’m a big John Mayer fan; I just love his creativity and his freedom to create what he feels is sort of important to him at the time, and I think his fans appreciate that. I think as an artist, if you give your fans something that you love and they love you, then I think you’re on to the right thing.

CE: On the track “Here’s To All My Heroes” you talk about all of your heroes. Who would you say are some of your heroes or what makes someone heroic in your eyes?

JW: Well, to me, it’s trailblazers. I love those artists that really kind of went against the grain and just did their own thing, really above and beyond maybe what the industry was sort of allowing at the time or what the status quo would be. They kind of superseded that. Heroes to me in music would be again, I think that really encapsulates it. It would be the trailblazers, the guys that people thought, “Oh, man, these guys will never make it,” or, “This isn’t going to be anything big.” Willie Nelson obviously comes to mind. I’m a huge Willie fan, of course. I love Willie. Waylon Jennings. He was one of the first guys in Nashville that wanted to go and cut his own record at his own studio. George Strait, to me, was a trailblazer in that he’s from a small town in south Texas, and he didn’t come from the traditional region, I guess you could say, of Nashville or Tennessee. So to me, it’s the guys that step out and believe in themselves and see it through. And that’s always made a big impact on me.

CE: The song “Why Can’t You” is a very emotional track. And it was one of our favorites of the record. Would you like to share just why you wrote it in your own words for the interview?

JW: “Why Can’t You” is kind of an interesting song. Conrad Soriano was my stage manager for two and a half years. And I didn’t go on stage or offstage without Conrad in that period of time. He took care of me and my band. He was not only an integral part of our team but a caretaker. And when we would come in off the road, we did stuff together. He was one of my best friends. And so when he passed away, I was already in the process of sort of thinking about songs and. Why Can’t You is technically an outside song, it was written by Matt Willis and Greg Bates. I was listening to songs I had been pitched the night after I found out that Conrad passed away. I stayed up late and I was just listening to songs — honestly, drinking whiskey not tequila that night, and came across that song. I just played it over and over and over again. I felt like that’s Conrad’s song. Once we found out who the writers were, I asked them if I could make some personalized changes to the song without taking a songwriter credit. So we customized it a little bit for Conrad, especially the second verse. For my team and Conrad, we were all big baseball fans. And, man, we love going fishing together. And of course, the late nights of us staying out. Those are the things that I remember the most about Conrad, and so I’m thankful that Greg and Matt were able to allow us to do that and make that song truly poignant for Conrad.

CE: Now that the album is officially released, what can fans expect from you next, whether it’s music videos or more music or what else is to come?

JW: My goal is that we really dig into Dos Corazones, and I think there’s going to be some additional iterations of some of the songs off the album that may include some features from other artists. I don’t want to give away too much, but we’re looking at some features with some other artists and some re-releases of some of these songs, as well as potential deluxe editions and vinyl. 

CE: I know you’re on the road right now, what are you looking forward to most about touring and your upcoming shows?

JW: Playing these new songs. It’s really that simple. I mean, it’s really hard to turn over a show and I think bands and artists, at least in my experience, cling to what’s familiar. So, it’s difficult to step out and play an entirely new show. But we’re in that process now, and we’re just excited to be able to bring Tequila Sundown and When the Good Old Boys Age Out and Two Hearts in Terlingua and Why Can’t You to our fans on a live level. It’s a great challenge, and it keeps us on our toes. So, we’re in that process right now and I think that we’re hoping that the fans enjoy these songs in the live setting.

Connect with Jon Wolfe

For more information on Jon Wolfe’s music, tour dates, and more, visit his website https://www.jonwolfecountry.com/.