Folkadelphia Session: Wharfer

The ability to write moving, intelligent, and passionate songs seems like such a simple talent, yet it eludes many. Especially in this day and age, when uploading an album is as simple as paying your Comcast “high speed” internet bill, it becomes hard work for the listener to slog through all the noise and hype to find actual true blue good stuff. In the case of Wharfer, the project of Brooklyn-via-Scranton musician Kyle Wall, I was lucky enough that a few trusted blogs pointed to him at the same time he reached out to me.

I’m truly indebted to serendipitous musical discovery like this. Had I deleted his email or accidentally closed a tab on my browser, I would have missed out on Wharfer’s brand of songwriting and talent. It’s definitely no-frills, not quite lo-fi in the bedroom folk sense (whatever that is), but definitely not glistening with studio production sheen. Nothing about his approach is phoned-in. The raw quality allows Wall’s songwriting gifts to come to the forefront. His do-it-yourself, commit-it-to-tape-before-you-lose-the-feel-of-it-all sensibility harkens back to some of that anti-folk singer-songwriter stuff of the not too distant past. Plus, Wharfer is damn prolific. A full length in ’13, an EP in ’14, a covers EP (of the Flatlanders) this year, and talk of a new full length too. This sounds like a lot to me and boy, I can’t wait for more!

During the summer of last year, Wharfer spent time with us at the WXPN Studio recording songs, some from earlier records and a track “Meredith, Make Me Run Away” which will be featured on an upcoming record.