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Ethan Wiebe, 16, who uses the stage name Hunter Wolfe, practices slide guitar in a studio set up at his family's Orange County home.
Ethan Wiebe likes (clockwise from top left) vinyl records, old electronic equipment, his fedora hat and his 1950s guitar.
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Ethan Wiebe won the National Slide Guitar Festival and Competition in North Carolina. |
By CATHY DYSON
Ethan Wiebe hears it all the time, that he looks older than 16.
When he takes a 1950s guitar in his hands and plays the Delta blues--an older style that goes back to the soulful roots of the music--it seems as if he has been around a lot longer than he has.
"I guess I do feel like an old man sometimes around all these kids," he said about his classmates at Orange County High School, where he's a junior.
Ethan doesn't own video games or any other electronic devices. He doesn't watch TV, except movies, and hates MySpace, but has a page because it's a good way to get his music out there.
He listens to CDs only when he has to, when he can't find the songs on any other medium. He prefers vinyl records because they're more raw--and more real--than any modern sound.
And as another indication of how he's thinking beyond his years, Ethan already has a stage name: Hunter Wolfe. It's his middle name and great-grandmother's maiden name combined.
He uses it because he doesn't want the children he may have one day to gain any advantages from the fame he hopes to find.
"I don't want my kids to have everything handed to them on a platter," said Ethan, who prefers to be called Hunter when he's talking about his music.
Hunter Wolfe is how those in the blues world know him, and he's quickly making a name for himself.
Two years after he picked up a guitar for the first time--and knew instantly the instrument was made for him--Hunter earned a national title. He was named best slide guitarist at the 10th annual National Slide Guitar Festival in Brevard, N.C., last month.
Slide guitarists put a glass or metal tube over the pinkie, pointer or middle finger, and slide it over the neck of the instrument as they play.
"I love the sound. It has a lot of soul and it's just so mysterious, I guess," Hunter said. "You hear the grumbles and groans it makes on the strings. It has a lot of personality."
The tone created also fits the she-done-me-wrong songs the teenager writes.
On Hunter's business card, he notes that he plays just outside the Delta lines, meaning he mixes a little bit of modern style with the old sound.
"Not everything I play is the blues, but everything I play has a blues touch," he said.
Others have noticed the up-and-coming artist who has rubbed elbows with--and gotten pointers from-- some of the best in the business.
"You should have seen him holding his own with blues legend Mojo Collins," said Fleetwood Covington, a North Carolina artist who won the national slide guitarist title last year. "Most guys would be intimidated around pros. Not Hunter. Give him a little time to age like a fine wine, and he is going to do something really big with the blues."
Taylor Mackey, who organized the guitar festival, said other musicians were curious about Hunter's setup.
They asked Hunter about his 1950s Kay guitar, once marketed by Montgomery Ward, which he plugs into a 1960s amplifier sold by Sears.
Hunter probably explained, as he did during an interview, that he's a tone junkie who believes "a guitar sounds better with age."
His mix of young and old was well received by the audience, Mackey said.
"His style is what he has absorbed, then wrung out and blended with his own," said Mackey, who also expects big things from the young artist.
"I should have gotten his autograph."
Cathy Dyson: 540/374-5425
Email: cdyson@freelancestar.com
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Hunter Wolfe throwback to history
Ethan Wiebe, who goes by the stage name Hunter Wolfe, has been old from birth, said his mother, Wendy Wiebe. "I have a picture of me at age 1, and I'm dressed like an old man," Ethan said about his khaki trousers, suspenders When he performs, the 16-year-old with jet-black hair typically wears an old-style blazer or suit vest, button-down shirt, red Converse tennis shoes and a gray hat, In yet another throwback to earlier times, Ethan uses his family's draft horses to harvest hay and trees. "He is young, but he has an ancient soul," said Fleetwood Covington, a blues artist from Wilmington, N.C. |
| INFLUENCES: Everyone from Robert Johnson and David "Honeyboy" Edwards, a 93-year-old blues master he played with in Washington, to Jack White, of the White Stripes, and Led Zeppelin EQUIPMENT: Owns seven guitars. Most are decades older than he is, and were good deals from music stores or private sales. He's constantly searching pawn shops, yard sales and eBay for vinyl records and other old stuff. SOCIAL LIFE: Doesn't have one. Wouldn't mind hanging out with people his age, but he's so determined to make it in music, he spends all his free time practicing in the two-car garage his family turned into a studio. FUTURE: Can see himself playing regularly in front of audiences of 40,000 or more. Is considering a two-year degree in forestry as a fallback. |
