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The Wolf Who Cried Boy

released November 5, 2024

On the night democracy died, in hopes of providing any small measure of comfort he could offer to the world in flames, Bruce Enloe impulsively decided to upload the tracks for his new album ‘The Wolf Who Cried Boy’ a few weeks earlier than anticipated. He describes this album as “meditations on hope in a time of trauma…” 

Here is an attempt to give context to the title song and album:

“A wolf crying boy inverts the trope of the boy who cried wolf – where the boy’s repeated overreaction numbs observers to the arrival of a true threat… Inverted? Is it the wolf who numbs the observers to the arrival of a vulnerable child? Is it the threatening entity telling us a truth we may not want or be ready to hear? Is it a boy who says nothing until the wolf is howling in our midst?

In my first pass at the song, the wolf and boy became brothers linked across time and dimension… forever trading roles… each pushing and pulling in a cycle of harm and attempts to warn.. scare… help… abandon…

v.2 (the one on the record) came in a dream – a fully formed story of a man ideating on questions of mortality and meaning… the wolf, it is revealed, (at least in my mind…) is the man, the sparrow, and ultimately, the boy himself.

The album contains 12 songs – in each there is some version of the child and the monster – alternating cries of warning.. howls of terror… the baring of teeth… the revealing of truth…”

credits

released November 6, 2024

words, music, performance, production – Bruce Enloe

cover art – Conrad Keely

special thanks – Nicole LeBlanc, Doug Hempstead (drum track on Ashes and Dust), Josef Mieto, Simon Beach, Kevin Allen, Brad Turcotte, Ben Mullin, the Burning Sensations, The Afterburners

Artist Bio:

Bruce Enloe is a versatile, genre-bending songwriter from Texas by way of San Francisco, and currently based in Kemptville, Ontario, Canada. With a diverse musical background that ranges from folk, alt-country, to pop, lo-fi, rock, old school hip hop,, with a little punk attitude and indie noise thrown in for good measure… his influences include the Beatles, Peter Gabriel, Ween, Flaming Lips, Sonic Youth, Hank Williams, Wilco, Joni Mitchell, Sebadoh, Bowie, Syd Barrett, Nillson, and more recently Chappell Roan and Jesse Welles… Bruce’s music offers a little something for everyone. Whether fronting his nine piece band, performing heartfelt original story songs in a listening room, or belting out lively covers at the Farmers’ Market, his performances are a blend of storytelling, humour, and genuine connection with the audience. Known for original, well-crafted, lyric driven songs, Bruce’s music is a reflection of his varied influences and experiences. Check out his work on Bandcamp at: https://bruceenloe.bandcamp.com/ to experience his unique musical style firsthand.

Lovetooth Live

Another day another release on bandcamp- this is a live performance from the Lovetooth online music festival for Surkeus Records and raising money for a variety of charities… one of my 2 contributions is the whole Escape Plan song played in order instead of the 3 part version from the album… it was written as a bit of a manifesto for creative expression as a political act and also my only song with a lyric about polishing turds (to date)… enjoy!

https://surkeusrecords.bandcamp.com/album/music-from-love-tooth-art-music-fest-2022

Back in that Sensational Burning saddle…

Much of the band and I will be performing at the Spencerville Mill on Thursday, August 18 – tickets are $15 and the show starts early enough that you’ll still get all your beauty sleep on a weeknight. Not that you need it, you are all as beautiful as can be imagined… (swoon!)

This edition of the band includes long time and returning members Ben Mullin, Shawn Brown, Mark Ettinger, and Doug Hendry, with some harmony help from Mannie Giles, (aka Thrum’Mah) who will also be playing an acoustic set of her original tunes to kick off the evening…

Here’s a link for advance tickets… https://www.eventbrite.com/e/music-at-the-mill-bruce-enloe-the-burning-sensations-tickets-343812651897?aff=ebdssbdestsearch&fs=e&s=cl

The Escape Plan

The songs for The Escape Plan were written and conceived as ‘Book II’ of, or ’Part II’ to my 2019 album A Perfect Cliché. It has (perhaps unsurprisingly…?) been a slow process… Originally intended as a studio album with the full band, I instead took on the recording process myself (except for a few drum loops that I sourced from various free sources on the internet…) Thanks in part to the steep learning curve, the process has been started and aborted a few times, with widely varying results. This collection represents a weird, eclectic cross section of the best (or at least most interesting) of the varied approaches to the project, and ranges stylistically from excessive, densely multitracked psychedelia, to simple ‘boy plus guitar’ acoustic takes… Upon revisiting the multiple attempts, I realized that the mishmash of ideas work together as a musical pastiche or collage.

The songs and lyrics cover themes of transition, growth, escape (obviously…), art, and even spirituality. The narrative (see ‘lyrics’ in the drop-down menu above), follows the story of a ‘lost song’ and a quest to recover both the song and the freedom it represents. The conclusion? The only true escape we can expect is creative expression as an end unto itself… or maybe forgiveness… or something like that…

“And in the end, I will forgive myself, and learn to love again…”

https://bruceenloe.bandcamp.com/album/the-escape-plan

Green Christmas (Fire Santa, Hire Greta)

IT’S OFFICIAL – ‘Christmas is Awesome!’ My 10 year project to write and record a perfect Christmas album is complete… witness the obvious perfection in this year’s addition ‘Green Christmas (Fire Santa, Hire Greta)’, a heartfelt plea to boot the old dude in favour of a more suitable-for-the-times candidate, Greta Thunberg.

Release Day!

New Release June 4, 2021 – A Perfect Cliché – De-Lucked Addition (expanded re-issue with linking narrative) now available exclusively on bandcamp (digitally) or limited edition cassette from Surkeus Records

For those who have not heard yet, I’ve recently been added to the artist roster of the Victoria, BC-based Surkeus record label… to introduce my music to this new crop of ears, we are releasing/re-releasing my 2019 concept album A Perfect Cliché, expanded for the first time with its originally intended linking narrative elements as performed by Newmanville’s own Stephen Fuller (founder of the Goat Festival, etc.)

The release is primarily a limited run on cassette, but for the un-taped (un-spooled?), I have also uploaded the full version on bandcamp for your listening (and purchasing, should you be so inclined…) pleasure… This song cycle was always intended to be an old-school ‘headphone’ music experience, in the style of the classic albums that helped me fall in love with music some many moons ago. For best results, our crack team of dedicated scientists recommend ingesting the program in a single sitting with, perhaps, some other aids as needed, such as: a stick of jasmine incense, a tall melty candle, a glass of something relaxing and wet, a pair of the big clunky style of comfy headphones, a bean bag chair/hammock/wicker bowl chair, a lava lamp, a black light (with poster), a basement with wood paneled walls, and, if needed, any other ingestible or inhalable mood enhancers as are allowed by the laws and/or customs of your current domestic proximity…

Special thanks to Ben Mullin, first and foremost, this is his album too… if you are listening and thinking ‘whoa that sounds really cool’ there’s an 82.7% chance that Ben is the reason. The other musician contributors include Doug Hendry, Amanda Giles (aka Thrum Mother), Josh Hofman, John Dillabough, and the immortal Keith Glass.

I’m also grateful to Josef Mieto for inviting me to run away to the Surkeus, the reason I finally got around to ‘finishing’ the project.

And lastly, I’m very pleased to finally add Stephen Fuller’s name to the credits… His narration has languished in an almost forgotten shared google drive folder all these many years waiting for its chance to finally shine… shine away I say! Shine on! It was never all for not!