Raven Wolfe
Raven's love for music started at age 5 when she started teaching herself piano using her older sister's music books. Throughout grade school and high school, Raven was very active in the school band playing many instruments and planning to be a music teacher. Her junior and senior years in high school Raven led the marching band as drum majorette winning several parade competitions in the southern Wisconsin area. Saxaphone, bassoon, clarinet and even string bass were among the instruments Raven played during the early years.
Raven's singing talent was "discovered" by local rock band Second Chance in her hometown of Monroe, Wisconsin at a local talent show. This performance led to appearances at county fairs, local clubs, and other school events.
After graduating from High School, Raven entered the University of Wisconsin in Madison, majoring in vocal performance. Thought she enjoyed school, the call of the road was strong and after 3 semesters, she joined up with members of her high school group who were now on the road in a traveling rock act called Near 90.
Near 90 encountered much hardship on the road. Vehicle breakdowns and lack of funds led to an early break up after only 6 months together. Most of the band returned to Monroe, but Raven had other plans. After making a few phone calls to connections she had made with Near 90, Raven loaded her gear into her Toyota Tercel and made tracks for the fabulous Twin Cites of Minneaspolis/St Paul, MN. The first week in town, she was lucky enough to hook up with a local lounge act, Areca, who were a full time band that played the hotels on the 494 strip.
Areca teamed her with another female vocalist, Connie Merrill and the two developed a loyal following in the circuit. A relatively short stint with Areca was followed by an equally short stint (6 months) with Up Front, a 5 piece top 40 band that played in and around the Twin Cities.
Up Front once again teamed Raven with another exceptional female vocalist, Jerry Gilmore (now Jerry Dawson, currently with the Reno Jones band). Other notable players in Up Front who helped Raven hone her singing and performing skills were local Christian artist Greg Haage; Neil Hendrickson, currently guitarist with several local blues bands; and Rob Schlossberg, most recently the drummer for local band Bugsy.
While performing with Up Front, Raven lived with future band mate Wendy T Engler. It was during this time that Wendy was putting together a new band to tour the US. Wendy and her manager were in the process of auditioning singers to fill a 2nd female front position when they realized the answer to their search was right in the next room. The two came to see Raven perform live and asked her to join the new touring group, Wendy T and Too Hot!
Wendy T traveled throughout the US performing on the hotel and nightclub circuit in most major cities, ending their year long tour with a 2 month engagement in Singapore. Once again, the Wendy T band was a great opportunity for Raven to work with an incredibly talented group of musicians. Wendy T herself, was a former member of the popular Twin Cities show act Sister Max, and the leader of Blaze, a punk/pop/rock band in the early 80s. Other notable Wendy T musicians include Ricky D, future member of The Mixx; Michael Perona, Randy Jeroma, and Steve Smith. Wendy T went on to sing with Bear Creek Band and eventually moved the Las Vegas impersonating such talents as Dolly Parton and Reba McIntyre.
After Wendy T, Raven decided to move back to Minneapolis and joined The Mixx, a pop/rock cover group who were the house band at the Northwest Inn for over 10 years. Raven's stint with The Mixx lasted 3 years and led to another great adventure as it was in The Mixx where Raven first met Pancho Torres.
Raven and Pancho both left The Mixx about the same time and decided to form a Duo covering jazz standards and playing local jazz rooms. The addition of some sequencing led to other gigs at small venues throughout the Twin Cities performing a wide variety of pop standards, country, and rock. During this time the duo discovered they both had been writing original music individually for years and decided to team their efforts into an original project.
In 1995, Raven and Pancho recorded an album of original music entitled Some Things Change. They also formed the band Raven Wolfe at this time in order to promote the CD.
Raven Wolfe played throughout the Twin Cities, making a name for themselves as the Thursday night band at a St Paul club called Orrie's. The Raven Wolfe stage was graced by many top notch musicians in it's 4 year run including Max Dugan, Ernesto Palestino, Butch Zierath (bass guitar), Neil Hendrickson, Tim Kletti, George Paulos (guitar), Paul Stranahan, Tony Barrera, Steve Paoli(drums), Pancho Torres, Billy Armstrong, JJ Johnson, Rebekka Fisher (keyboards). At the end of a 4 year run, it was time for a break and the group disbanded.
Raven took a few months off and joined an existing party band 2nd Generation. 2nd Gen was a variety act that played promarily private parties, singles dances and weddings. A nice break from the smoky club scene, Raven enjoyed a 3 year stint with the 2nd Gen boys.
Raven left 2nd Generation to join a Journey tribute act called Separate Ways. The group performed a 90 minute Journey show as Separate Ways and would also book out as a regular 4 hour show as Rock Island.
After a year with Separate Ways, Raven left to join 80's cover band Rock It Science, the brain child of local 80's fanatic Jeff Leppard (Leiknes). This group teamed Raven with old friend Lisa Barstad. Raven and Lisa had met years before when their respective bands were playing the same circiut. They had always had a mutual respect for each other and this was the first time they had the opportunity to share the stage together.
Though it's membership has changed over the years, Rock It Science is still going strong with Raven at the helm. The new band of 80's rockers includes Max Dugan (bass guitar), Dawn Delaney (vocals), Joe Crowley (drums), Polo Zatina (keyboards) and Steve Pritchard (guitar).
Raven continues to write and perform her original music as well as maintain a full schedule with Rock It Science.