Stay ahead of the wolf

Stay Ahead of the Wolf is the second full length album by gritty Americana ‘gutter-folk’ duo Driftwood Soldier released on October 18, 2019.

The album was produced in collaboration with genre-impervious artist Erin McKeown. It was recorded in Philadelphia at Spice House Sound, mixed by Grammy award winner Ted Hutt (Old Crow Medicine Show, The Gaslight Anthem, Lucero, The Devil Makes Three) at Kingsize Soundlabs in Eagle Rock, CA, and mastered by Ryan Schwabe (Hop Along, We Were Promised Jetpacks, The Districts, Ron Gallo, Modern Baseball).
It was released to positive reviews from the likes of Billboard, Glide, and Americana Highways

Listen to selections below, or to the album in its entirety.

The twelve songs on the album flex the barbed storytelling and surprising versatility that has made the duo a cult favorite up and down the East Coast.

From the rewriting the ballad of “John Henry” into a revisionist anthem about racist greed, to the dissolute storytelling of “Put Me Down” and the melancholy irony of “If It’s Not Obvious,” Owen Lyman-Schmidt’s songwriting constantly finds new ways to deploy his sledgehammer voice and the lyrical bass of Bobby Szafranski to their full effect. Even the sole cover song, Reigning Sound’s “Banker and a Liar,” is transformed into their proprietary ‘gutter-folk’ sound with an assist from fiddle player Matt Heckler.

With Stay Ahead of the Wolf, Driftwood Soldier finally has an album that does justice to their liver-shaking live show. Watch what happens next.