It takes a unique conviction to give up a lucrative career as an oil commodities trader for British Petroleum, as Wolfe did, to pursue the dream of becoming a country singer. But music has been a vital force in Wolfe’s life from early on, and it’s already made him a rising star in the dancehalls and honky-tonks of Texas and Oklahoma, earning him nominations for Best Country Act in both Houston and Tulsa, and the opportunity to open shows for acts like Haggard, Yoakam and Asleep at the Wheel and even play for one of his heroes, George Strait.

Wolfe was born in Tulsa and grew up in Miami, Oklahoma, and came to know the tragedy that is part and parcel of country music’s thematic tradition at the age of six years old when his father died. He was raised in a Pentecostal Church household that “was a real good, traditional home,” as he recalls, and got his first exposure to music in church and at home from the records of such master singers as Frank Sinatra and Harry Connick, Jr. “I just fell in love with that stuff.”

By the time Wolfe reached his teens, his stepfather was playing bass in the house band at Oklahoma’s Grand Lake Opry, and country music hit Jon in a way that spoke to his soul. “What took hold with me was the lyrical thing and the vocal thing,” he says. “Because of my life experiences up to that point and since then, I found an emotional connection with country.

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