Singing country quickly became Wolfe’s goal in life. “It was the only thing I wanted to do, and I had absolutely no idea how to do it,” he explains. “As a kid growing up in a small Oklahoma town, country music is probably one of the only things that you think you might be able to do.” The rise of fellow Oklahoman Garth Brooks made it seem possible. And over the succeeding years Wolfe watched his friend and contemporary Joe Don Rooney, who played guitar with his stepfather at the Grand Lake Opry, also rise to the top of the country charts as a member of Rascal Flatts. “I began to think: maybe this is humanly possible.”

But first Wolfe took a stab at attending Bible college with the goal of becoming a youth pastor, and then worked as a counselor at a Christian summer camp in Texas, picking up the guitar and taking lessons from teacher John Defore. A move to Fort Collins, Colorado steeped him in country’s Western traditions and gave Wolfe an opportunity to pursue such outdoor passions as rock climbing, snowboarding and fly-fishing. He also started performing at a dude ranch in Loveland where he worked as a ranch hand.

Wolfe returned to college at Colorado State University and earned a finance degree, which landed him a job in Chicago as a hedge trader for British Petroleum. After his fast-paced days at the commodities exchange, Wolfe spent his evenings playing guitar, singing and learning and writing songs at home or out at the open mike nights at local clubs. “I was the only guy on the trading floor in cowboy boots,” he recalls. “I loved the excitement and the risk it involved.”

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