Braxton Ballew of Valentine Wolfe

I series 1 of 4: Welcome to the world of Valentine Wolfe

Hey {{contact.first_name}}!

Braxton here.

Thank you so much for joining our email list. I get a ton of email, you get a ton of email, so knowing you’ve made room for us is just an amazing feeling.

If you signed up of our new album, Lost to the Night, it's here! Check out https://www.valentinewolfe.store/collections/lost-to-the-night to get your own copy!

If you just want digital music for now, you're getting two free albums for joining us in the dark.

So let's make sure you got your free download of The Elegiac Repose, along with a digital copy of the limited edition lyric cards that we packaged with the CD. Get your files here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1zMFZyACt6nTk8QkIg5RybgChC3-ed1I4

Want a physical copy of The Elegiac Repose for your very own? T o further say thank you, use the code Howl With Us and receive $5 off your copy of the physical CD by going here: https://www.valentinewolfe.store/products/the-elegiac-repose-cd

Now, here’s what you’re in for: we email (usually) once a week because we want to hear from you. Email offers us a chance to talk right to you and for you to talk directly to us, and we're here for it.

We write mini diary/blog type emails with behind the scenes and work in progress reports, music and other media that’s inspiring to us, and once a month, announcements. Your feedback is the raven's call echoing through our chamber – a haunting melody that guides our path and ignites our creativity.

What I’m saying is: yes, please, please email us back!

Music is our refuge, our muse, and our infernal delight. We are honored to share it with you, dear traveler, as we traverse the labyrinthine corridors of the soul.

Your support means everything to us. Personally, music has been a lifeline for me during the darkest times, and knowing that you found something in our music resonates with you is the most incredible feeling.

So once again, thank you – a million times over. Revel in your new music, and let your voice be heard. We eagerly anticipate the echoes of your reply.

Valentine WolfeI series 2 of 4: When Emily Dickinson writes your lyrics

Hey again {{contact.first_name}},

Sarah here.

I’m writing to tell you about why we chose to set a whole bunch of Emily Dickinson poems to music on our CD Only Gossamer My Gown.

It all started when our local library asked us if we’d be willing to be part of an American Poetry Series. We asked them if they were sure they thought our music would be a good fit. They gave us enthusiastic consent. So we got to work! I of course wanted to check out any bios on Emily the library might have.

I was enthralled by After Emily: two remarkable women and the legacy of America's greatest poet by Julie Dobrow. This book tells the story of how Emily’s poems survived after her passing and it also delves a bit into some of the relationships in her immediate family.

Dear reader, I highly recommend it!

You may have heard the joke that all of Emily’s poetry can be set to the tune of The Yellow Rose of Texas or the Gilligan’s Island theme. I haven’t tried it with all of her poetry so I can’t confirm or deny. I will say that my ideas on rhythm do not always match up with what others choose to do.

But a search on any streaming music site will confirm how varied everyone’s personal take on these poems are!

I love going through and listening to multiple takes on some of her best known poems. I love that her poetry is so enduring and compelling that so many different musicians have heard their own music in her words.

And who are we? You already know my name is Sarah. I met Braxton while we were both in grad school for music. He was studying bass and I had chosen music composition. It was like a real life Dark Academia connection. He offered me his place in line. We started talking. I convinced him to try making some music with me. And here we are. We have been figuring out the best way ever since to bring to life the wild phantasms dancing in our imaginations and how best to bridge the chasm between my high angelic voice and his extremely low bass thunder.

I hope you will enjoy Only Gossamer My Gown enough to stick around for more of our music.

Need to get your hands on a physical copy? We'll send you one for free if you cover postage. If you haven't already, check that out here: https://valentinewolfe.com/haunting-of-mary-shelley-free

(I know it says Haunting of Mary Shelley, but it's for the Emily Dickinson album. Promise)

We’ve also explored Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and Dracula, to name a few. More gothic delights await you.

Thanks for reading!

-Sarah

I series 3 of 4: Did you see this?

Hello there,

It's Sarah, and if you enjoyed Only Gossamer My Gown, we thought you might like to see one of the songs as we imagined it. We're sending along a link to our video for This World Is Not Conclusion. Here's how the whole thing came about.

The Metropolitan Arts Council in Greenville, SC has supported our music practically from the moment we moved to Greenville in 2007. In the year 2019 we were writing our songs based on Emily Dickinson poems and we knew we wanted to make an extra special video. We knew MAC would support us in this with a matching grant so we reached out to other local musicians and dance performers to see what we could put together to make this thing really epic.

Well, we all know what happened in March of 2020 which unfortunately was right around the time that we wanted to start filming. We weren’t the only artists who had to get creative during this time period. I really became grateful for the community surrounding us and lifting us up. I am so glad that we were able to make this video after all!

Braxton has always been interested in the aesthetic of ghosts and hauntings. We love watching all the recent Mike Flanagan shows including The Haunting of Hill House and Bly Manor and Midnight Mass and The Fall of the House of Usher. He wanted our video to have the feel of a seance especially as his reading of the poem teased his otherworldly senses.

Is it possible to feel nostalgia for a place you’ve never been? A haunting you’ve never lived through?

Watch this video and tell us what you think!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSwtIWqObGQ

This World is not Conclusion.

A Species stands beyond -

Invisible, as Music -

But positive, as Sound -

It beckons, and it baffles -

Philosophy, don’t know -

And through a Riddle, at the last -

Sagacity, must go -

To guess it, puzzles scholars -

To gain it, Men have borne

Contempt of Generations

And Crucifixion, shown -

Faith slips - and laughs, and rallies -

Blushes, if any see -

Plucks at a twig of Evidence -

And asks a Vane, the way -

Much Gesture, from the Pulpit -

Strong Hallelujahs roll -

Narcotics cannot still the Tooth

That nibbles at the soul

-I series 4 of 4: The Music of Mystery and Imagination

So, {{contact.first_name}}. A little about us.

The story begins in Athens at the University of Georgia where we were both graduate students in the music program. Now, while there are many ways to have a career in music, at this particular time our choices were full-time orchestra musician or college teacher. Neither one of us did degree programs in K-12 education.

You may have noticed composing and performing your own music wasn’t listed. The career advice there is more or less a variation on “good luck, and we hope you figure it out.”

And we’ve been figuring it out together ever since, enjoying the challenges of performing the music that inspires us as a duo while also figuring out the best way to share that music with, well, you.

Sometimes people ask us why we don’t get a drummer and/or guitarist for our band. Our absolute favorite thing to do together is to tell haunting stories through music. And we enjoy the challenge of bringing these stories into full and lush fruition with just the two of us.

We love using layers of voice and bass to fill out our sound, and we both love finding and using new sounds with a synthesizer. Fellow musicians might relate to spending too much money on new sample packs when we haven’t even worked our way through all the ones we already have! We’re still discovering and exploring new sounds with a focus on vocals and solo bass.

After all, for us, it doesn’t get more personal than that!

We are extremely into music. We have some hobbies outside of it. We enjoy reading, watching movies, and Braxton likes playing video games. We also enjoy visiting cemeteries. And as you can guess, almost all of those activities become inspiration for our own creativity.

Also, we are both artistic enablers. When one of us has a new idea, the other one will shamelessly enable and encourage. We are each other’s biggest cheerleaders, and that is probably the single biggest reason why we compose so much music and then share it with you.

Our musical ghosts don’t have a home until you hear them. When we say our process, we mean us AND you.We hope you will join us on this great music adventure so that we can send some encouragement your way! This world already has so much inspiring art in it, and yet, we believe it can always use just a little more.

Welcome to our music of mystery and imagination,

-Sarah and Braxton

Valentine Wolfe

PS-we want to get to know you-yeah, you! Reply to this email and let us know a little something about you: Got a band? A cat? A house ghost? An opinion on the best love interest of Geralt of Rivia, and why it's obviously Yen? Let us know!