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It is now just over ten years since The Wolfe Brothers captured the attention of the nation when they were beamed into millions of lounge rooms around Australia each week as they progressed through the heats and into the Final of Australia’s Got Talent 2012. Their popularity grew from strength to strength after every electrifying performance on the show where they chose to break all the rules by playing their own original country rock songs rather than covering well known hits like most of the other contestants. This incredibly brave move paid off and saw the boys take out second place and also catch the attention of Lee Kernaghan’s long- time manager Steve White who was working in Nashville at the time and who, based on the strength of the band’s performances that he saw on-line from the TV show, and numerous international phone calls with Tom, White signed them up for management.

It was only a matter of a few months before they found themselves in a rehearsal studio in Sydney auditioning for Lee Kernaghan to  hopefully be in his touring band. After just two songs at the audition Lee said “Boys, you have got the job!”. Lee not only hired them to play in his band but he also gave The Wolfe Brothers the highly sought after opening spot at all of his concerts which allowed The Wolfe Brothers to play their own music at Lee’s sold out shows all over Australia. This experience not only garnered the group a big and loyal fan base over the years but it also turned them into a world class recording and touring act that now headlines their own tours and festivals. After 10 years on the road with Lee the boys performed their last show as players in his band at an emotional performance on home turf in Hobart in November 2022 – almost 10 years to the day that they did their first show with Lee at the Deni Ute Muster in front of 20,000 punters. Lee called it their “baptism of fire” and a classic case of being “thrown in the deep end”. 

Brothers Nick and Tom Wolfe have become renowned over the past few years for their jaw-dropping live shows and steady ascent to Australian country music’s upper echelon. Music runs in their blood and as Nick said ”the truth is we come from four generations of farmers and musicians. Our dad, Malcolm Wolfe, encouraged us to start playing at a very early age and it was dad who helped us play gigs when we were really young. Dad was a rock drummer in a popular Tasmanian band called Midnight Revival. Our grandfather played saxophone and our great-grandfather played fiddle in the Wolfe Family Band and they used to tour all over Tasmania way back in the day”. 

 

It is this pedigree and the abundance of musical influences that were always around them at home on the farm throughout the brothers’ youth, combined with an innate musicality, that has resulted in the development of a unique yet embracingly familiar sound that is The Wolfe Brothers. Tom said ”it was mum who turned us on to country music. Dad was into rock music, and we would play with him at home a lot, but mum was always playing her Australian country music cassettes and records in the house and she took us to see a James Blundell show and we still have the signed poster from that show”.

 

Tom and Nick played in various bands as they went through their school years. They dabbled in Heavy Metal, Glam Rock, Pop, Rock and eventually ended up in the same band, their band, The Wolfe Brothers. It was a conscious decision to head down the country music road so with their best mates Brodie Rainbird and Casey Kostiuk the band set out to play every stage and party they could find around Tasmania and over a few years distilled all their musical influences from their early bands and created the Wolfe Brothers sound. Casey and Brodie decided to resign as band members for personal reasons but Brodie still plays every show with the band as a hired musician along with David Ruberto on Drums and Scott Targett on Keyboards.   

 

In April 2023 the band released their 6th studio album with the apt title “Livin’ The Dream”. This new album was written during the pandemic over many Zoom writing sessions with writers all over the world. The Producer role for the new album was filled by Nick Wolfe and co-produced with veteran Australian Record Producer and musician Rod McCormack. Multi-award winning Producer Matt Fell was also involved in producing 3 of the 12 songs on the disc. 

 

Sessions for the record started straight after the 2022 Tamworth Country Music Festival at Rod McCormack’s studio on the NSW Central Coast. After a few days of recording Tom Wolfe tested positive for Covid so in typical Wolfe Brothers style the decision was made to keep going with the recording and to isolate for the next 10 days in the studio. So the brothers, along with Rod McCormack and his son Jacky, had food delivered to the studio door and set up swags in various parts of the studio to sleep so that they could continue getting the job done. The end result is arguably the best Wolfe Brothers album to date. 

 

The title track from the “Livin’ The Dream” album was released on 28th October, 2022 and went to #1 on the National Country Music Airplay Chart. Nick Wolfe explained where the title came from by saying "‘Livin' The Dream’ is a phrase I'm sure we all have heard every day in conversation. Most of us have probably even said it ourselves. Usually, it's making light of a challenging situation. I love it because instead of having a whinge about how snowed under we are, how tired we are, how overworked or how busy we are, we do the Aussie thing and just say - yeah mate just livin’ the dream. To me it's saying there's good and bad in every job out there. That's life. It's keeping your spirits up, cracking a smile and rolling with it”.

 

Nick continued “after exploring more pop and rock influences on the ‘Kids On Cassette’ record we made a conscious decision for ‘Livin’ The Dream’ to be a return to our roots. I think it is great that the genre is now so diverse, but for this one we wanted to make a straight ahead country album”. Tom Wolfe added "We are very excited about this next chapter in our music. It feels right, fun and is a real return to our roots. We are country boys from Tassie who are just Livin' The Dream".

 

Tom Wolfe added "We are very excited about this next chapter in our music. It feels right, fun and is a real return to our roots. We are country boys from Tassie who are just Livin' The Dream".

 

The Wolfe Brothers released their second single from the album on 17th February, 2023. The song called ‘Here’s To The Ones’ is both special and personal to brothers Nick and Tom who lost their mum in 2022. Tom said “This song is for our mum, our wives Ally and Tani. But it is also for all of the incredible women who are as selfless, caring and loving as they are! You all are the greatest. Here’s to the ones!”

 

It has been an amazing 10 year ride for The Wolfe Brothers. Three #1 and two #2 ARIA Country Albums up until now. 18 #1 singles on the National Radio Chart. Six Golden Guitars under the belt so far making them the most awarded country rock duo ever in Australia. They have travelled countless road miles doing shows around Australia, USA and Canada and this year will see many more road miles covered on their Livin’ The Dream Australian Tour 2023.

 

As they move into the 11th year since coming second on Australia’s Got Talent and the release of their first album, ‘It’s On’, the future's looking bright for the brothers from Tasmania.  Tom now solely owns the family berry farm just outside of Hobart where he and his wife Ally are raising their two daughters Evie and Matilda. Nick has purchased a farm in the north of the state near Launceston where he and his wife Tani are running sheep on the property which now also houses Nick’s recording studio. There is no doubt that the former postman (Nick) and carpenter (Tom) are definitely Livin’ The Dream.