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At the intersection of Harry Smith’s Old Weird America – the songs of heartworn highways – and the tumult of today you can find the music of Luke Callen. The songs – equal parts tragic comedy and hopeless reverie – paint a picture of the places and people that make up his earthly home. A poet – a player – a folk singer – Luke has traversed his country unraveling tall tales – short tunes and all that’s hidden underneath.
Originally from the river town of La Crosse, Wisconsin – the heart of the Driftless Region on the Mississippi River – and currently lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota by way of Colorado Luke brings his humble sense of humor and humanity wherever he may go. His last two albums below your knows (2019) and Hard Sardine (2021) – reach from the ethereal to the eternally real – whimsical walks in the out of doors to hopelessness and heartache and all the in betweens. He is currently working on his third studio album with Erik Koskinen – set to be released in 2023.
Luke has played hundreds of shows spanning both coasts, the American west, south and heartland. He has had the opportunity to provide support for Dom Flemons, Dead Horses, The Dustbowl Revival, Kacy & Clayton, James McMurtry, Whiskey Shivers, Charlie Parr, The Lowest Pair, The Last Revel, Lilly Hiatt, Chicago Farmer, and Robbie Fulks among others – You can follow his travels on Facebook – Instagram or in real actual life.
“No dog ever eats Luke Callen’s homework. He does it all. He turns it in ahead of time. Not for a grade. Not for extra credit. It’s his work and he’s good at it. Poet. Singer. Player. Just listen. First he captures your attention. You want to make comparisons with the giants whose shoulders he stood on. But don’t. He’s plenty tall enough in his own bare feet and his shoulders are wide enough to hold up the next batch of poets, singers, players. Keep listening. Now he captures your imagination. Luke is the hitch-hiker who picks you up. Get in. Toss your bindle in the back. Have you got a couple bucks for gas? No matter. He’s going take you all around the world. Pay attention. He’s going to show you everything that’s in it. And it’s right Below Your Knows.” -- Eddie Allen
Long Mama’s music blisters with the heart and grit of someone who has lost hard, loved harder, and licked her burns until they stung then silvered. In a drafty attic just west of the Milwaukee River she grew up on, you’ll find songwriter Kat Wodtke (Wood-key) raking through notebooks in search of a salve: words, stories, and sounds to temper the dumpster fires we never mean to light. Flickering behind each song is Wodtke’s lived insight into our human faults & fissures – the moments in life when we can slip and lose our footing, or claw our way out…better people on the other side of the blaze.
Wodtke was raised in Southeastern Wisconsin by two radical, musician-turned-teacher parents. Often left to wander through the stacks of People’s Books as a kid, she discovered a love of reading – devouring everything from Carson McCullers and Ralph Ellison to Sam Shepard and Tu Fu. In the basements and living rooms of Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood, a gangly teenaged Wodtke was captivated by scrappy DIY bands that defied categorization and carved their own paths. Wodtke eventually moved to Minneapolis where she waited tables and immersed herself in the mercurial Twin Cities music scene. She traveled to Alaska for seasonal jobs, living in a small, secluded cabin. All the while, Wodtke observed and wrote, studying the curious characters who always seemed to hang their hats in her unsettled heart, whether they paid rent there or not.
With years of drifting in her rearview mirror, Wodtke made her way back home to Riverwest. After the death of a close friend in 2018, she struggled to make music. It took time – and a heap of tenderness from friends and family – for her to pick up a guitar again. When she finally did, music became a raft – or maybe more like a submarine – through the strange wilderness of heartache and grief, loneliness and love, risk and abandon. With a growing collection of original songs and buoyed confidence, Wodtke coined the name Long Mama (after a prickly, shade-loving cactus) and teamed up with guitarist Andrew Koenig and drummer Nick Lang, a pair whose chemistry adds dusky afterglow to Wodtke’s musical landscapes. Upright bass ace Samual Odin came aboard soon after, along with regular collaborator Eva Nimmer, whose backing vocals blend so elegantly with Wodtke’s that one could mistake them for blood harmonies.
Poor Pretender, Long Mama’s debut album released October 2022, embraces a rich spectrum of light and shadow, heat and cold. The ten-song collection’s palette of country, folk, indie rock, and punk reflects its makers' coming-of-age in the rustbelt crossroads of north, south, east, & west. Engineered by Erik Koskinen and recorded live over a long, snowy weekend in Cleveland, Minnesota, the record showcases the band’s particular ability to conjure the beautiful in the broken, the silver in the ore.