Colin Woltmann, a singer-songwriter from Madison, WI, currently based in Alabama, started playing guitar and writing songs almost 20 years before releasing his debut album, Brown Recluse, in 2021. A little over a year later he and Health Fogg (of the Alabama Shakes) released their collaberative project Lake Nakoma via Single Lock Records. Woltmann has now returned to his solo work with the announcement his upcoming EP, A Case of the Times, set to be released summer of 2024. The lead single “The In-Betweens” is available now, wherever you get your music digitally and the follow up single "I Saw You In A Dream" will be out 4/12/2024.
Woltmann’s songwriting possesses the soft sentimental fury of Elliott Smith with the hazy melancholy and poetic introspection of artists like Nick Drake and Jose Gonzalez. Soothing melodies and raw lyrics paint vivid images that draw you into his introspective world.
Songwriting has long been a form of catharsis for Woltmann. A tragic experience of losing a friend to suicide in high school became a defining moment for his deep relationship to music. Woltmann recalls that, “something about that awful experience made me realize I needed music at a deeper level”, and from that point forward he started teaching himself guitar and exploring writing songs.
Almost 20 years after that realization, in 2021, Woltmann finally released his debut full length album, Brown Recluse. According to Woltmann, it was the album he always wanted to make, but life and technical difficulties got in the way, “I got a cheap digital 8 track when I was a junior in college, with every plan to make a record, but it never worked quite right on my old laptop and none of the recordings ended up being useable”.
Over the years, life pulled him in other directions and any aspirations of making music for anyone other than himself got put on hold. In 2018 when Woltmann’s wife had complications from a brown recluse spider bite, just as they were opening up a new restaurant together, all that changed. According to Woltmann, “We almost lost our business, and our minds, trying to keep everything afloat during that time”.
He turned to music as he had so many times in the past to get him through. Picking up where he had left off in college in Minneapolis, he decided to finally finish that album for him, and for his wife, as a positive thing to come out of a painful experience.
This time, when he started recording again, he found freedom instead of obstacles, “One of the things I am most proud of with Brown Recluse is that I was able to create without putting any expectations on myself of what I wanted it to be. I let go of self judgement or what other people were going to think, and just let myself and the music exist authentically. That felt so freeing.”
He also decided to set some perimeters on the project so he could focus on the music instead of the technical side of things, and recorded the whole album on his phone with a free app from Spire.
Brown Recluse is a a hauntingly beautiful debut album that, with only sparse arrangements and lo-fi recordings, transports you into Woltmann’s inner world. Tight, double tracked vocals and beautiful melodies weave you through themes of hope, love and longing while also vulnerably exploring the antithesis: anger, fear and self doubt. According to Woltmann, “it really encapsulated my life since first picking up a guitar so many years ago”.
In March 2023, Lake Nakoma, a collaborative project between Woltmann and Heath Fogg (guitarist for the Alabama Shakes), was released via Single Lock Records. The duo came together to create a unique indie folk sound, infused with subtle rock influences and electronic-oriented soundscapes. According to Plastic Magazine UK, “Woltmann’s poetic introspection finds a perfect match in Fogg’s imaginative guitar work”, and, “together, they create a sonic world that constantly evolves and surprises, keeping listeners engaged from start to finish”.
Woltmann returned to his solo work with his most current release, an EP titled A Case of the Times, set to be out summer of 2024. On the upcoming EP Woltmann leans into some of his early folk influences, like Bob Dylan and John Prine that he grew up listening to with his dad. Woltmann recalls, “I am fortunate to have a dad with great taste in music. He introduced me to so much of the music I still listen to today, and would play me a lot of great songwriters: Bob Dylan, John Prine, Neil Young, Tom Waits and so many more.”
“The In-Betweens”, the first single off of A Case of the Times, released end of last year was met with high praise. Jeremy Bregman of Mesmerized said, “I have fallen completely in love with Colin’s latest release. It’s one of the most beautiful and delicate tracks I’ve came across all year.” While Mike Mineo of Obscure Sound described the single as “a beautiful folk track with evolving textural expansion” and called it a “fantastic output from Woltmann.” Dave Franklin of The Big Takeover notes that “the song feels too fragile, too graceful for the real world and instead seems to exist in an otherworldly bubble floating high above the slings and arrows of this mortal coil.”
Woltmann's latest single, “Saw You In A Dream”, is equally as transcendent imparting Woltmann’s signature ethereal melancholy with an added dose of tangible grit, thanks in part to some dirty electric guitar tones in the second half of the song. According to Woltmann the song came to him after night of bad sleep. He says, “I wrote ‘Saw you In A Dream’ in a sort of stream of consciousness. I’ve never been a good sleeper and this song came after a couple of weird dreams left me in a deja vu type state.” Only after some retrospection was he able to assemble what the song was about, “I didn’t really know what I was writing about at the time. But in hindsight, it makes me think of the idea of missing a particular feeling and looking for it everywhere. Or missing a person and feeling like you are seeing them everywhere, but it’s just a look-a-like or your own mind playing tricks on you.”
Listen to "The In-Betweens" and "I Saw You In A Dream" anywhere you get your music digitally and keep an eye out for A Case of the Times set to be out summer 2024!