ABOUT SOPHIA WOLFF

Hold onto your hats and strap on your spurs, folks, because from out of the heart of the American West comes Miss Sophia Wolff; the orneriest tornado to ever wear a shimmy dress and speak four languages!

This buxom brown-eyed beauty is as talented as she is lovely; an accomplished singer, songwriter, dancer, model, entrepreneur, and actress who has become the toast of two continents over the past decade. Of very few other women is it so appropriate to honestly say that men want to be with her and women want to be her.

Sophia's background is about as exotic as it gets. The eldest daughter of a French father and a British mother, Sophia Wolff was born in Casablanca, Morocco and holds French, British, and Canadian citizenship, and grew up in the USA.

Although the family left Morocco when Sophia was three, Sophia says "I learned to ride a camel before I learned to ride a horse."

Sophia's father worked for an international company, so he and his family tended to move around a lot. Montreal, Virginia, San Jose, Bakersfield, France…these were all waypoints for the Wolff family; in the case of Montreal more than once.

"I think it's good,” says Sophia. “If I hadn't done all that, I'd have serious wanderlust. But I've seen most European countries and a lot of the United States. Some places in the world I haven't seen that I want to are Japan, Australia, and Hawaii."

During their three years in Bakersfield the Wolff family regularly attended local rodeos, instilling in Sophia a lifelong love of horses and country life.

“My parents would let me, Annie, and Bud run loose there so it was a real discovery time for me; running around from the music stages to areas where there were cowboys around a fenced-in pen. I remember sneaking in to find out they were waiting for a heifer to give birth.”

Lest one think she inherited no interest in music from her mother's side of the family, Sophia's mother attended college in Liverpool at the height of Beatlemania. "She remembers going to see Roy Orbison, Gerry and the Pacemakers, and the Beatles," says Sophia. “My mom always had ‘60s and ‘70s country playing when we got home from school. She adores Willie Nelson most of all.”

After attending high school in France, Sophia went to college in Great Britain where she studied theatre and made appearances on the London stage, as well as appearing on British TV. It was during this time that Sophia became aware of the huge rockabilly scene in the UK and Europe during the early and mid-'90s, and she was a regular fixture at rockabilly shows in the London area. “My Mom and Dad always danced and love rock-n-roll, but I was too shy to try. I finally learned with friends like Maria Micetich and Kav Kavanagh, and jive lessons with the fun and friendly Maddy’s team, and by going to every rockin’ DJ gig, band gig, or weekender offered.”

Following graduation, Sophia reunited with her family in Montreal and quickly spotted an opportunity.

"Maybe three days after I got there these people came to the door and said, 'Hi, we're your rockabilly welcoming committee!' So they took me out and showed me that Montreal had great cars, great bands, great record shopping, great clothing - everything. So I turned to them and said, 'So...where do you guys go to jive?'"

As it turned out, the dancing which was associated with the European rockabilly scene was still largely unknown in North America. Well-versed in the still-popular-in-Europe dance styles, Sophia soon began offering dance classes in Montreal; releasing a popular instructional video, "Do the Jive!", in 2002 which has just made the leap to DVD. Sophia’s efforts did not go unnoticed by Canadian media, either, with segments on her popular dance classes, rockabilly Jive Joint events, classic pin-up calendar, and country music radio show, Daisy Mae – Country DJ, appearing on the nation’s Musique Plus music video channel and on W5, the Canadian equivalent of the United States’ 60 Minutes, thanks to the jive explosion which followed her school’s creation. To date Sophia estimates that she has instructed approximately 12,000 dancers in Chicago, Montreal, Austin, California, New Jersey and Las Vegas, and she continues to offer dance classes to this day in London, England.

“I just can’t sit still when there’s great music playing,” says Sophia. “My hips will be moving and I need to get on the dance floor! People think dancing must be so hard and that they have to learn all these moves. The truth is that in an hour you can learn enough to get up and express your love for rock-n-roll, physically. I think everybody should have the opportunity to do that – that’s why I spread the jive gospel.”

Next on her plate was an album of her own. A longtime fan of the likes of Wanda Jackson, Loretta Lynn, Charlene Arthur, Rose Maddox, Janis Martin and other female hillbilly and rockabilly vocalists, Sophia was a gifted singer, starting out in church and at country nights in local clubs, but had never fronted a band of her own. Hooking up with a popular Montreal band called the Howlin' Hound Dogs, Sophia began writing the songs for a band which she eventually called Sophia Wolff and the Cubs.

The group's debut album, "Afternoon Fun," was released in 2002, with two live videos from an early performance included as bonus tracks. Three impressive live tracks from a Connecticut performance that year also appeared on "Live at the Road Agents Rockabilly Rumble '02," and the band made a well-received appearance at the Viva Las Vegas rockabilly festival in 2003, prompting one country journalist fan to proclaim to Sophia – perhaps a little too enthusiastically - that she had "totally nailed 'Wild Wild Young Men.'"

In 2003 Sophia Wolff said goodbye to Montreal and hello to Austin, Texas, a city full of new opportunities whose country and rockabilly scene was legendary.

Instead of forming a new band right away, Sophia spent more than a year writing new songs and taking in the rich country and rockabilly local scene; occasionally making guest appearances with the likes of Martí Brom. In 2005 she moved to Chicago, IL to be near her sister. “It’s the best of both worlds, to have soaked in the country talents of Austin and the blues vibrancy of Chicago for my musical experience, outlook and feel”. She put together a new band, featuring some of Chicago’s best talents, playing with Eddie Clendening, Joel Paterson, Carl Sonny Leyland and more. 2010 meant a move to London, England, and a new band is in the works.

So what’s in the future for this always-on-the-go belle? For the last 12 years Sophia has been a permanent emcee at the annual Viva Las Vegas rockabilly festival, introducing all of the weekend’s female acts, hosting the burlesque bonanza and teaching her dance classes, so expect to see her in Las Vegas with a song in her heart and a dance partner by the hand - and singing with the She-Demons in 2010. She has expanded her horizons to teach and perform with the Cubs at two new rockabilly festivals in Green Bay and Montreal. Sophia also promises a second instructional dance video in 2010, and she is currently working on songs for her second album. Beyond that she says she plans on doing more acting. Whatever she does, though, you can bet heads will be turning when she does it!

08/06 — Thanks to Jon Johnson for his writing talents, support and friendship.
RIP Jon - we miss you greatly.