With his unforgettable blend of unrestrained energy and tight songwriting, Eric Wolfson burst upon the East Village’s Antifolk scene in early 2006 and quickly became a house staple; within months, he appeared in a New York Times article covering the scene and was sharing the stage with the likes of Suzanne Vega and Jason Trachtenburg.

Wolfson was born Christmas morning, six days shy of 1980 as “The First Noel” played on the car radio. With an ear tuned to his parents’ Beatles vinyl collection and his first radio tuned to the oldies, his was a life immersed in classic rock and roll; at age 6, he attended his first concert: Jerry Lee Lewis.

Always one with a knack for words, he memorized all the presidents backwards by age 9 and all of the words to Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” by age 11. That same year, he played keyboard in his first band – an avant-garde something-or-other called Noise Pollution – the nucleus of which became his high school band after Wolfson switched to electric guitar and vocals. In college, Wolfson studied painting, took up bass, and played all around Pittsburgh in the power trio the Clayton Merrell (who have since reformed as Triggers).

In 2003, Wolfson moved to Boston where he played bass for various projects – including the Dodgers, which he formed with future Frank Smith banjoist Brett Saiia – but mostly focused on songwriting. He began playing his first solo acoustic shows that were the predecessor to his performances on the antifolk scene; he worked for months on a mini-rock opera about a girl who was born with a slightly cardboard heart.

Wolfson moved to Brooklyn in late 2005 in a haze of restlessness and romanticism fueled by Bruce Springsteen’s early records. He got a job at a bookstore where, three days after he scored his first gig in New York, the Boss himself walked into the shop and asked for Wolfson’s help with the architecture books. Wolfson was soon playing regularly and quickly fell into place with his peers, playing bass on Dan Costello’s debut album, Halloween Baby, supplying backing vocals on Ben Godwin’s second album, Skin and Bone, and joining Andrew Hoepfner’s band, Creaky Boards, one of the most popular groups on the scene.

Early 2007 saw his first release, his signature song/mantra “Sleeping Is a Sucker’s Game,” which kicks off the second disc of the Anticomp Folkilation and was hailed for its “scene-skewering” lyrics by American Songwriter Magazine. The song is a perfect introduction to his music – it stomps and hollers like a runaway train heading towards the North Country, with singing that combines the restlessness of early Springsteen, the earnestness of Jonathan Richman, and the feisty protest of Bob Dylan.

But all of this was just the warm-up to Wolfson’s first full-length release, State Street Rambler, which Urban Folk Magazine raves “is a glorious mash-up of swaggering rock’n’roll that sounds just like you immersed your head in a bucket of 1969, simple, evocative balladry, and loony truth-to-power talking blues…It’s an unbridled wild horse of a record, with a fat streak of goofy humor and not a little social outrage.” The album was recorded live in the studio with members of Creaky Boards, Soft Black, and Tulsa and was released on Cinco de Mayo, 2007. That same week, Wolfson appeared in his first lead feature story, when Urban Folk put him on the cover along with Soft Black’s Vincent Cacchione.