With a soft spoken voice emanating shyness she speaks to me before and after her set. With a haunting voice layered with sadness and honesty she sings to us during it. Chelsea Wolfe takes the stage and the notes that flow from her vocal chords captivate everyone present, and a silence falls throughout the venue. Her voice and the notes she plucks on her guitar bounce of the walls and her words cement themselves deep inside you somehow. It is not the sound of one who cannot face reality and the weight upon a heart that life may bring. It is the sound of one who is letting go every time she takes the stage.

Wolfe admits, “Sometimes things just haunt me until I write about them.” All attention is focused on her set, and it is blatantly obvious that those captivated can relate in some way or another to her melancholy chords strummed in a minor key.

“The strange balance of beauty and sadness in life has always been really clear to me,” Wolfe explains. When asked how her fans have reacted to her evocative lyrics she replies: “With understanding.”

It is this search for understanding and meaning that perhaps brings everyone here tonight to surround Chelsea and witness what she explains to be the product of writing when “really overwhelmed. Some songs are personal but some of them are about people I’ve never met or things I have yet to see or feel.”

She starts off her set with the song “The Way We Used To,” a song in which Chelsea sings acapella. Even without the notes of an acoustic guitar and the ambiance that the slide guitar creates, she showcases her ability to harmonize and loop her vocals on the spot and everyone is immediately drawn in. Her ability to feel empathy and be utterly honest is felt in her song “Gold.” She sings: “Mistakes our fathers made/will always be the same that we make.” This honesty is felt throughout the night and it is for most this quality that Chelsea possesses that draws and attracts those that appreciate an artist staying true to life.

“I remember listening to Jewel’s first album when it came out,” she explains, “the lyrics were so honest, I remember thinking to myself that that was the right way to make art. In the most honest way.”