"Joe Bolf Band"

At age 13 Joe  Bolf was given a saxophone from a cousin.

 

At age 14 he started his first Rock band. After a few months of practicing the band won a talent show and began playing for teenage dances every weekend thru out high school.     

 

Although raised in Pennsylvania, Bolf went on to study music at East Tennessee State University and while there joined a Rock band called "Thee Saints and the Prince of Darkness" who recorded two 45 records that had some success in the South. Bolf was not a Christian at this time.

 

​When the band broke up Bolf was not able to connect with another band and spent five years as a crane operator in a steel mill.

 

Realizing that this was not how he wanted to spend his life he and his wife went touring on a motorcycle searching for a better fit. He found it in a campground in Florida. They had pulled into the campground with enough money to pay for one night and no gas money to leave. The manager offered them a job picking up litter one hour a day for the site.

 

The campground had hired a woodcarver to carve totem poles and he had a shop next to Bolf's campsite. Bolf became fascinated with woodcarving and camped out for two years learning the craft.

 

Moving to Maine in the summer of 1974 Bolf  opened a woodcarving shop and is still open. He and his wife became believers in Jesus the day before they opened the shop for business.

 

Because the small town in central Maine made it difficult to resume playing in a band full time Bolf set in with bands that came into the area for many years.

 

During these years he joined with a female vocalist / pianist and played dinner music. This is when he began to think about joining his two great loves. Music and Woodcarving.

 

He carved a lifesize statue of his music partner which gained international attention in the art world. Unfortunately his music partner moved and nothing came of the project.

 

​He then started a nonprofit hoping to place artwork and music into hospitals. "The National Institute For Hospital Art, Music and Sculpture".

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For this Bolf carved a lifesize sculpture of his nine year old daughter which made the cover of an International woodcarving magazine. A picture of the statue became the album cover of a children's cassette that was supplied free to hospitals that wanted to participate.

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Because of his location Bolf was unable to secure grants so he began staging events for which he could raise sponsors. His events were chainsaw carving at fairs and playing his sax along with prerecorded music that he had written. To add more interest he carved a band of Moose playing different instruments. Joe Bolf and the Moose Band.

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After ten years Bolf realized that he was spending far too much time writing letters and making phone calls in his effort to raise sponsors and made the decision to end his nonprofit.

 

At age 60 Bolf began to form Praise Bands in his local church. There are now three of them.

 

At 65 he formed the Joe Bolf Band with vocalist / bassist Lisa Cantara. They began recording the bible sung to Rock / Blues music that Bolf writes. Album covers are wood panels that he carves.

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In September 2019, at age 73, Bolf realized that he had recorded the New Testament and enough of the Old Testament to present the recordings as an Audio Bible. The first “Audio Bible Sung To Rock Music”.

 

30 albums, 296 songs, 32 hours of music. All on a USB flashdrive.