Unlike a lot of contestants on The Voice, NBC’s vocal talent show, Luke Wade wasn’t looking to get a record deal out of the experience. He had already released his sophomore album, The River, the spring before he successfully navigated the competition’s audition process and secured a spot on Pharrell Williams’ team until his eventual elimination in the program’s seventh season.
Wade’s consolation prize was the broad exposure he’d received on The Voice, which translated to an exponential increase in his core audience and a significant spike in interest regarding The River. Critical comparisons between Wade and singer/song-writers like Ray LaMontagne, Van Morrison and Glen Hansard were completely justified, as Wade’s mournful rasp and earnestly heartfelt songwriting style placed him firmly in their hallowed company.
Wade’s talent may have been his foot in the door for The Voice, but his story had the kind of compelling drama that viewers relate to and love. He grew up in a tiny town in Texas and nearly died from a bout of spinal meningitis as a child. Later, an errant paintball shot blinded him in one eye, making his blossoming dance career a good deal more difficult (his mother had a dance studio), and so he turned to music, learning to play guitar and write songs. A subsequent serious heatstroke resulted in amnesia and a miraculously temporary brain injury, but Wade weathered that storm as well; rather than concentrating on the dark possibilities that might have occurred, he chose to see the hopeful aspects of his life’s twists and turns.
As a result, Wade’s songs exhibit both the resilience of the human spirit and the vulnerability of someone who has been close enough to the edge to cast a glance into the abyss. Throw in his gift for storytelling and an irresistibly soulful delivery, and Wade seems like a singer/songwriter that was deliberately crafted for maximum emotional impact. Thankfully, no such deliberation exists in Wade’s work, just the natural, organic output of a massively talented artist.
This article appears in Jan 20-27, 2016.