Luke Wade

Overview

Luke Wade describes himself as a pop singer/songwriter with strong Americana influences. He was born April 14, 1983 in the small rural town of Dublin, Texas. He is the youngest of four siblings born to Texas-based artists Bob Stuth-Wade and Wanda Wade. Wade says that growing up a “peculiar person in a peculiar place” gave him a distinct music experience with the sights and sounds of country music, but having out-of-the-box hippy parents made for something truly unique. “I didn’t fit in and so I did a lot of soul searching as a kid, and that molded my song writing experience.” His father is an artist known for his expansive Texas landscapes and his mother is a dancer, painter, yoga instructor, and natural healer. Wade was drawn to music at an early age and began dancing at his mother’s dance studio when he was 2 years old and continued dancing until he was 12. His early memories of musical influences go back to his mother’s dance studio where he listened to old records while cleaning up for his weekly allowance. He says he vividly remembers fashioning a radio antenna out of aluminum foil and a clothes hanger to get a radio signal strong enough to pick up one of his favorite stations, The Edge, out of Dallas/Ft. Worth. While Wade says he lived a simple small town life, he is no stranger to the heartache he writes about in his music. As a teenager, Wade suffered a severe injury after being shot in his right eye with a paintball in May 1997. The injury left him with partial blindness and no depth perception, so he had to quit most of the sports he played at school. In high school, Wade picked up cross country track but suffered a heat stroke his junior year. That incident took him out of all sports in school, so he picked up the guitar and taught himself to play. “I started playing guitar and writing to find the common ground between myself and the people around me. The harder I worked to figure out who I was, the more alone I felt, and music was my way to connect.” But it’s obvious music was what he was meant to pursue. He persevered and began playing cover songs and writing his own music in 2000. He played his first open mic in 2001 and started finding small venues to play live shows in 2003. During his time in college at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas, he formed his first band, Hurt Street. His brother David was also a member of the band. After college, Wade formed Luke Wade and No Civilians, and the band released their first album, “Tomorrows Ghosts,” in 2010. Wade’s second album, “The River,” was released in April 2014 after Wade raised the money for the album through a successful Kickstarter campaign. His third studio full length album, “Only Ghosts,” is expected to be released January 2017. Wade compares his sound to soulful crooners and songwriters like Ray LaMontagne, James Bay, Adele (to a certain extent) and Sam Smith, but a little more distinctly American. While Wade continues to call himself a Texas-based musician, he gained national/international attention on Season 7 of NBC’s reality singing show, “The Voice.” He finished in the top eight with Team Pharrell. Wade has headlined more than a thousand live shows and toured and performed with Train, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Rusted Root, Kris Allen, Casey Abrams, Patti LaBelle, Andy Grammer, MKTO, Train, Daughtry, Blue October, Green River Ordinance, Ingrid Michelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, OAR and David Cook. As the official 2015-16 Komen Artist, he released “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” with Mia Z to benefit Susan G. Komen and the fight against breast cancer. Wade has also performed the halftime show of the Denver Broncos game at Mile High Stadium, AT&T Stadium during the Dallas Cowboy game and performed the National Anthem at Texas Motor Speedway, nationally televised on NBC. He has also been recognized by the City of Fort Worth for his charitable work with Cook Children’s Medical Center.