“We had only been in Oregon a few days,” Wolff said, “Amanda had quit her corporate job a month before. We had both just sold our cars on ebay and decided to make a life of songwriting. The plan was to write meaningful music for the radio-weary ears of the world. We had wind in our blood and wings in our lungs. Then we went hiking.”

The Orphan Trains had hiked for hours, hoping to circle back to the trailhead, even after the trail went completely black.

            “On our way into the park, five hours earlier,” Amanda said, “I had seen a sign that showed a huge picture of a bear. It said: BEWARE OF BEARS. Beside the bear sign was a picture of a Cougar. That one said: BEWARE OF LARGE CATS. Wolff just laughed.”

            Eventually, The Orphan Trains came to a gravel road which ran between two steep and shadowy embankments. A sliver of moon haunted the sky.

            “I started singing,” Amanda said. “My thought was that if we sang, the bears would leave us alone. I had just written a song that morning about a foster child named Jenell who was lost in her life, so to speak. Well, I sang that song.”

Wolff didn’t think singing Jenell was such a great idea.

            “The song is too beautiful,” he said. “I was sure it would draw the bears right over to us. Not only that, it has a very feline-friendly line, a line about how the little girl is really a big fan of jungle cats.”

            The line is When the circus came to town, you rode on an elephant, but in your secret heart, you loved the lion best…

            “I suppose the line is a bit feline-friendly,” Amanda said. “But Wolff didn’t have a better solution. When I finished singing Jenell, he started singing On The Night You Were Born, which, I must admit, is my favorite of his songs. HOWEVER, he howls in that song. He howls like a big ol’ Georgia dog. And we all know that in the dark woods there are creatures that communicate with howls.”

            “I don’t remember seeing one sign that said: BEWARE OF WOLVES,” Wolff said. “Not one.” 

            So, The Orphan Trains compromised and sang their namesake song, a song about two orphans, Alfred and Emma, who are taken from the streets of New York City and sent west on a train, two children lost in the woods of homelessness, poverty and starvation, who, through ferocious perseverance, eventually find their way home.

            “We brought an album out of those woods,” Amanda said. “And we made it home without encountering a single cougar or bear.”

            “They were out there,” Wolff said. “They just laid down in their pine needle beds and listened to our songs. There was no way they could eat us. They were too busy listening.”

            Three months later, THE ORPHAN TRAINS gave birth to their debut album: On The Night You Were Born.

While touring with their new album, The Orphan Trains have dropped in for live performances on radio shows and performed with great singer/songwriters, including folk legend Danny Schmidt. In May, Amanda won 3rd Prize at the SUSQUEHANNA MUSIC FESTIVAL'S SONGWRITING CONTEST. And they’ve been garnering beautiful reviews from Portland to Port St. Lucie, where NPR’s Willi Miller said their music, “Took me way back to the old kind of folk music (Woody Guthrie & Bob Dylan). The music is great! People are going to enjoy this.”

In additon to performing at Festivals, Listening Rooms and more traditional venues, The Orphan Trains have performed at art gallery openings, house concerts & in a nursing home. They have played live on WLRN in Miami, WJBW radio in Stuart, FL and WTTB radio in Vero Beach. Their songs are currently being played at independent radio stations from Miami to Vermont.

Wolff didn’t want any inheritance. He was only seventeen. But, his Great Aunt Charlotte begged him to take his Grandfather’s dog.

“Her name’s Hobo,” Aunt Charlotte said. “But Grandpa called her ‘Bo’ and she likes to sit and listen to a little bit of guitar.”

“But I don’t play the guitar. I don’t even have a guitar.”

“Well, the guitar comes with her.”

“You mean if I take the dog, I also get Grandpa’s guitar?”

“Yes.”

Wolff rode home to Florida with the dog beside him and the guitar in the back seat. A few weeks later, Wolff learned that Bo could sing. Her high-howling, as he calls it, inspired some of his own. And by the time Bo died, Wolff could play a little bit of guitar.