David Paul Christman: I am a Hoosier, born in Michigan City and living most of my adult life in Bloomington. In the late 1990s, while traveling often to the Big Island of Hawai'i for work, I learned to play the ukulele and slack-key guitar. I created the band/alter-ego Haole Wolf as a midwife to the many sad, silly and sentimental songs I seem to need to write to remain sane. Haole is the Hawaiian term for caucasian (sometimes used in derogatory fashion; perfect for a blues name) and wolves once roamed wild in Indiana, so the name seemed to span ocean and forest, past and present. Howlin' Wolf, was, of course a kick-ass blues player from Chicago who could tear up the guitar and microphone (and sang one of my favorite songs: "Built For Comfort") ... so Haole Wolf seemed perfect for a  crazy silly ukulele blues imaginary song-writing ghost singer.

I write a lot of songs, record in the DIY Lo-Fi high style and perform occasionally, mostly at house parties (often when the stereo shorts out and the show must "go on" using a four-stringed kid's guitar in the back closet). Sometimes I make up songs on the spot, which, let me tell you, is always a good time. I write music for the sheer joy of creation and every time I sing a song I wrote, it feels both like a re-creation and recreation.

You can search Haole Wolf on the Google and find many, many (many, many) songs. The ones here on MFT celebrate Hoosierdumdittydom -- with songs from a childhood up near Lake Michigan and a muchoftherestofmylifehood closer to the Ohio and Wabash rivers, in the hometown of Hoagy Carmichael, down the road from the childhood home of Cole Porter.