About Us
how it all started
HEARTFELT. HAUNTING. HILARIOUS.
WE HOPE OUR SONGS HELP YOU FILL The POTHOLES IN LIFE'S ROCKY ROAD.
Sharon Wolfe was born to write, pounding out thousands of newspaper stories until 2009. Sharon's first "song slam" hit her in 2015 while riding in a car. She grabbed a notebook to catch the words swirling around in the air. A mutual acquaintance spotted potential in Sharon's songs and introduced her to people sharing a passion to create fresh takes on life's stubborn stale hardships. Between day jobs in construction, accounting, day care & HVAC, they carved out time to craft songs with grit, gut & grace.
Meet the team
Sharon Wolfe
Co-owner of Not So Alone Publishing, LLC,
Lead writer, & lead music business coordinator
Sharon grew up on a farm, the oldest of five. Her career at a newspaper from 1973 to 2009 mostly was as night beat reporter covering spot news & the police beat. But writers have to write something.
Wolfe is a lifelong volunteer in a small town near Bloomington-Normal & an avid old house fixer-upper...on her 5th & probably last one. She has one grown daughter who lives out of state.
Lora Gates
Co-owner of Not So Alone Publishing, LLC,
Vocals, lyrics, co-producer, business assistant
Lora is lead vocalist, a song writer & co-producer on all songs. Lora is number five of seven children, & herself a mother of three. She works in her family's HVAC business & fills in for her brother Nathan's gospel bluegrass band New Legacy. Lora is also a nanny & karaoke DJ. She grew up singing with her family & living out of a tour bus. Lora lived inside each line of every song we wrote.
Stacie ShawbacK
lyrics
Stacie is lead singer in the rollicking Blo-No Boogie Band. They play Motown, blues & classic rock.
Shawback & Gates worked with Wolfe reworking dozens of songs in scattered sessions over two years. Shawback came up with vastly better song names & numerous lyrics that took Sharon's orginal songs to better bolder places.
Erik Nelson
Rest in peace
Engineer, lead producer, lyrics, music business & marketing coach
Erik died Aug. 2, 2026 of pancreatic cancer. He was only 57. The Grammy nominated producer, engineer & owner of Eclipse Studios was Nashville quality at Normal (Illinois) prices. His studio was in a nondescript industrial park in north Normal.
But there was nothing ordinary about what happened when Erik pounced on our songs & took them beyond next level not only with his music magic. He was also utterly on fire creating improv lyrics, especially on the chorus of our song "Stayin' Outta Taverns...Keepin' Outta Trouble."
Chris Hays
Vocals, lyrics
Owner of Hays Construction & Remodeling, a small family owned business he started after high school in 1989. Chris is a natural behind the mic at karaoke, but the Taverns & CEO songs were his first time in a music studio. Both songs involved only two takes each in studio.
Hays was jaw drop good at lyrics changes in studio with the 2 songs. He put in a full day at construction before studio in the afternoon.
Not So Alone Wolf Publishing is way beyond grateful & thrilled with Cosnyd for their utterly extraordinary customer service in securing our copyrights in 2020.
GIve us a listen
Songs available for licensing and placements
