About Wade Alan
Wade Alan is a folk/rock singer/songwriter/producer who was born in Baton Rouge Louisiana, raised on the plains of New Jersey. He currently lives in Monroe Township New Jersey with his wife Lois. Wade comes from a musical family and has been around music his whole life. His first instrument was violin which he played up until he graduated from high school.
After high school he moved to Houston, Texas for work. Inspired by Neil Young's "My My Hey Hey" Wade purchased his first guitar, a blond Hondo acoustic, from a pawn shop in Houston. It wasn’t a very good guitar but it looked good. Neil Young would become a major influence on Wade's early music, and to this day still covers some of Neil’s music.
After a year in Houston, Wade moved back to New Jersey, working the graveyard shift as a computer operator, and on his guitar skills during the day. Soon after returning home, he wrote his first song “Love's Time” with a friend, Gary Price, Encouraged by the reception of "Love's Time" by friends and family, Wade continued to write more songs.
1980 was a turning point for Wade. He started a band, but didn’t have much success – the music business was difficult to break into back then. Later that same year he met his future wife Lois and wrote his first love song for her, “The Little Boy And Girl”. When things started getting serious with Lois he decided to put music aside and go to college to study computer science.
After receiving an associates degree in Computer Science, Wade got a job at AT&T Bell Labs (now Lucent/Avaya). While making gains in his professional career, Wade still wrote songs for friends and family, and sang at weddings, but focused most of his attention on raising three kids with Lois. In 2005, a round of layoffs at Avaya woke Wade up to the fact that he was in an all work and no play (pun intended) mind set. He hadn’t been writing songs for years, and at that point made a commitment to write a song a month for the next year. During those twelve months Wade wrote sixteen songs and rediscovered his love for music.
In 2014 Wade realized two of his musical goals: He built his own recording studio in his home, and he wrote, produced and performed all the instruments and vocals on an album. The result was Wade’s first album “Find My Way” which was released in 2016.
The home studio allowed Wade to fulfill another musical goal, to become a producer and work with other singer/songwriters on recording and producing their albums. To date Wade has successfully produced the following albums:
2017 Christine Roberts - He Changed Me
2019 Jim Arkus - Been Downhill Since Then
2019 Christine Roberts - Steady My Love (single)
2019 Christine Roberts - Forgiveness
Working with multiple artist in 2019 and 2020 Wade was able to release several of his own singles. “The Same” was written in 2017 as a response to the political unrest that was, and is, still going on in this country. Wade release two wedding songs in 2019, “Off The Hookah,” for a friend, and “You’re In Love,” for is daughter Caitlyn. In 2020 Wade released “It’s Christmas Time”, his first Christmas song, and collaborated with his brother Patrick Prestridge on the single “A God Of My Understanding,” which was inspired by Patrick’s recovery from alcohol addiction.
Wade’s latest single, “Pray For Our Country”, was written in November 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the continued political unrest in America. Wade originally released the song on YouTube, but has now officially released it as a single.
On December 31st, 2020 Wade and Lois’ world was turned upside down. A mass was found on Wade’s left kidney and he was diagnosed with stage three kidney cancer in January 2021. Long story short Wade was treated at Fox Chase Cancer Center with immunotherapy and surgery and is cancer free at this time.
Wade has retired from his day job and is now focusing on family and music.
