Ring My Ollabelle

Today, I want to tell you all about a New York based band called Ollabelle. The quintet features musicians from varied musical backgrounds and it shows clearly on their sophomore release, Riverside Battle Songs. Ollabelle is named after the great Ola Belle Reed, and much of their music seems influenced by the rural songstress. Ollabelle's style is a fusion of gospel, bluegrass, folk, and rock, feature multiple-part harmonies to boot.

According to Ollabelle, Riverside Battle Songs contains "an undercurrent of reckoning with loss and adversity....They're all battle songs. Life isn't easy, and the good things in life are truly worth fighting for. The tricky part is that these big battles happen within every person, not across the street or across the ocean. At the end of the day, we will all wind up by that river and will have to reckon with our own truths. And I think the title of the album reflects an admiration for those people that have had the courage to write and sing about those truths." (www.ollabelle.net).

It's truly a record of which to be proud. It's a marvelous reinterpretation of old gospel melodies ("Riverside") but the record also maintains a sense of innovation and originality that can only stem from a group concentrated on making great music. "See Line Woman" has this funky, 'bluegrassy' feel that beautifully starts off the record, while its strength is carried through by tracks like "Reach For Love" and "Fall Back". I've been listening to the album since it arrived in the mail and I haven't stopped.
Check out the album.

Listen to "See Line Woman".

Listen to "Fall Back".