Olga, Cody Dickinson, Winn McElroy, Cedric Burnside, Garry Burnside, Jimbo Mathus, Justin Showah and a mix-n-match of musicians sometimes...oh, and also my Italian band, Papa Leg!
I usually play solo electric guitar...washboard, fiddle and getting back into piano. I have a mini drum kit so I am learning drums too...
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"...if Olga is closest to anyone, it is the flame-haired genius Bonnie Raitt, and she is not over-flattered or over-hyped by being name-checked with Raitt."
-Maverick Country Magazine
Influences
These are the people I listen to when I need inspiration or for the hell of it!
los lobos, grateful dead, maria muldaur, jessie mae hemphill, peggy lee, junior kimbrough, robert pete williams, jimbo mathus, michael franti, calvin cooke, memphis minnie, jerome garcia
"Olga is truly a jewel of an artist. An Austrian girl turned country blues musician, she keeps the flame burning from a new angle. "
http://twitter.com/olgawankenobi
If you don’t already know Olga, just listen to her music—and you will.
As this lithe, willowy woman settles into her guitar, the throaty voice that pours out of her takes you by surprise, transporting you to the easy rhythm of a sultry New Orleans afternoon. Gritty and honest, soulful and stirring, Olga sings about love and loss, relationships and the road ahead.
Fans all over the world will tell you that Olga’s songs have an undeniable authenticity to them, stemming from inspiration drawn from her own life—a journey steeped in music, and the blues. Olga spent years honing her sound in the hill country of northern Mississippi, with friends and mentors like Los Lobos (her “favorite band, and people!”) and blues legend Jessie Mae Hemphill helping shape her musical trajectory.
Born and raised in San Francisco, Olga was classically trained in music as a child. Her parents, who moved stateside from Innsbruck, Austria, encouraged her as she began writing songs on the piano at the age of five. In high school, Jimi Hendrix provided her first taste of the blues.
“I began music very early, and started writing songs very young,” she recalls. “I got into the ‘business’ side of things through a chance meeting with a record archivist at a Grateful Dead show in my late teens. He introduced me to Los Lobos and Maria Muldaur, and I apprenticed with Maria soon thereafter. Los Lobos ‘adopted’ me, and let me hang out and observe how they did things. I often sat on the stage during their shows.”
The guitar she received for Christmas in her early twenties sealed her fate. By that time she was living in Colorado and working as a radio disk-jockey. It was during this period that she discovered Jessie Mae Hemphill’s records.
“At that point, I knew I had to move south, as my real journey was only beginning,” Olga remembers.
New Orleans and, later, Mississippi, offered the rich musical climate she craved. Olga looked up Jessie Mae Hemphill in Mississippi, and paid her a visit. The two artists soon discovered, among other things, that they shared the same birthday.
“Jessie Mae and I immediately felt a kinship for one another when we met,” she says. “She told me that first day that she thought Jesus sent me to her.”
While Olga’s been likened to greats such as Bonnie Raitt, Janis Joplin, and Sheryl Crow, the truth is she’s carved out a sound that’s entirely her own. Her current album, Little Is Known, has an upbeat pop flavor, with bluesy undertones.
“The songs on this album are rooted in the truth as I know it in my life, rooted in the blues,” Olga explains, “but we changed the sound, so a broader audience can experience them—hopefully in a positive way.”
The drums were a key component in shaping the sound of Little Is Known—a record about leaving the past behind and starting over. Olga asked her friend Cody Dickinson, drummer for the Grammy-nominated North Mississippi Allstars, to lay down the drums for her. Dickinson, also an accomplished guitar player, songwriter, and producer, agreed—and soon took over the lion’s share of the instrumentation, which he paired with Olga’s melodies and lyrics. Producer and engineer Winn McElroy “took everything and made it sound good!” Olga laughs. Little Is Known was recorded at Black Wings Studio in Water Valley, Mississippi.
“This record has been a process of finding my soul again, and reminding myself of what I need to do with my life,” she says. “It really took on a life of its own, quite naturally and unexpectedly, and I’m thrilled with where it has led me.”
Olga has three previous albums under her belt: Now Is The Time, Kiss Your Blues Away, and Blues Babe. All three albums elicited overwhelmingly positive reviews. Olga has shared the stage with talent such as Chris Isaak, DJ Logic, Johnny Neel of the Allman Brothers, Coco Robicheaux, Robert Randolph, Los Lobos, North Mississippi Allstars, Papa Mali, JJ Grey & Mofro, Hobex, Jimbo Mathus, Maria Muldaur, The Lee Boys, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Jim Dickinson, and Matt Abts of Gov't Mule. Olga has also performed with the Papa Leg Acoustic Duo in Italy for the past three years.
When she’s not performing, Olga juggles a host of other endeavors. She participated in a Martin Scorsese documentary on the blues, co-produced Jessie Mae Hemphill’s album Dare You To Do It Again, along with a film about Jessie Mae, who passed away in 2006. Additionally, Olga co-engineered Elvis Costello's Grammy nominated song, "Monkey to Man," in 2005. She founded the Jessie Mae Hemphill Foundation in 2003, whose mission is to honor Jessie Mae’s memory by archiving music indigenous to the northern Mississippi region, as a means of preserving it for future generations. Any free time Olga can nail down is devoted to making repairs to her family’s New Orleans home, which was damaged in Hurricane Katrina.
Olga’s music continues to evolve and push her to new creative heights, but always with a Southern twist, a veritable tip-of-the-hat to her blues roots.
“Music has been a journey for me, one that I continue to learn from,” she says. “I have been blessed to experience many things throughout my life, often with intensity. You have to take the good with the bad, and then learn to just let it all go.”
And as she begins to sing, you just can’t help but groove to her beat.
Discography:
Blues Babe (2004)
Kiss Your Blues Away (2005)
Now Is The Time (2006)
"Olga matches her hypnotic guitar work with sexy alto singing that suggests Janis Joplin had she grown up in Mississippi hill country."
-Bill Ellis
Commercial Appeal, Memphis TN
"The simplicity and immediacy of Olga's music, setting herself out with passion and humblenessan artist that has developed her own way to move and captivate us with her bittersweet blues."
-Matteo Bossi
Il Blues Magazine, Italy
"Here the singer shines without question, nailing the tune the way few others could. It's a voice that doesn't need multiple octaves or one hand reaching to the sky to hit the listener's gut!"
-Jason MacNeil
AllMusicGuide.com
"Olga's soulful pillowy voice can freeze an audience in their seats."
Hi olga! lovely picture. we have been on tour most of the month. i still haven't done that synth track. things have been more hectic than usual. how are you? in new orleans?
Want to come hang with a bunch of really creative people ? We started a new community and it's hoppin already, called http://inmusic.yuku.com >Artist Isles, come check it out, for artists and listeners, music lovers of all kinds. Hope to see you. It's a lot less detached than these social networking sites if you want to get involved with rockin music people. and you can promote too if you wish.
