THIS SIDE OR THE OTHER
Black Hen Music, Release Date:
August 24, 2018
David Olney’s New Album Examines The Shadowy Situations Up And Around
Walls, Over Borders and Asks For Open Hearts
Nashville, TN – One
listen to the brand-new album, “This Side or The Other,” and you’ll know David
Olney is a man familiar with the wandering life and yearning heart of a poet.
After more than 30 years in music, he’s had as many incarnations as you can imagine.
His resume has expanded to include acting, poetry and a popular weekly stream
cast. All of this adds to Olney’s strength as a songwriter’s songwriter, and
one of Nashville’s founding fathers of Americana music.
While “This Side or
The Other” is not a concept album, there are some recurring themes. The
frequent reference to walls in these songs – walls being built and tumbling
down – will suggest that while Olney has encountered more than his own share of
walls, he is still trying his best to understand them.
“I wanted to
explore the idea of walls,” says Olney, “What does a wall mean? What does it
mean to be an immigrant who comes upon that wall as a wanderer, someone lost
and alone?”
A wall in a song
can be the symbolic blockage from one place to another or the flat finality of
something coming to an end. In life as in art, Olney has scaled walls and torn
them down. Yet, it’s not his own path he is particularly interested in
exploring. David Olney has always been an observer, a student, and writer of
life for as long as he could hold a pen.
“I’m not
comfortable writing about my own dirty laundry,” says Olney, “It’s better for
me to look at characters and what they might be going through. When I write
about the heavy stuff of life, it’s usually while I’m in someone else’s
shoes.”
“This Side or The
Other” contains solid musicianship as good as anything Nashville has to offer,
and a stark, moody production by Juno Award-winning producer Steve
Dawson.
“I look for a
producer I can be relaxed around," Olney says, “And I really wanted to
work with Steve on this record. And while I knew he was a good producer, I had
no idea what a terrific musician he was until I had him play guitar on ‘Death
Will Not Divide Us.’ He did a beautiful job.”
The other musicians
on “This Side or The Other” are Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Charlie
McCoy, The McCrary Sisters, Fats Kaplin, Anne McCue and Olney’s regular band:
Daniel Seymour on bass, Ward Stout on fiddle and Justin Amaral on
drums.
The ten songs on
“This Side or The Other” have been compiled from new and old writings, as well
as a few collaborations with friends. Olney says he enjoys collaborating.
“Annie McCue and John Hadley cowrote the title song, ‘This Side or The Other’
with me. It’s currently my favorite song.”
In “Stand Tall,” a
song Olney’s been writing on-and-off for 25 years, he admits “I’m never going
to change the way I am” – a sentiment that will gratify his longtime fans from
all over the world, who like him just the way he is and only want more of the
same.
“Breaking out of
your comfort zone,” admits Olney, “can lead to certain encounters with banana
peels, but that’s the chance you have to take to get songs and performances
with a certain edge. I tend to stay on the margin of the page. I’m always
looking for that ‘otherness,’ staying a bit off center.”
The sweetest song
on the album, a plaintive love song called “Open Your Heart (And Let Me In),”
is one-part plea and one part indictment of a would-be lover who’s missing the
chance for real love.
Olney’s last track
is a rootsy cover of The Zombies’ 1965 hit, “She’s Not There.” It’s a delicious
reminder that everything David Olney touches gets infused with a rare blend of
dark chocolate. Despite it being the cover of a popular song, we hear words
we’ve never heard in the same way before.
But David Olney
knows words. He knows what they can do, and when paired with a bitter/sweet
melody, they can take on a life of their own.
And maybe they can
even tear down walls.
David Olney Tour Dates:
June
22
Moccasin Creek Festival
Effingham, IL
June
23
Lettersong Gallery
Louisville, KY
June
24
Players Pub
Bloomington, IN
June
30
Private Event
Mt. Juliet, TN
Aug. 17
Pearl Street Warehouse
Washington, D.C.
Aug. 18
Empire State Railway Museum
Phoenicia, NY
Sept. 15
AmericanaFest hatWRKS Happenin’
Nashville, TN
Sept. 20
EOP: Red Clay Music Foundry
Duluth, GA
Oct. 12
Musiekpodium Bakkeveen
Bakkeveen - The Netherlands
Oct. 13
In The Woods Lage
Vuursche - The Netherlands
Oct. 14
Foundation Museum & Sculpture Garden Grootschermer – The Netherlands
Oct. 16
Folk in de
Walden
Oentsjerk – The Netherlands
Oct. 17
Sociëteit Engels
The Hague – The Netherlands
Oct. 19
Jozef Theather
Volendam – The Netherlands
Oct. 20
Ramblin’ Roots Festival
Utrecht – The Netherlands
Oct. 21
De Oude Veiling
Aalsmeer – The Netherlands
Oct. 22
Meneer Frits
Eindhoven – The Netherlands
Oct. 23
De Schalm
Westwoud – The Netherlands
