Quotes
Fresh Word on “David Olney Presents: FILM NOIR”:
“Along with Tom Russell and James McMurtry, David Olney is one of the greatest American story tellers working today.” - 27 Leggies (click to read more)
“Separating the Wheat from the Chaff” - Songs Illinois (click to read more)
Good Reading:
The Best Songwriter You’ve Never Heard Of? - The Los Angeles Times
The Wheel: Liner Notes by Dave Marsh
Interviews:
Houston Press
The Bottom Line
ASCAP Audio Portrait
Reviews:
“A subtle new entry into the Great American/Americana Songbook.” - Dutchman’s Curve: Blogcritics.com
“It’s the songs that count.” - Dutchman’s Curve: Popdose.com
“One Tough Town shows Olney at his lightest. As usual, though, darkness runs through much of the Nashvillian’s work, from the BLUESY RAWNESS of ‘Sweet Poison’ to the biblical gravity of the GOSPEL-FLAVORED ‘See How the Mighty Have Fallen.’ And his version of Townes Van Zandt’s ‘Snake Song’ positively DRIPS WITH MENACE. He has written some audacious, in-character songs over his distinguished four-decade career, but David Olney has perhaps outdone himself with ‘Who’s the Dummy Now?’” - The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Olney Unbound… part Baptist PREACHER, part caustic COMEDIAN, and part existential BLUESMAN…Olney shouted, moaned and howled his SHARPLY OBSERVED HARD-LUCK TALES and quirky character studies. Webb, who looks like he stepped out of a CLINT EASTWOOD spaghetti western, provided A DIZZYING ARRAY of textures, employing unconventional techniques.” - MTV’s Urge.com
“David Olney is PART CLASSIC SHOWMAN AND PART UNCONVENTIONAL EXPERIMENTER…songs like ‘Oh Yeah (Dead Man’s Shoes)’ with its dingy, sinister irreverence and runaway wah-wah trombone are a way for Olney to purge the dark and ugly corners of his imagination.” - Nashville Scene (TN)
“As the title track notes, it’s not just one tough town, but a toughplanet. I saw Olney playing at a festival this spring and thought he looked like a FEDORA-SPORTING, fiftysomething HIGH-SCHOOL PRINCIPAL who’d SUDDENLY GONE BERSERK and was using his acoustic guitar like it was a weapon. Love this crazy guy, LOVE THIS RECORD.” - Rochester (NY) Democrat & Chronicle
“The [One Tough Town] disc captures the essence of his talent: droll songs about the poisonous flip side of love, foreboding train whistles and marauding ventriloquist dummies.” - No Depression
“Few are capable of spinning such colorful and multi-layered yarns with so little excess fat. On this fine new release, Olney spans the gamut from OBSTREPEROUS GLEE to NAKED TERROR. He hits the mark consistently throughout the album.” - American Songwriter Magazine
“…literate precision with a bluesy undercurrent, and a tragic sense of life with a LETHAL SENSE OF HUMOR. While this may be Olney’s bluesiest album to date, it’s also his most PLAYFUL and MUSICALLY EXPANSIVE…”- Amazon.com
“Previously, with his gruff voice and GUTBUCKET ARRANGEMENTS, Olney has recalled the later Tom Waits; on One Tough Town, that comparison remains valid, although one also should mention Leon Redbone as a model. In his songwriting, OLNEY CONTINUES TO DELIGHT in imaginative explorations of historical and invented characters and situations.” - AllMusic.com
“[David] Olney and a cast of veteran Nashville session-aces that included Dave Roe on upright bass and Sergio Webb on lead guitar delivered smokin’ hot roots blues that set an already steaming capacity crowd on fire. Indeed, this was PURE SNAKE-HANDLIN’ SHAKE THE DEVIL FROM YOUR SOULD ROCK ‘N’ ROLL and Olney had the crowd…hypnotized. To be sure, when watching Olney’s UBER-COOL LIVE SHOW, one can’t help but feel sorry for the Rolling Stones.” RIYL: Ralph Stanley, JJ Cale, Eric Clapton. - Vincent Wynne, Listen!Nashville.com review of 6/15 show
“What’s that word for when there’s only one product provider? A monopoly. DAVID OLNEY HAS A MONOPOLY. He pretty much is a monopoly. There’s only one of him, and thus far nobody has been able to cop his riffs. He often writes songs through characters, with the narrative inhabiting the characters and also usually revealing something of himself. Sometimes that something is heartbreaking, sometimes funny, sometimes other stuff.” - The Tennessean (Nashville, TN)
“Olney delightfully straddles the white picket fence of SOUTHERN REFRIED HONKY-TONK (with a fat-fingered touch of oompah band) and at-the-crossroads delta blues, crafting neat, to-the-point country-folk tunes.” - Hartford (CT) Courant
“[Olney's] songwriting consists of fairly ELABORATE STORIES GUSSIED UP with choruses SO THAT PEOPLE CAN SING ALONG. For David Olney, the written word is sacrosanct.” - Songs: Illinois Blogger Craig Bonnell
“Anyone who mistakenly equates ‘singer-songwriter’ with bland, pretty guitar strumming will quickly be disabused of that notion… The music’s deep-fried in backroads blues, jazz, country and rock Œn’ roll, while Olney’s MERCILESSLY SHARP, INTELLIGENT LYRICS take dead aim at deception and hypocrisy of all stripes and hit the bullseye.” - Pasadena (CA) Weekly
“Anyone interested in the true art of songwriting has an incomplete view without awareness of David Olney’s work. His songs rivet you even as they startle and amaze, illuminating and enriching one’s life.” - Sing Out! Magazine
“… the mysteries of God and transcendence, rumors of miracle. It’s something Olney, a native New Englander, loves about the South — the obsessive drama of religion and redemption.” - The Tennessean (Nashville, TN
“Writing from the point of view of historical characters has become one of Mr. Olney’s most distinguishing talents, whether he’s singing from the mind of a donkey that carried Jesus or imagining Jesse James’s last bragging words before being shot by Robert Ford…”
“But he stresses: ‘Anyone who sits down to write a heavy song is a jerk. It’s more like paleontology, when you find a bone of a song sticking up and do everything you can to get the rest of it out without breaking it.’” - New York Times
“David Olney consistently spins spectacular stories in song. David Olney is astounding … gave one of the most magnificent solo acoustic shows I have seen and that includes concerts by Bruce Springsteen, Guy Clark or anyone else you’d care to name. He can break your heart but he can also chill your spine … and when the night ended … we had long since crossed the border that separates the great from the merely very good, the masters from the worthy apprentices. David Olney is as good as it gets. Period.” - Fort Worth Star Telegram
The Wheel: Puremusic.com
The Wheel: Country Standard Time
The Wheel: The Miami Herald
The Wheel: Nashville Rage
The Wheel: Philadephia Inquirer
The Wheel: Soundcheck
The Wheel: 3rd Coast Music
The Wheel: USA Today
