Olav Larsen: What's New?

Someone told me they discovered our YouTube blog "Songs we wish were ours" on a blog community called the Metafilter Blog. I checked it out, and as very often in these kind of blogs they end up in a never ending beautiful discussion about something someone though they heard me say:

http://www.metafilter.com/73551/Songs-we-wish-were-ours

We just came back from a fantastic weekend at the Risør Bluegrass Festival. Pictures below were captured by Mr Tom Larsen:

It has been a while folks! We've been busy touring our new album. It's been, believe it or not, 8 months since episode 4. Now we're back!
"I Saw the Light" is a 1948 Gospel tune written and first performed by the late great Monsieur Hank Williams, a true genius both as a songwriter and a performer.
I sure wish the song was ours!!! Great song with quite some poetic lines here and there. Hope you like it!

What everyone is calling "The death of the music industry" has really had some positive side effects on me, and probably on many other music lovers out there.

To make a very long story very short I've discovered a lot of music I'd never even get the chance to hear about hadn't it been for this thing called the internet. Yes, that same thing that killed the industry!

Through MySpace, CDbaby, Amazon and of course numerous music blogs I've discovered things so beautiful and true, words are powerless in trying to describe.

Let me present for you some of the fantastic artists I've got to know over the years (click on picture to listen to a song/sample):

Danny Schmidt



Elvis Perkins


Richard McGraw


Tom House


Sam Baker

This is like a dream come true for me. Tom House, one of my favorite poets/songwriters has agreed to write some lyrics for me for my next album.
Most probably it will end up being as Tom put it "a relationship song".



Tom House is a Nashville-based poet and singer-songwriter who has received worldwide attention for his unique recordings and performances. An independent cassette—Inside These Walls—and CD's on the Checkered Past label—The Neighborhood is Changing and This White Man's Burden—received critical acclaim and have placed him securely in the new fringe genre "Americana." Newer releases on Catamount Records— Til You've Seen Mine, Jesus Doesn't Live Here Anymore, and Long Time Home From Here—continue to receive praise and acknowledgement. Tom also serves as the long-time driving spirit behind the Working Stiffs Jambouree, a Nashville institution that features eclectic, non-mainstream talent.

Tom has had over 400 poems published nationally and internationally; his poems have been translated into Italian, German, French, and Japanese. Earliest publications include the Southern Poetry Review, the Duke Archive, and the St. Andrew's Review. Later work found its place with Road House Press and magazines like Bogg, Nausea, and Poetry Motel. In 1996, The Tennessee Bi-Centennial Anthology feautured three of Tom's poems.

Lillian Hodne will be joining the band on fiddle* on a regular basis. She's got good ears and makes us sound better even when we don't sound good.



Please welcome her with open arms!

*The term fiddle refers to a violin; it is a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music. Fiddle playing, or fiddling, is a style of music.

We were asked by Mr Christer Falck to record a song for his upcoming Prince tribute Shockadelica (OUT IN STORES 02.06.2008). Our choice landed on the sexy "Slow Love" from the album Sign "O" Times.



Pictures from the recording session have now been uploaded:

The recording session went fine. Got to record five or six songs. They may or may not be a part of my next album....

On Friday the 11th of April The Alabama Rodeo Stars played The Only One Pub in Klepp. It is the only pub in Klepp and the place was packed! Sold out!!!



As the pictures suggest we had a lot of fun! The crowd was perfect! Singing, clapping and stomping a-long to both old and new songs! We are looking forward to coming back again!

We just came back from Scotland after having played four fantastic shows! A big thanks to Mr Loudon Temple at Brookfield Knights for making us feel like superstars! See pictures from the tour in the photo gallery!

This is our new web page! Thanks for passing by!
Feel free to listen to all of our released and some never before available music.
We have also put some free music on the site, and for a limited time you can even download for free our out of print EP "Gospel & Drinking Songs" in high quality Mp3.



This web page is made in a way that makes it much easier for me to update and blog as much as I like without having a specialist to help me out.
Take the tour and enjoy! Don't forget to come back for more news, tour dates, new video blogs and new music.
Join our mailing list or/and leave a note in the guestbook


Thanks,
Olav Larsen