00:00:00 - 00:00:03 Ric Stewart

Well, we're back at Soul Country with Olivia Wolf. Welcome.

00:00:03 - 00:00:04 Olivia Wolf

Thanks so much for having me.

00:00:50 - 00:01:00 Ric Stewart

Hard edge country songs and nimble stylings grabbed my ears at Tennessee's oldest bar. It was western song slinger Olivia Wolfe, soul country number 12.

00:01:01 - 00:01:29 Ric Stewart

I'm Ric Stewart, a film making deejay since the mid 80s, adding some real life podcasts to get deeper into soul country. Good god Where we corral Americana with a groove curated for classic rock and soul listening as we revitalize our cultural roots in Westerns, blues and variety. Now, a word from our sponsor. Contact Ace Production for digital marketing, content strategy, production for your social media to drive news, sales and engagement.

00:01:29 - 00:01:40 Ric Stewart

If you need original and effective content, contact ace. Well, Olivia picked up a guitar and held forth on her latest release. Silver rounds. Here's how it all went down.

00:01:40 - 00:01:59 Olivia Wolf

You know, it's funny, the older I get, the more musicians I realize have been in my line. My grandpa and all his brothers, there were seven boys. They all played instruments together. And, our Uncle Arthur used to come down and play piano for us when we were kids, and, you know, so I grew up around it.

00:01:59 - 00:02:06 Olivia Wolf

Honestly, I mostly grew up around listening to, you know, my mom love Tom Waits. My dad loved Lucinda Williams.

00:02:06 - 00:02:10 Ric Stewart

So the family, though, was a historically from Appalachia. How do you sort of connect with it?

00:02:10 - 00:02:36 Olivia Wolf

No. So we, you know, are pretty much a pretty Californian through and through. But, you know, my so my grandpa picking up the banjo and then he played in his bluegrass band, the Wranglers. But I also felt like, I heard the O brother, where Art thou soundtrack as I'm, I think someone was telling me they're doing a historical study on the O brother, where art thou?

00:02:36 - 00:03:00 Olivia Wolf

Just, its, influence on American music. Because I feel like it really changed the fabric of American music personally, in a way that allowed this old timey, beautiful songs to come back with this incredible story. You know, of these three men traveling to find the treasure. And, I really connected with that music, like “Big Rock Candy Mountain” just spoke to me.

00:03:00 - 00:03:26 Olivia Wolf

And then after hearing that album, I found Doc Watson, and I heard him playing, sitting on top of the world, and I was like, I want to play that song. And, and then my, sibling Avery, we used to have a little bluegrass band together, and, she found the CD called Q songs of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

00:03:26 - 00:03:57 Olivia Wolf

So our first little bluegrass band we had together, we pulled a couple tracks off of there, like, corn bread and butter beans. And this world can't stand long, and we. Yeah. Basically just took those took those songs and played them. And I just there's something about that Appalachian music to me that just feels so close to the earth and rawness and reality and, you know, people in Appalachia, especially back in the day and still on some of these days, you know, it's not easy living.

00:03:57 - 00:04:02 Olivia Wolf

You gotta work for everything you get. You gotta, you know, not everybody makes it do 100, although a.

00:04:02 - 00:04:06 Olivia Wolf

Lot of them do.

00:04:06 - 00:04:08 Unknown

I, with my many.

00:04:08 - 00:04:21 Olivia Wolf

Happy just by the age of ten. And I did, working on the living room one for the hot.

00:04:21 - 00:04:28 Olivia Wolf

Walk on old walking on down to go.

00:04:28 - 00:04:35 Olivia Wolf

Pay no money. And so I would. You don't wanna help you, carry you.

00:04:35 - 00:04:58 Olivia Wolf

I ended up going to high school in Virginia and, one of my girlfriends made me a burn CD of all country music. The first song was jerks that Knew what was I thinking? The second one was Trisha Yearwood. Exes Knows, and I was just like, what is this sound? You know, I'd come from California, didn't have country the way that, you know, the South does.

00:04:58 - 00:05:23 Olivia Wolf

And so I heard those and I was like, I love this. And then it's like Tim McGraw and yeah, Trisha Yearwood is fantastic. And then I heard Miranda Lambert, Gunpowder and Lead and it was like, yeah, she's not afraid to express herself and be who she is. And like, I feel like country is a specific genre where you can really tell the truth.

00:05:23 - 00:05:32 Olivia Wolf

Country is about more real stories and true stories, and getting people to walk through those stories with you when you song right the right way.

00:05:32 - 00:05:45 Ric Stewart

So yeah, let's talk a little bit about a brother. Where art thou? So, you know, we've only done about a dozen episodes. One of them was with Chris Thomas King. So he's, he plays the role of, Tommy Johnson. He's just like, he's not Robert Johnson. They had, like, somewhat similar lives.

00:05:45 - 00:05:51 Olivia Wolf

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's not Robert Johnson, but they picked him up at the crossroads where he met the devil. So he met.

00:05:51 - 00:05:58 Ric Stewart

They they conflated a couple of blues legendary stories. Yeah. And you said you had spent some time on the Robert Johnson, songs looking at that.

00:05:59 - 00:06:11 Olivia Wolf

I just he's so cool. And it's, you know, I wish I could go away for a year and become the most magical guitar player of all time. But I've been working about 5 or 6 years on this,

00:06:11 - 00:06:13 Ric Stewart

Particularly a little wood shedding, a.

00:06:13 - 00:06:14 Olivia Wolf

Little wood shedding. Yeah.

00:06:14 - 00:06:19 Ric Stewart

For sure. What's the best advice you've received from other musicians.

00:06:19 - 00:06:39 Olivia Wolf

That it is all right to suck? You got to go play to the empty room. You got to go do all that basic level stuff that seems really boring and awful and terrible. But if you can't go play to the empty room, you're not going to be able to play to the full room.

00:06:55 - 00:07:00 Ric Stewart

Your new album. Let's talk about that. Silver Rounds. How did you come up with the title and the collection of songs?

00:07:00 - 00:07:28 Olivia Wolf

Also, the Silver Rounds, is a song about revenge, and I wrote it on a 17 hour car trip, from Vermont to Tennessee. We're like, yeah, we're going to drive this in a day because we're crazy. And, the lyrics just kind of fell into my head of silver around drop down, and I wrote out some more stuff on my little notes and my phone, and then, I brought it to my girlfriend, Rochelle Ely, and we.

00:07:28 - 00:07:47 Olivia Wolf

I was like, I've got the silver announcing. And here's some of the lines I, I want to do Crimson and all this stuff. And so we sat down on my front porch. She was, 5 or 6 months pregnant. And I'm like, we're going to write our female angry revenge song. And so, yeah, Silver Rounds kind of just fell out.

00:07:47 - 00:08:17 Olivia Wolf

We wrote it in probably an hour. And, then, you know, I kept reading and writing and building other tracks and wrote Cosmic Appalachian Radio and wrote Meet You at the cross. And, Rochelle and I also wrote The Wild together. And then once we had honestly, once we wrote Cosmic Appalachian Radio, we were like, okay, this is like, we've got a song that upholds the values of what we want for this album.

00:08:17 - 00:08:22 Ric Stewart

All right. So you also reference your cosmic sound. That kind of reminds me a little bit of Janis Joplin, but, it's pretty psychedelic.

00:08:22 - 00:08:52 Olivia Wolf

Living in and around San Francisco, I did get to partake in some different activities and especially, you know, I would say I did, some mushrooms and stuff, which just opened up a different space in your mind, a little bit more freedom sometimes. And, so I feel like, yeah, I got to do my 20s. I got to go to a lot of cool dance music and stuff and just get lost in it.

00:08:52 - 00:09:09 Olivia Wolf

Like, I really love, Daft Punk I feel like is a big inspiration of my funkiness of that sort of stuff. And then the way we brought that into the album, a lot of it was through the keys.

00:09:54 - 00:10:37 Olivia Wolf

On keys Billy Justinow And he brought his mellotron, his Juno, his Nord, you know. But the Mellotron has the coolest sounds. And then not only does he have the Mellotron, then he attaches his pedalboard to it so he can reverb stuff and and it's like, I felt like it took it from being just a band sounding album to having this, like, beautiful little ear candy and cosmic stuff in it that just like, like if you listen really closely in like, you won't regret these, like, sounds in them and it's like nothing's ever overt, but it's all there just to.

00:10:37 - 00:10:41 Olivia Wolf

Yeah, a little help with a little escapism.

00:10:41 - 00:10:49 Ric Stewart

The funky backbeat kind of reminded me of, “Up on Cripple Creek,” I think. When did you have a clavinet with a wah wah pedal? At some point. But it was, you know, like, that was what they were doing, for sure.

00:10:49 - 00:11:13 Olivia Wolf

Well, that was all the funky stuff for the drums was our drummer, Logan Todd. He really did a fabulous job. And even when we were in there recording, it was like, we're doing things pretty straightforward. And I was like, we need it funkier. It needs to like make your groove a little bit more. And especially like The Wild, you know, we really switch up the beats around in there.

00:11:25 - 00:11:31 Olivia Wolf

Scott opens as far as the eye can see.

00:11:31 - 00:12:01 Olivia Wolf

And I knew I almost never want to have a consistent drum beat through the whole thing. I like it to vary and move and change. The thing that I've been given great advice on is you are a songwriter, but ultimately an entertainer. You're competing against Instagram, you're competing against TV, you're competing against other movies, you're competing against every other band that's out there too.

00:12:01 - 00:12:24 Olivia Wolf

So how are you going to capture people? And I really like that's why I love having the full band, you know, for right now is is a great way to show dynamics. And I think a lot of it is about building the set, you know, as peaks and valleys, you know, when you sort of start off, I got to one.

00:12:24 - 00:12:38 Olivia Wolf

I'm going to see a lot of great live music. And like one guy who really, inspired me a lot was Paul Cauthen. I got to go out. One of my friends is opening for him, so I was like, hey, I'll come sell merch and take pictures and just go out on the road with you and see what it's like.

00:12:38 - 00:13:11 Olivia Wolf

And, watching Paul Cauthen, I was like, all right, this guy knows how to build a live show. And I was like, what does he do? What's a lot? What song selections. You know, he he starts off with a good mid-tempo song, but never anything that gets blown out of the water right away. You know, I find a crowd has a certain amount of energy, and it's your job as the band to understand that if you blow it all up front, they're not going to have the same energy at the end.

00:13:11 - 00:13:26 Olivia Wolf

So it's all about like building it up and then dropping it down and then building it higher and then dropping lower and then ultimately ending on. I always think a fun high note rockin, you know, is always the way I like to end shows.

00:13:26 - 00:13:46 Ric Stewart

Yeah. So good. T-Bone Burnett show where he kind of did that. They closed it out. He had the little Bell sisters there and his other band members that, like, I don't know, a lot of bands like recording crack, people that he's worked with for decades, you know, and, they have their own bands, maybe. But he end hands it with the long, tall Texan and I was like, wait, it was like a real nugget kind of song, you know?

00:13:46 - 00:13:48 Ric Stewart

I was like, I didn't even think about that one at all.

00:13:48 - 00:13:58 Olivia Wolf

So I was at his show at the Franklin Theater, and he started and he played that one, and he's like everyone sing along. But it was hilarious how few people knew that song, which.

00:13:59 - 00:13:59 Ric Stewart

The Beach Boys did it.

00:14:00 - 00:14:02 Olivia Wolf

Yeah, I love it. That it. That's how I know.

00:14:02 - 00:14:03 Ric Stewart

It's totally like an ongoing thing.

00:14:03 - 00:14:23 Olivia Wolf

And, so he was doing it, and it was so funny because he gets to the point where it's like, long term gigs and I'll where you can go. And then he's like, he writes he, you know, he was hoping everyone would do it. And it was interesting because people just didn't know it. And then, but at the end it's like they say, look at me.

00:14:23 - 00:14:41 Olivia Wolf

And from the audience, I shouted, oh Lord, oh Lord, is that your hat? And he was like, this is just he's so cool. He's a huge musical influence. And his new album, The Other Side, I love putting it on and just jamming to it, especially on electric. It's so fun.

00:14:42 - 00:14:48 Ric Stewart

There's country that is pop, and then you seem to aim a little bit more at Americana. How do you see all that, and is there still a Western genre?

00:14:48 - 00:15:25 Olivia Wolf

You know, I feel like it's genres these days. It's almost like everything's so saturated. It's the wild West again, in a way. It's like now everything's back up available. You can be genre bending, doing any of that sort of stuff and like, you know, there's some country pop stuff that I love to do, pop country, you have to have a certain vocal styling, which is basically a pop, you know, or gospel vocal styling and bless my heart, as much as I wish I could do some gospel runs, I got a low voice and I'm a little more folk oriented just the way that I sing.

00:15:25 - 00:15:45 Olivia Wolf

So I really feel like I've gotten to find my space. In that more. You know what? I, I just really attached to folk music and bluegrass. So when I write, I really like to write kind of based on that sort of structure, make it a little new here and there, but I'm just very attached to that.

00:15:45 - 00:15:49 Olivia Wolf

Person coming back to me.

00:15:49 - 00:16:12 Olivia Wolf

Crazy long way. And then so you.

00:16:12 - 00:16:34 Olivia Wolf

Logan time put my band together for me. He's a drummer. He's from, Memphis, Tennessee. She brought in Sanders, the guitar player. And Sam is so great. We had her. It was so funny. We had her first rehearsal, me, Sam. And we actually, we're going to do me and Sam both on acoustic guitars and, a girl on fiddle.

00:16:34 - 00:16:59 Olivia Wolf

And we played through set. I was like, here's the songs is what I want to do. And he's like, I'll be honest with you, this is a lot of mid-tempo blues. I'm not sure the audience is going to react to this. Even though you're pouring your heart out, you're doing everything like you're saying all the truth, but they all sonically sound super similar.

00:16:59 - 00:17:20 Olivia Wolf

It's kind of like one long. So and I was like. This guy's played a lot more shows in my have. I think I'm gonna listen to what he's got to say. And so we ended up the shows, ended up getting moved from November, February. So we ended up getting to put a band together. So I added and worked with another producer who's like, hey, let's put keys in your band.

00:17:20 - 00:17:46 Olivia Wolf

And once we had keys in the band, I was like, great, we don't want fit all right now we don't want pedal steel, electric guitar, keys, drums, bass, and then me on acoustic. And so then Logan, his buddy Austin Mercury plays bass for us. And then we found this fabulous guy, Alex de Boer, who plays keys. And for the album, Logan and Sam were both there.

00:17:46 - 00:18:06 Olivia Wolf

I pulled them in. I actually brought some of our rehearsals to Sean and I was like, can I bring my band in? This is what, you know, these are my sonics and we've been working on this one. And he's like, great. We'll have, Justin talking on bass and engineering. If you ever need a good engineer, see if he's a bass player and he'll probably be pretty good at it.

00:18:06 - 00:18:27 Olivia Wolf

And, and he brought Billy just to know in on keys. And then we had our other, you know, random special guest, Taylor McCall. So he came in, played some electric on some stuff. He played all the banjo and everything. And then, Lily Mae, I don't know if you know her, but she's a fabulous fiddle player. And she came played fiddle.

00:18:27 - 00:18:50 Olivia Wolf

She sings harmonies with me on like, Lucky One and some other songs. And so it was a great cast of characters. And what was my favorite thing about it was being in a room full of people who've worked so hard for so long, and you can tell the magic that each one of them brings. And I think it's so important.

00:18:50 - 00:19:09 Olivia Wolf

I've recorded before with bands that I didn't really know or you know, doesn't mean I wouldn't connect with them that day. But going in there with your buddies, you all know really well, and you guys have your inside jokes and you're laughing and doing all that jazz, you know, and we had Billy in and talk it and they just fit right in.

00:19:09 - 00:19:21 Olivia Wolf

So it was like we didn't we weren't even all playing in the same room. But a lot of the songs we didn't do more than, you know, 3 or 4 takes because we all knew each other well and knew what we were going for.

00:19:21 - 00:19:25 Ric Stewart

So most of those folks functioned kind of doing sessions. A lot of the time.

00:19:25 - 00:19:44 Olivia Wolf

They do more sessions, but a lot of them play. You know, Logan plays with Taylor McCall also, and he plays with Sean also. And, Sam plays with, Tanya Tucker. And he had to go play with Charlie Worsham. So, you know, this town, you got to be a gig player. You got to have a lot of different sessions.

00:19:44 - 00:20:09 Olivia Wolf

You, you know, so rare is it that you would work with just one band, which I think also can put a lot of pressure on the players. They had to learn so much material, learned so fast. I mean, the guys in this town and girls in this town who can do this stuff, like I have a tremendous amount of respect for how fast they can pick stuff up because it's just it's pretty miraculous.

00:20:09 - 00:20:14 Ric Stewart

Okay, let's talk movies for a second. Do you have any favorite Westerns of all time?

00:20:14 - 00:20:22 Olivia Wolf

Favorite Western? Favorite Westerns? I mean, I do love that. I don't know if it qualifies as a Western, but I love the TV show Yellowstone.

00:20:22 - 00:20:32 Ric Stewart

Yeah. No, the neo westerns count, too, so there's pretty much all of his shows, you know, like Tulsa King and, what's a new one? Oil land, man and man.

00:20:32 - 00:20:55 Olivia Wolf

Yeah, I mean, I love tombstone. That one is so classic and great and yeah, it's funny, I was hanging with the fella from Arkansas for a bit, and he loved Westerns, so he'd always turn on these fun old Westerns and interesting to see the passage of time, you know, from then to now. But the nostalgia is great. And.

00:20:55 - 00:20:57 Ric Stewart

In the photography.

00:20:57 - 00:21:02 Olivia Wolf

The cinematography of that, yeah, is just so cool.

00:21:02 - 00:21:06 Ric Stewart

What shows have you seen lately that you found inspiring?

00:21:06 - 00:21:28 Olivia Wolf

I saw Marcus Mumford play not the most recent, but in the last couple of years, and his show blew me away. If you want to, if you want to go watch somebody who knows how to do it from beginning to end. He came out on the stage alone with his guitar, played one of his, you know, big Mark Mumford and Sons songs.

00:21:28 - 00:21:53 Olivia Wolf

And then I think he did 2 or 3 of that, and he's just building the energy of the crowd up, building them all up, and then his band comes out and slams and releases all that energy, and it's like, he was just great. Mavis Staples, I got to see you last year, and I really loved, you know, she's got her and her band are going along doing one, one song, one way, and then totally changes and she goes into a totally different space.

00:21:53 - 00:22:08 Olivia Wolf

And so there's so many fabulous people watch and, Chuck prophet, you know him. So I got to see him recently at third and Lindsley with his cumbia band, and he's a great frontman.

00:22:08 - 00:22:11 Ric Stewart

Fun anecdotes about tours or parties that'll never happen again.

00:22:11 - 00:22:36 Olivia Wolf

You know, it's funny, and we were actually talking about wanting to write down a bunch of ideas for a little sitcom about a band who's just starting out because everyone, everyone has their notions of, oh, what are you? What's it like to be in a band just starting out? It's like, well, you'll be in the middle of a show in your guitars, getting horrible feedback, and you look at the sound guy and he's eating a pizza and he's not going to change anything.

00:22:37 - 00:22:42 Ric Stewart

Tell me a little bit about being an independent artist as opposed to being on a label. And do you have a publisher and how do you work at all?

00:22:42 - 00:23:01 Olivia Wolf

Yeah. So basically, you know, I came to this town, I didn't know a lot about the music business. I had a little bit of an understanding, but as I was writing and doing everything, I was like, I'm going to learn and see how this all kind of functions. And what does it mean to be, you know, especially a female artist is going to typically be a different track than a guy.

00:23:01 - 00:23:22 Olivia Wolf

So it's like, all right, what track should I be looking at? It's interesting. The labels these days want you to come fully formed with a plan. Everything already working. Which is fine. That's the standard that they want to hold. People do great, but it's okay. I got to do a lot more independent work on my own before somebody like this even going to look at me.

00:23:23 - 00:23:53 Olivia Wolf

So I thought, if I can just find the right folks to work with, we don't need a label. We don't need any of this stuff. This is an open world social media rules, you know, it's like there is no barrier anymore between you and the people who you want to hear your music. When we first heard the album, we had like, yeah, secret little SoundCloud thing we'd send out, but we ended up doing, a deal with Symphonic Distribution, so they really helped us.

00:23:53 - 00:24:14 Olivia Wolf

Be independent, you know, they'll take a little cut of stuff, but they don't, you know, own my masters or the rights to anything. So they were a great partner for us because we could, you know, be able to work with them. And they've been so fabulous. Randall over there and white over there have helped us get on a ton of playlists and really get the stuff out there.

00:24:14 - 00:24:38 Olivia Wolf

And, you know, so you got to work with you have to work with the industry. But there's a lot of ways that the industry works that you can be more nuanced and thoughtful about. What's space you don't want to be in. And we took a very thoughtful approach, to releasing the music as a musician and as an artist.

00:24:38 - 00:25:05 Olivia Wolf

You just want to be the wildest version of yourself. But the truth of that is that most people live in a familiar lane. If you don't sound familiar to them, good luck. It's also such a saturated market now that it's like, you know, you only have so many opportunities to cut through, you know? So to me, I'm just like, I'm going for no holds barred.

00:25:05 - 00:25:28 Olivia Wolf

And really, the thought in my mind was, what can I do to make this music be heard?

00:25:28 - 00:26:03 Olivia Wolf

The thousand it's a two lives question. Million pairs to walk with that a good intention. We've got a reason to do what we do. All I ask is you give me grace that I'll give you. Who needs a long way home.

00:26:03 - 00:26:08 Olivia Wolf

Back to where we from.

00:26:08 - 00:26:48 Olivia Wolf

There's no right or wrong. Just the path we do. You take the blacktop and I'll take the gravel. Those dusty back row won't last forever. Won't you take the highway? Me? I'll go. My way. These roads run only in the morning. So that in my head of what is travelers.

00:26:49 - 00:26:53 Ric Stewart

All right, now let's talk collaborations. Any collaborations on your wish list, either near or far?

00:26:53 - 00:27:18 Olivia Wolf

I would really love to write with this fella. Aaron. Ray. Terry. He's, like, also the number one writer in Nashville right now, but he's so funky. He wrote the armadillo song with Miranda Lambert and he wrote, excuse me, you look like you love me with, Langley. And he's just such a badass and so cool. So I'm putting it in the atmosphere.

00:27:18 - 00:27:22 Ric Stewart

What are some of the best venues to go see these musicians that you're getting into?

00:27:22 - 00:27:36 Olivia Wolf

You know, one of the smaller places in town, you know, like the listening room or the local or, you know, these lounge always has great music. And then we've been, of course, as you know, because that's where we met down at Springwater. And,

00:27:36 - 00:27:38 Ric Stewart

That's the oldest bar in the state, apparently.

00:27:39 - 00:27:40 Olivia Wolf

That's what they say.

00:27:40 - 00:27:45 Ric Stewart

Is the plaque. Did you play? Are you going to play with Dave Allen and Jimmie Dale Gilmore?

00:27:45 - 00:28:03 Olivia Wolf

So they were the first tour that I did as a little bit of, which is funny because my grandpa did his last tour with Jimmie Dale Gilmore lasted only two, or he ever went on with Jimmie Dale, and my first one got to be with Jimmie Dale. So there's a little bit of magic floating around in that.

00:28:03 - 00:28:12 Ric Stewart

I caught that tour with the first album they did. I think they've done two now, but, it's been about five years ago at Chickie Wawa in New Orleans. That was a really excellent show.

00:28:12 - 00:28:32 Olivia Wolf

Yeah they're great. Dave Alvin's guitar is insane. And Jimmie Dale I just what a light of this world. And they would sing King of California. And tonight I think I'm going to go downtown back to back. And that was my favorite moment of the set because I just love those two songs.

00:28:32 - 00:28:36 Ric Stewart

How do you scribe where your music is coming from and where you're taking it to?

00:28:36 - 00:29:04 Olivia Wolf

Well, the music comes to me really, from the mountains and trees and opening up to the universe, and my hope is that I keep those doors open and don't get distracted by the other things happening and going on. And it's great to have, accolades given to you for your music, but also important to stay humble and make sure that you're not getting distracted by other things.

00:29:04 - 00:29:07 Ric Stewart

Olivia, I had a great time. Thanks for coming by soul Country.

00:29:07 - 00:29:25 Olivia Wolf

Yeah, thanks so much.

00:29:25 - 00:29:33 Ric Stewart

Soul country number 12 is in the books with special appreciation to Reed Mathis for our theme. We run.

00:29:33 - 00:29:58 Ric Stewart

12 was brought to you by Ace Production in conjunction with the Blues Center and with support from the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, tuning in for more roots music, culture and lore as season three ropes in Expensive Wine. Ivan Neville, the session guitarist Dean Parks and Country Hall of Fame harpist Charlie McCoy, and find trailers, highlights and playlists, as well as a full archive of episodes at Soul country.com.

00:29:58 - 00:30:00 Ric Stewart

Who will win?

Olivia Wolf

Soul Country #12

Airdate Aug 24, 2025

Podcast 30:14

Recorded in Nashville, TN

Listen:

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Description

Olivia Wolf brings her soulful blend of country, folk, and bluegrass into Soul Country. She plays a few and tells a few about how she put her band and latest release together. In this episode we hear clips of her band live in Nashville and her playing her tunes solo in studio.

The funky sounds she attributes to her penchant for Daft Punk textured by 90’s household favorites like Lucinda Williams and Tom Waits. Her ear for the psychedelic sounds informs the spiritual journey, or so I’m told. ✌🏻

She also previews her version of Crazy Mama, the J.J. Cale staple of Soul Country. Check out season 3 for Ivan Neville, Dean Parks, Charlie McCoy and trailers and playlists at soulcountry.com. Made possible in part with grants from The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation.

More about Olivia Wolf

Olivia Wolf is a Nashville-based singer-songwriter whose soulful blend of country, folk, and bluegrass resonates with raw emotion and authenticity. Raised in Northern California and shaped by the Appalachian sounds of Virginia and Tennessee, her debut album Silver Rounds (January 2025) explores themes of loss, resilience, and spiritual connection. Produced by Sean McConnell, the album reflects her journey through personal tragedy, including the loss of her fiancé, into a sound that’s both cosmic and grounded. Inspired by outlaw country legends like Townes Van Zandt and modern voices like Gillian Welch, Wolf’s introspective songwriting and evocative storytelling invite listeners into a world where vulnerability meets strength.

Latest Episodes

Dean Parks

If you've heard Steely Dan - you've heard the guitar artistry of Dean Parks. His licks grace "Peg," "Josie," "Haitian Divorce" and "Rikki Don't Lose That Number." In this exclusive episode, Dean shares stories from...

Soul Country #11

Airdate Aug 3, 2025
Podcast 36:01

Ivan Neville

Ivan Neville plays and talks thru an illustrious history - recording with the Rolling Stones in the 80s & 90s, becoming a sounding board for Robbie Robertson's solo efforts, stepping into his uncle Art's shoes...

Soul Country #10

Airdate Jul 12, 2025
Podcast 57:17

Charlie McCoy

Dylan, Elvis and Orbison sideman Charlie McCoy is a hall of fame harmonica-centric multi-instrumentalist. Born in the same hospital where Hank Williams perished, McCoy brings his own mastery to many hits including "Take This Job...

Soul Country #9

Airdate Jul 2, 2025
Podcast 45:31

Ben Sidran

Pianist Ben Sidran recounts writing “Space Cowboy” with Steve Miller, recording with the Rolling Stones in 1968 London and jazz on tv in Soul Country #8. Get ready for some insights into clasic rock’s headiest...

Soul Country #8

Airdate Aug 31, 2024
Podcast 55:06