Search - David Olney :: Wheel

A POET WHO CAN ROADHOUSE...

Larry L. Looney | Austin, Texas USA | 11/09/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"David Olney continues to amaze and delight me. Every release that he brings forth contains some of the finest, insightful and poetic songwriting that exists today. He delivers his songs in a variety of styles - from gentle and reflective folk ballads to blues-influenced growlings to out-and-out roadhouse rock and roll. Each and every one of them comes across honest and full of wisdom and emotion - there's nothing contrived or false about any of them.Olney's latest effort is full of the images of the wheel - from the title to the pictures on the cover, to various references in the lyrics, to the very programming of the cd. Heck, even the cd itself is round (what an innovation, right...?). Seriously - a lot of thought and care went into this recording, and it shows time and again during listening.The album begins, ends, and is punctuated from time to time by short tunes that are reminiscent (as another reviewer noted) of Gregorian chant or Renaissance polyphony - which is appropriate, Olney being a modern Renaissance man if ever there was one. The final track of the album places the four previous short pieces into a round together - and the effect is stunningly beautiful and illumination. As Dave Marsh astutely points out in his notes to the cd, the track `Revolution' is - very purposefully, I'm sure - centrally placed. The rest of the program turns around it nicely. The song itself is beautiful and allegorical - I heard Olney perform live just last night at a house concert (what an excellent venue for such an artist!), and in introducing this song, he said (and I'm paraphrasing - I wasn't taking notes) `There are two types of revolutions - the natural ones, such as the earth turning around the sun, the seasons turning over the course of a year...and the type that overthrows a government. This song is about both.'After the short opening track, `Wheels', Olney gets things moving strongly with `Big Cadillac', proudly and easily showing his love of the blues. This blues influence shows itself again in `Chained and bound to the wheel' and the raw `Boss don't shoot no dice', with its nod to Albert Einstein's comment that `God doesn't play dice with the universe' - everything has a purpose and works according to a logic that we might or might not comprehend from moment to moment.David Olney can write a love song as well - his past recordings are full of beautiful examples of that song form, some of the most memorable I've ever come across. This album isn't lacking for them, either - `Now and forever', `Precious time, precious love', `The girl I love' and `All the love in the world'. Every song he writes is written straight from his heart - and he's never shy about letting the listener know how he feels.`God-shaped hole' is a reference to the ideas of the French existentialists - `guys wearing berets and chain-smoking', he called them last night - and speaks of the spiritual detachment and isolation that we sometimes feel when faces with setbacks in our lives. As with many of Olney's serious tunes, it's not without an apt infusion of wry humor.`Stonewall' is a moving look at the aftermath and horrors of war, through the eyes of a tired, saddened and world-weary Stonewall Jackson, wanting nothing more (or less) than to return to Virginia and live out his days in peace - `Let me cross over, over the river - and let me rest in the shade of the trees'.Taken as a whole, this album works on a level to which many artists aspire and dream - it's a complete circle. I suggest spinning it over and over again - it's one of his greatest accomplishments."

The Circle Game

R. J MOSS | Alice Springs, Australia | 03/07/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Long before Joni Mitchell penned 'The Circle Game' the cyclic sweep of seasons, of social circumstance, of celestial movement, of love's ebbing and flowing were inspiring poets and philosophers. Observing these was the survival means of farmers and hunters. Olney's,'Wheel' manages to embrace the gamut of these observations without sounding cute, trite, or try hard. It's one of the most impeccably conceived and performed discs of recent times. In it abides a folk wisdom blended with rootsy Blues Rock conveyed with a voice that is alternatively worn and rough-hewn, sweet and romantic. None less than veteran music critic, Dave Marsh provides the warmer notes. And he does so with affectionate elan, speaking of how 'Olney's spirituality centres on a universe governed more by love than malice, in fact more by love than any other single quality.' Well, familiar grist as this might be, Marsh adds that Olney's songs give us 'life not only observed but lived at the deepest level, and conveyed to everyone who hears it with commanding artistry'. There's the gospelly,'Voices On the Water', a glorious paen to committment,'Now and Forever', the gravelly rendition of,'God Shaped Hole' and 'Boss Don't Shoot No Dice' which would reward devotees of John Hiatt. Deanie Richardson's fiddle & mandolin provide lilting commentary for the weary Civil War General's

lament,'Stonewall'. It would seam perfectly into Ken Burn's memorable movie soundtrack on that subject. This isn't a revolutionary disc by any estimation, as it follows familar grooves. But its maturity has a consolatory power which improves with each rotation."