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XPN Welcomes Ollabelle

Presented by World Cafe Live at World Cafe Live - Philadelphia

October 6, 2011

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“Ollabelle came together because of these musicians’ love of this music, without thought of success or career or any of the other trappings of the modern professional music business. It has great value to our culture, adding new life to a tradition that is an important part of who we are. But mostly, they sound great. They sing great and they play great, and they are wonderful people.” – T-Bone Burnett
A multi-talented, democratic collective whose participants share vocal and songwriting duties, Ollabelle gains strength from its members’ shared sense of mission, as well as their diverse musical and personal backgrounds. Where Ollabelle's gospel-steeped debut album emphasized distinctive adaptations of traditional material, Riverside Battle Songs — produced by veteran producer/multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell, best known for his lengthy stint in Bob Dylan's band, and mixed by longtime admirer T Bone Burnett — showcases the group's own compositions. Such memorable originals as "Heaven's Pearls," "Fall Back," "Dream the Fall," "Blue Northern Lights" and "Reach for Love" offer subtly riveting examples of the bandmates' vocal and instrumental interplay, mining an evocative palette of acoustic and electric textures to create singularly expressive music. As Riverside Battle Songs makes clear, Ollabelle has matured into a one-of-a-kind ensemble with an uncanny ability