For their third studio album, Ollabelle once again combine stunning vocal harmonies and their innovative take on Roots Music. Producing themselves for the first time, the band recorded Neon Blue Bird in Upstate NY: in a rented house overlooking the Hudson River and in Levon Helm s studio. They emerged with their strongest album to date. Each of the five members takes a turn at lead vocals, and the material balances between original songs, stunning covers (including Chris Whitley s Dirt Floor and Taj Mahal s Lovin In My Baby s Eyes ) and the band s trademark reinvention of Public Domain material (Stephen Foster s Swanee River , field holler Be Your Woman and English murder ballad The Butcher Boy ).

Neon Blue Bird was recorded by Hector Castillo (Brazilian Girls) and Justin Guip (Levon Helm) and was mixed by Tom Schick (Wilco, Mavis Staples, Norah Jones).

Ollabelle was formed on the Lower East Side as a Sunday Night gig at East Village Watering Hole 9C called Sunday Night for Sinners. The bands innovative arrangements of old gospel songs won them an NYC following and a contract with T-Bone Burnett s DMZ Columbia Records imprint. They toured with Alison Krauss, Diana Krall, Ryan Adams, Hem, Buddy Miller and more. Their second record Riverside Battle Songs came out on Verve Forecast and was produced with long time Bob Dylan sideman Larry Campbell.

With the musical maturity of this sophomore release, Ollabelle extend their accomplishment of forging a singular style bridging folk and art songs from the talents of five singer-songwriters. While Amy Helm, daughter of the Band's Levon, boasts the highest-profile lineage, the two-woman, three-man band has the balance of a democratic collective, combining deep roots with soaring, sophisticated harmonies. "Troubles of the World," an elegiac reading of the traditional "Riverside," the call-and-response of "Gone Today," and the closing "Last Lullaby" reflect the spiritual underpinnings of the quintet's signature sound, but the stylistic range extends from the Caribbean lilt of the opening "See Line Woman" and the stately country waltz of "Heaven's Pearls" to the delta blues of "Fall Back" and the Celtic balladry of "Dream the Fall." Except for the lovesick "Blue Northern Lights" and the bittersweet delicacy of "Everything Is Broken," it's difficult to distinguish the band's arrangements of traditional material from the original songwriting that dominates. Larry Campbell, formerly of Bob Dylan's band, provides superb production and multi-instrumental support. --Don McLeese