219 Records

Hard work is something that isn’t new to the multi-talented Olga Wilhemine. An accomplished singer, songwriter, guitarist and actor, as well as a partial owner of recording label 219, loyalty to her dreams is a priority. Unlike most artists, Wilhemine didn’t discover her voice in a church choir or strolling down the street humming a familiar song. A broken heart did all the work for her. After she discovered a neighbor’s dog had attacked and killed her pet rabbit, the only thing the toddler could do was cry and hum a tune that lead to writing a song. Little did she know, that was the spark that ignited her ambition. “I didn’t know what I was feeling as I child, but I can remember feeling great sorrow and pain,” Wilhemine said. Raised by her mother, an Austrian-Native, the two would sing daily and listen to Austrian Folk music. Trained by her mother to sing and harmonize, the toddler caught on and perfected the craft of music. With a new album available on iTunes, “Whatever You Want” and a new single, “Take Your Time,” under just her first name, “Olga,” Wilhemine’s sound is calm and hopeful. Unlike most pop singers, Wilhemine’s style comes across as somewhat of a friend, with soulful and fierce, yet comforting lyrics. Her voice tells a story all it’s own- one that sounds as if it has been through just enough, to tell you how to deal with life and ways to get by. “Many of the songs that I wrote are universal,” Wilhemine said. “A lot of the songs I wrote were from years ago. When people listen to my music, I want them to think from their heart and connect with themselves on a spiritually level, which encourages them to follow their heart and discover their own resolution during a hard time or problem they may be having in life.” After three prior albums, “Blues Babes,” “Kiss your Baby Away” and “Now is the Time,” Wilhemine has claimed “Whatever You Want” as her favorite one yet. With 14 soulful songs on the album, each one tells its own story and touches all eras of life. They all play off of different musical conventions as well, which makes it hard to place her in one category, but bluegrass, blues, pop and soul flavors are all there. “I would have to say I would put my music in the category of pop,” says Olga. “But my music is rooted in with blues and country blues. Blues has a lot of soul.” Wilhemine doesn’t share her current CD with any other artists but has a few musicians she’d love to share the stage with. “Lady Hawk, Snoop Dog, Los Lobos, John Hyatt, The Roots, Mary J Blidge and Jill Scott,” she said. Her music is very distinctive; Wilhemine isn’t your classic storyteller songwriter. She doesn’t want her music to be useless words. She rather her listeners have positive words that would have an effect on their lives. She is a deeper and more spiritual than most artists. The energy of her music puts you in a vibe to think and contemplate on taking your time with life. Her love songs are asexual and represent everyone. “My music is distinctive because of the subject matter I write about. I tend to write more from a spiritual and emotional place. I definitely write from a more guttural and instinctual perspective, that’s why my songs are more blues based,” she said. Wilhemine’s is far from a simple country girl. She’s no amateur to the entertainment business, with four albums under her belt and countless features in films such as HBO’s “Treme,” “The Mechanic,” “Knucklehead,” she a is more than just a singer. Aside from working in acting and music, Wilhemine is simple as apple pie. She just wants to “remain positive and happy.“ She wants the world to listen to her music with an open-mind. “I just want people to main a positive attitude and try to find the beauty in everything,” Wilhemine says. “Even if it’s a broken sewer line or a first class ticket to Rome, just enjoy the moment and remember it.”

Blues babe delivers ‘80s style pop By Mike Cote, Colorado Business Journal 
OLGA Whatever You Want (219 Records) Olga Munding brands herself as a "blues babe" and has the track record to back that up, having spent much of the past decade working to raise awareness of pioneering blueswoman Jesse Mae Hemphill. So the big, full-bodied pop of Whatever You Want is definitely a departure and a calculated nod toward the mainstream for the New Orleans-based singer-songwriter. Known simply as Olga to her fans, the former Boulder resident and KGNU DJ recorded the album with North Mississippi All-Stars drummer Cody Dickinson, who played many of the instruments and co-wrote the 12 songs, which are coated in an '80s pop vibe awash in synthesizers,
"Just Take Your Time" is the song gunning for hit single status, a bouncy piano-based tune with gorgeous harmonies and an oft-repeated chorus that wraps around you as the sound of bells punctuates the melody. The title track and "Time for Somebody New," (which features Munding belting it out like a diva in the mid-section) also would sound quite at home on KBCO. Among the standout tracks - with a more eclectic, blues-laced instrumentation featuring slide guitar and recorder - is "They Want More," a song about our endless desire for everything. "It Is What It Is," another song about coming to grips with change, offers a great showcase for Olga's smoky voice and recalls Fiona Apple and the recently departed Amy Winehouse.

by Nick DeRiso I came in expecting blues grit, something kind of dangerous -- after all, New Orleans singer Olga Wilhelmine Munding has been doing that for a while. She's also a founding member of the Jessie Mae Hemphill Foundation. And Whatever You Want features Cody Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars. Forget all of that. I came out with a new-found appreciation for Olga's darkly intriguing popcraft, and for Dickinson's ability to put aside the deep-fried Southern rock licks he's long favored on the guitar for something more in keeping with the popular music of their youth in the 1980s. You still hear a bit of Bonnie Raitt in Olga's singing, but also now some Stevie Nicks. Whatever You Want released on 219 Records via Redeye Distribution, was recorded at Black Wings Studio in Water Valley, Mississippi, with Olga and Dickinson playing all of the instruments. That, along with some concurrent heartbreak, gives the project an interior, very emotional center -- despite its occasionally sunny sheen. Olga, who plays guitar and keyboards, was in the midst of a divorce. Dickinson, who also adds rhythm and keys, was going through a final illness with his father, the late legendary producer Jim Dickinson. That gives the "Just Take Your Time," a raw piece of power pop that would have pleased the Jim Dickinson-produced Alex Chilton, this added coloring. "Birds of Sorrow" recalls Olga's New Orleans roots, with an Neville-ish, island-inspired rhythm -- but its broader implications remain clear. There are dreamy, almost trance-like moments during several of the cuts -- including "Take Your Time" (with a repeated "it is what it is" lyrical signature) and, especially, "Don't Look Back" -- that speak even more deeply to the period of mourning that Olga and Dickinson were enduring. "Nothing More To Say" and "Time for Somebody New" help complete a recording that bravely deals with passages, even while confidently moving away from the expected musical underpinnings for the duo. Olga has come up with an inventive way to sell Whatever You Want at her shows: Printed dropcards containing the site and code information to download all the album art and music that are made out of recycled paper embedded with wildflower seeds. Once you are done with the card, you can bury it in the yard -- and grow flowers.

by Kevin O'Hare, MASSlive.com Fans of artists like Shelby Lynne, Bonnie Raitt and the North Mississippi Allstars should find a lot to like about Olga, a sultry, bluesy powerhouse of a singer/guitarist who’s been around for a few years but certainly deserves much wider recognition. The digital-only release “Whatever You Want,” features the North Mississippi Allstars’ drummer and multi-instrumentalist Cody Dickinson prominently and was recorded in Mississippi, the state that shaped Olga Wilhelmine Munding’s musical vision. Born in San Francisco, she spent a lot of years in the South, and while these songs are rooted in the blues there’s an expansiveness here that stretches beyond those borders. Standouts like “Just Take Your Time,” and “Don’t Look Back,” have a definite Lynne feel, but Olga’s distinctive styling is at once familiar and completely refreshing. The instrumentation throughout is also first-rate with notably fluid guitar runs in “Call me When You Figure it Out,” while other songs including the tasty lighter touches of “Birds of Sorrow,” and especially the more soulful, harmony-layered and hook-filled “Little is Known” sound like they were destined to be hits. She’s had three previous albums. This one is must-listen, highly recommended. For more information on the Internet go to: www.laolga.tumblr.com Tracks to download: “Little is Known,” “Just Take Your Time.”

Singer Olga Munding returns to Mississippi She'll play Hernando Farmers Market today By Mark Jordan Saturday, July 30, 2011 Though she returns often -- as she will this weekend for a string of appearances promoting her just-released fourth CD, Whatever You Want -- it's been three years since singer-songwriter Olga Wilhelmine Munding, better known to music fans simply as Olga, called the Mid-South home. After several years living in the Delta and Memphis, the San Francisco native, following a divorce from Como-based musician Jimbo Mathus, relocated to New Orleans, where she had first moved more than a decade ago. "I was just ready to come back," says Munding, who will kickoff her latest return to the region by playing the Hernando Farmers Market this morning. "I just felt kind of stuck, needing a change. I still have ties in Mississippi and Memphis. I still have a house up there. I'm not gone. I'm just down here a lot." Munding will also be in the area Monday, performing on Greenville television station WABG Channel 6's "Good Morning Mississippi;" during the lunch hour on Helena, Ark., radio station KFFA 1360 AM's "King Biscuit Time" program, and that night from 6 to 8 at the Hopson Commissary in Clarksdale. Munding could never completely escape Mississippi even if she wanted to. It is where she found her musical identity. And it is where she returned to make Whatever You Want -- a record that, though it represents her furthest departure from the blues yet, has at its core the lessons she learned here. "I would not be the person I am today if it weren't for the experience (of living in Mississippi), so I'm actually humbled and grateful for it," Munding says. "The thing about the blues is that it's not just a 1-4-5 chord progression. It's really experience and the feeling. It would be easy to sit down and play Memphis Minnie verbatim, but it's not easy to actually understand and know and feel it. I think the experience of living up there helped me understand that." Munding started her musical career in San Francisco as a child prodigy playing piano and violin. By the time she was a teenager, however, she had set music aside and became more interested in theater. Returning to New Orleans has rekindled some of Munding's old passions: She has taken the violin back up and is heavily involved in acting again, with appearances in three upcoming feature films, including one co-starring Mickey Rourke. In college in Boulder, Colo., Munding rediscovered her love of music as a deejay for the school radio station. A turning point came when she stumbled on the music of Jessie Mae Hemphill and other Mississippi hill country blues artists like Junior Kimbrough in the station's stacks. "It wasn't old-fashioned sounding," Munding says of the music's immediate appeal. "It was very modern-sounding, Jessie Mae's especially." Munding found kindred spirits in Hernando's North Mississippi Allstars when they came through Boulder on tour. She befriended the band, and at the urging of the band's drummer, Cody Dickinson, she soon moved down South where she became a part of the hill country scene and even a friend, protégé and legacy caretaker to Hemphill before her death in 2006. Munding and Dickinson reunite on Whatever You Want, which is dedicated to Hemphill and Dickinson's father, the noted producer Jim Dickinson who passed away in 2009 just as they began working on the project. -----

Olga Wilhelmine Munding's latest release, Whatever You Want, was written with the North Mississippi Allstars' Cody Dickinson. Olga revealed to me the genesis of this collection: "It's definitely a departure from what either of us have done in the past. We recorded it in 2009 during the time that Jim (Dickinson) got sick and then passed, and I went through my divorce and now I'm finally ready to release it. We decided to do a more pop 80s sort of thing since we're both huge fans of that stuff. The tunes do retain a lot of soul though..." Whatever You Want is dedicated to Jessie Mae Hemphill and Jim Dickinson. These songs were recorded at Black Wings Studio in Water Valley, Mississippi, by Emmy-winning Winn McElroy. The melodic "Whatever You Want" commences the album. Olga and Cody played all of the instruments on these sessions. This is not a blues-based album. "They Want More" counts as a 'radio-friendly' track that contains subtle licks most pop musicians never learn to attain. "Call Me When You Figure It Out" straddles genres of music that provides a strength to this composition. Olga's smooth voice operates at a zenith on this tune. "Just Take Your Time" sounds so good Alex Chilton would be proud. "Birds of Sorrow" exists as raw sugar. "Little Is Known" contends as high-grade pop music, and "Better In Some Way" contains seeds of an R & B origin. "Nothin' More To Say" reveals a hard-truth lyrical sentiment: "Silver linings don't always shine/When holdin a candle for the first time/But it glows on me, and now I know/Time I'm a showin' you the door..." "Don't Look Back" evokes a sonic trance, and stands as one of this collection's gems. The final cut, "Time for Somebody New", proves these musicians intended to embrace change, and forward progression. Whatever You Want sounds timeless... James Calemine

WHATEVER YOU WANT featuring CODY DICKINSON Olga and Cody’s Mississippi mojo “Words of sorrow fly over my head, but I won’t let them nest in my bed,” sings Olga on her new album, Whatever You Want (219 Records), featuring Grammy-nominated North Mississippi All-Star drummer, Cody Dickinson. Released in June, Olga’s fourth album combines elements of pop with her signature bluesy sound. Olga (Wilhelmine, but often just “Olga”), is a New Orleans-based actress, who spent years in Clarksdale and Como studying with blues legend Jessie Mae Hemphill. One listen and you hear all that Mississippi mojo at work. – DELTA MAGAZINE 24 ı JULY/AUGUST 2011

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“Sugar on the Floor is Lynn Drury’s trump card. The talented New Orleans singer-songwriter has built a strong local following through her emotionally-charged live performances, but her strengths as a musician and songwriter haven’t been adequately captured on record until now. Part of the problem is that New Orleans is a difficult environment for songwriters. Maybe Drury’s career would have taken off sooner if she’d done the obvious thing and followed Lucinda Williams to Texas, where the latter was easily categorized on her way to stardom. But Drury is stubborn—an attractive quality in an artist—and insisted on sticking by her roots in Mississippi and Louisiana. The New Orleans music scene is all the better for Drury’s intransigence.” Sugar on the Floor is a powerful statement made with some of the city’s best local musicians, a record made on the artist’s own terms that shows how diverse New Orleans music can be. The backing is provided by producer Carlo Nuccio, who plays drums and bass throughout, and Alex McMurray, who presents an array of musical personalities with a tour-de- force performance on lead and rhythm guitars. Tommy Malone adds other guitar parts, Ivan Neville plays organ, and a select group of other players perform Matt Perrine’s superbly-crafted string and horn arrangements. On previous albums, Drury sounds like she’s aspiring to become part of something bigger, country or Americana, whatever. This time around, she is clearly not trying to fit in anywhere; the performances are tailored to the songs, and Drury’s lyrics are rendered more the way she sings them live, in short, dramatic bursts that enforce the narrative. Her sweet, languid country side is well expressed on “It Was Late” and the beautiful “Butterfly,” while “Smiley Face” and “Frenchmen Street” roll with a New Orleans R&B groove and the title track and “Never Wanna Be Like You” could be alt-rock exercises. The best thing about this album is that it presents Drury as a New Orleans personality. She’s tough, likes to take on challenges and doesn’t flinch at the consequences. The guy with the bad reputation wants to “take me fishin’” on “You’ve Got a Way” and she’s fascinated by him. No wonder she finds her “energies scattered all around” and ends up complaining “you just spilled my love like sugar on the floor.” She might be moved to tell him “Never Wanna Be Like You,” and she might sing in dismay that she “can’t hold on to anything anymore,” but she always picks herself to sing “Take another dose… no we don’t say no.” –John Swenson (Offbeat Magazine)

Olga's Whatever You Want featuring Cody Dickinson Posted: Jun 01, 2011 Olga's Whatever You Want Out June 21, 2011 Singer/songwriter/guitarist Olga Wilhelmine Munding's latest album Whatever You Want will be released on June 21, 2011. Olga wrote Whatever You Want with Cody Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars. Olga explained to me the genesis of this upcoming release: "It's definitely a departure from what either of us have done in the past. We recorded it in 2009 during the time that Jim (Dickinson) got sick and then passed, and I went through my divorce and now I'm finally ready to release it. We decided to do a more pop 80s sort of thing since we're both huge fans of that stuff. The tunes do retain a lot of soul though..." Olga now lives in Memphis. She's a soulful musician and also serves as founder and president of the Jesse Mae Hemphill foundation. She also appreared in various television shows as well as acted in the New Orleans Jazz Film Festival winner--The Statue--in 2010. Whatever You Want will be released digitally on June 21 through 219 Records/Redeye Distribution. The album is dedicated to Jesse Mae Hemphill and Jim Dickinson. Stay tuned for more Olga... James Calemine

A long strange trip indeed! Olga's album "Whatever You Want" featuring Cody Dickinson is released on the summer solstice. Download on itunes and amazon and other internet digital sites now! Thank you for your continued support over the years.