Ollabelle are a six-person, New York City-based band that celebrates rural American roots music, as well as the joys of group singing. What started as a side project became a bona fide group, named in honor of country singer and songwriter Ola Belle Reed.

They mix traditional songs (including Jesus on the Mainline, Soul of a Man, and John the Revelator) with originals, the latter sounding every bit as timeless as the former. Lead singer Amy Helm has had no shortage of exposure to honest music, her father being Levon Helm of the Band.

The rest of the band includes singing instrumentalists with varied but nicely overlapping backgrounds. While a number of the songs wrap themselves in spare and acoustic simplicity, they also embrace the more urban bearing of unobtrusively electric blues and funky gospel.

This debut is post-Harry Smith, post-Alan Lomax music at its finest. ~ David Greenberger

• Before This Time
• Soul Of A Man
• Elijah Rock
• Jesus On The Mainline
• Get Back Temptation
• I Am Waiting
• Two Steps
• No More My Lawd
• Can't Nobody Do Me Like Jesus
• The Storms Are On The Ocean
• John The Revelator
• I'm Willing To Run All The Way
• I Don't Want To Be That Man
• All Is Well