Reunited but with a new sound

In the winter after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a small group of musicians began gathering on Sunday evenings at a bar on New York's Lower East Side to sing gospel songs, their need for reassurance and their love of roots music intersecting in the old hymns. When the sextet, now called Ollabelle, decided to record those hymns, the music struck a chord with others as well.

Wait for the Sun, Ollabelle:
Part of the melody hints at Neil Young's murderous Down By the River, but writer and lead singer Fiona McBain makes it dreamier.

To make a gig of his new band Ollabelle in 2002, at a bar without a stage in New York's East Village, bass player Byron Isaacs had to dash away from his wife and first-born child—a daughter delivered earlier that day. Ever since, the dueling commitments of band, business and family have marked the development of this acclaimed roots music group, especially during the long gestation of its new album, "Neon Blue Bird."

With Ollabelle, the chemistry is 'killer'
By Walter Tunis Contributing Music Writer

Decade-old New York rootsy collective Ollabelle returns to recording...

"By the third song, the new album from this New York quintet essentially grabs you by the collar. On "Be Your Woman," the swampy
tempo suddenly shifts into overdrive, the band members are wailing in unison, tambourines are rattling, and you think you're listening to the Staple Singers. "Neon Blue Bird" signals a colorful, and welcome, new shade from this band that puts a modern spin on traditional folk and blues."

Ollabelle, Neon Blue Bird. The third album by this endlessly intriguing East Coast band has more than a little in common with The Band's groundbreaking debut Music from Big Pink.