New West Records have announced Can’t Steal My Fire: The Songs of David Olney is to be released on October 18, 2024. The 17-track double album was executive produced by Gwil Owen and features new versions of David Olney songs recorded by Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Janis Ian, Jimmy Dale Gilmore, The McCrary Sisters, Dave Alvin, Mary Gauthier, Buddy Miller, Jim Lauderdale and The Steeldrivers. The lovingly produced tribute also features the first new recording from Willis Alan Ramsey since the release of his 1972 cult classic debut album, an unreleased recording of Olney reciting his “Sonnet #40,” and concludes with a never-before-released live recording of the legendary Townes Van Zandt. Also included are new liner notes written by Steve Earle and David Olney’s daughter Lillian.
From his liner notes, Steve Earle said, “…I became positively evangelical about the songs of David Olney and I preached the gospel to anyone who would listen.” Of his recording of “Sister Angelina,” Earle said “I’ve played it literally hundreds of times… and I’ll continue to play it whenever I need to be reminded of where I come from as an artist and why the bar for my contemporaries and myself is so high. Because David Olney was the best of us.”
First preview of the album is Townes Van Zandt’s live performance of Olney’s “Illegal Cargo.” The previously unreleased recording was captured at the Cat’s Cradle in Chapel Hill, NC on March 11, 1977.
Originally from Rhode Island, David Olney moved to Nashville in the early 1970s and fell in with a group of legendary songwriters including Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Rodney Crowell, John Hiatt, and Steve Earle. He toured tirelessly with his rock band the X-Rays and gave a particularly memorable performance on Austin City Limits in 1982. Olney went on to release a string of brilliant albums and his songs were recorded by Linda Ronstadt, Del McCoury, Steve Earle, and many more. Emmylou Harris covered Olney’s “Deeper Well,” for her Grammy-winning album, Wrecking Ball, saying “David Olney tells marvelous stories, with characters who cling to the hope of enduring love, all the while crossing the deep divide into that long, dark night of the soul.” The New York Times called him “an uncommonly thoughtful singer-songwriter, and said, “Mr. Olney never had a hit single or won a Grammy Award, but in folk-rock and Americana circles, he is revered for his poetic sensibility and gruff-voiced storytelling, especially by his fellow songwriters, including his musical hero, Townes Van Zandt.” It was Van Zandt who wrote the liner notes to Olney’s 1991 album, Roses, stating “Anytime anyone asks me who my favorite music writers are, I say Mozart, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Bob Dylan and Dave Olney. Dave Olney is one of the best songwriters I’ve ever heard – and that’s true. I mean that from the heart.”
While the Nashville Scene said Olney was “Widely regarded as a founding father of Americana,” the bright lights of stardom never quite shone on David, and he died the way he lived: far from home, while singing a song onstage in a club on January 18, 2020. Can’t Steal My Fire: The Songs of David Olney gathers some of his friends and colleagues, many of which are legends in their own right, to pay tribute to his unique talent and vision.
Can’t Steal My Fire: The Songs of David Olney will be available across digital platforms, compact disc, and 2-LP double vinyl housed in a gatefold cover. It is available for pre-order via New West Records.