Oliver Hazard

One Liner: Like the Lumineers popped up in small-town Ohio

Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia - folk, indie

Home: Waterville, Ohio

Poster Position: Level 5 (24) 
Weekend Two Only.
Friday.

Thoughts:  Huh.  I think that Oliver Tree guy has forever ruined the name Oliver in a band, so that I was expecting this to be some whacked out garbage rap-ish that makes me sad for humanity.  Instead, its like I found early demos by the Lumineers before they found their stride.  

Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry was an American Naval Commander, the hero of the 1813 Battle of Lake Erie.  He even has a class of frigates named in his honor by the US Navy.  I was hoping that there was some tie here to the Commodore Perry Estate here in Austin, which was recently revitalized with a new swanky hotel and restaurants, but no such luck.  The Austin Commodore Perry wasn't even in the Navy, that honorific was a joke nickname given to him after his boat washed away in a storm on Lake Austin.  There is also an Oliver Hazard Payne, who was the founder of the American Tobacco Trust, and an Oliver Hazard Belmont, who was an American politician.  So who are these dudes, then?

According to one article, the band formed serendipitously when the lead singer came back to his hometown in Ohio, met up with a few old buddies, and they goofed around writing songs together for a week.  They ended up winning a Facebook raffle (not sure what the hell that even means) for a song's worth of free studio time, which they turned into a single session that birthed all ten new tracks they had written.  Kinda cool!  The band name is because one of the three dudes is from Perryville, which is named after Commodore Perry.  Strange band name though.

Their first single was in 2017, and then their first album popped out in 2018 - 34 N. River - named after their studio.  After that, a couple of EPs have been released but no other full-on album.  The sound is gentle and comfortable - it really does make me think of the Lumineers.  Top track is a 2019 single called "Dandelion," with 14.4 million streams.

Basic little tune, but catchy and sunny.  Feel good tune for sure.  They do a good job of harmonizing on many of these songs.  The other top track is "Caesar Knows," from that one album.  9.6 million streams.

A little more driving and danceable, builds up just a little bit with some excitement.  The newest single, "Saratoga," is more polished and bright - like they finally got real studio time and a producer instead of something they won on Facebook.

Nice band.  I like the sound, I could see enjoying their set.