Olga Wilhelmine Munding

OLGA If you do not already know Olga, just listen to her music and you will.

As this lithe, willowy woman settles into her guitar, the throaty voice that pours out of her takes you by surprise, transporting you to the easy rhythm of a sultry New Orleans afternoon. Gritty and honest, soulful and stirring, Olga sings about love and loss, relationships and the road ahead.

Fans all over the world will tell you that Olga s songs have an undeniable authenticity to them, stemming from inspiration drawn from her own life, a journey steeped in music, and the blues. Olga spent years honing her sound in the hill country of northern Mississippi, with friends and mentors like Los Lobos (her "favorite band, and people!") and blues legend Jessie Mae Hemphill helping shape her musical trajectory.

Born and raised in San Francisco, Olga was classically trained in music as a child. Her parents, who moved stateside from Innsbruck, Austria, encouraged her as she began writing songs on the piano at the age of five. In high school, Jimi Hendrix provided her first taste of the blues. "I began music very early, and started writing songs very young," she recalls. "I got into the business side of things through a chance meeting with a record archivist at a Grateful Dead show in my late teens. He introduced me to Los Lobos and Maria Muldaur, and I apprenticed with Maria soon thereafter. Los Lobos "adopted" me, and let me hang out and observe how they did things. I often sat on the stage during their shows."