Olav Larsen was raised in the Norwegian town of Sandnes, his father introducing him to his vast collection of blues, including Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker and Robert Johnson, which led him on musically to the likes of Dylan, Springsteen, Guy Clark, John Prine, Steve Goodman and Townes Van Zandt. The first album he made with his band The Alabama Rodeo Stars, ‘Love’s Come to Town’, blew me away and so I invited them to play a house gig in Liverpool. The gig happened and they behaved like absolute arseholes the whole time they were in my house, which proves the point that you should never meet your heroes. I still love this song though – the instrumental between 3’00 and 3’28 is one of my favourite bits of music of all time.
Songs for the apocalypse: Olav Larsen & the Alabama Rodeo Stars “Unhappy/Dreamer”
