Olivia Shaw is a very special musician to me. She is a Denver-based musician who currently plays with the cowpunk band Horse Bitch, lending her stately violin voicings to their raucous, unwieldy performances. She has also become a recent collaborator of mine, generously allowing me to record her violin on a handful of songs I’ve written for an upcoming release. She is friendly, kind, positive, and extremely professional—the exact sort of musician that everyone would want in their group. Now, with her debut single released under the Dream of Time moniker, it is her turn to play the role of bandleader, a job she pulls off with glowing success.
Given what I know of Olivia as a supporting musician—the quiet, confident, stoic fiddler at the side of the stage, at once the observer and the eye of the storm—I was thrilled to hear that she had released a single under her own provision. What I didn’t expect was for “Keys” to blow me away quite like it has. The song ostensibly falls under the dream pop umbrella, but the mournful violin and distant, distorted guitar pull it into another realm entirely. Upon my first listen, I had told her that it reminded me sonically of Emmylou Harris’s Wrecking Ball—one of my favorite records that could in any way be construed as modern country, no small thanks to Daniel Lanois’s otherworldly production techniques—and I’m sticking with that. It’s like an alternative timeline in which Harris had grown up listening to the Cocteau Twins… with Scarlet Rivera stopping by to track some violin, maybe. The production is lush, tasteful, and expansive, and Olivia’s smooth, dreamy vocals drift in and out of the mix with her dulcet violin to deliver something both beautifully atmospheric and incredibly engaging.
“Keys” is a substantial start for one of my favorite musicians, whom I know personally, and I am eager to hear where Olivia decides to go from here. I can only hope that she’s got a full album in the works because this has certainly got me wanting more. Whether sharing her skills with a friend’s group or leading her own, Olivia Shaw is a substantial force in the extended Colorado music scene, and it is very apparent to me that she has something essential to offer to the world of music as a whole.
Written by Jacob Simons
