It’s said that an artist seeking an industry breakthrough in Nashville needs to have a ten-year plan and be prepared to overcome rejection and hardship plus other hurdles. If this is the case, Oregon-born country artist Olivia Harms has done her homework and may very well be a household name in the coming years. She is the daughter of country music royalty as her mother is the Western Music Hall of Fame member Joni Harms, who can boast fourteen albums over a thirty year plus career. As a result, Olivia’s own musical career began as a young child, touring with her mother and eventually appearing alongside her on stage. Rather than uprooting and heading to Music City with stars in her eyes, the fiercely independent and focused artist divides her time between touring, her hometown in Oregon and Nashville, steadily developing her career on her own terms. She also took time out to attain a degree in Agricultural Business Management, motivated by having grown up on the family farm. She recorded her debut album in Nashville at the age of sixteen and headed back there last year to record her recently released album RHINESTONE COWGIRL. The title perfectly describes the author, given her family background and her commitment to not only country music, but the western lifestyle and fashion. It’s a flawless suite of songs, sympathetically produced and delivered with a voice that is unadulterated classic country. It’s also an indication of a writer with a razor-sharp eye for the minor and major detail, and the skillset to create great songs from both personal experience and sharp observations. We arranged an early morning zoom call recently with Olivia to hear about her musical journey to date.
Hi Olivia, where exactly are you this morning?
I live in a little town called Prineville, Oregon. It’s about three hours away from where I grew up on my family’s farm. I live here with my two dogs and use it as a home base to get back and forth from playing shows. It’s not too early for me, I’m a morning person, I’m just back from my run.
You were literally born into music, touring and performing on stage from an early age with your mom Joni Harms. Did you feel under pressure to pursue a career in music or was it a labour of love for you?
It didn’t put me under any pressure at all. It was an amazing benefit to have a mom who was so encouraging and supportive and gave me the opportunity to go on tour with her, and meeting people that allowed me to grow my love of music. It’s a big deal when you’re twelve or thirteen years old, writing songs and playing them to a live audience. It is a great way to build confidence. When I went to college, my mom just wanted me to do whatever made me happy, whether that was playing music or not. Music is what makes my heart happy and that’s what I’ve decided to do as a career.
You received a college degree in Agricultural Business Management. Is that parked for a while and has it benefited you in your chosen vocation?
I do get to use the business part of it. As a musician running my own business, I put a lot of it to good use, accounting and business management, all of those things. It also helps once in a while when I get to play an agricultural event and talk with some of my fellow farmers. But for now, the degree, in terms of getting a job, is on the shelf.
How have the last sixteen months been for you with restricted opportunities to perform?
It’s been difficult, but it’s been difficult for everyone, I’m not the only one that’s been affected by Covid. Playing live on Instagram and Facebook has been a wonderful option as it gave me the chance to still play live and interact with my listeners. I also got to play some outdoor concerts when the weather was permitting. There have also been some house concerts where a select number of people are invited and take whatever precautions necessary. It wasn’t a complete halt but I’m glad to be back in the swing of things now. I’ve been playing local shows in the surrounding area of Oregon and also Wyoming and Colorado, which meant some out of state travel, which is nice. The local shows were solo, just me and my dogs and for the others I had my band with me. It’s nice to do a little bit of both.
You also spend quite a bit of time in Nashville yet you have steered clear of the formulaic sound that Music Row is churning out, labelled as country music. You obviously have a clear vision of what you consider country music.
When I was in my search for a producer for my latest album, I had a very specific vision in mind. I wanted to produce traditional country that was also modern in a sense and not sounding like your grandpa’s records. I was also looking for something that could be played on radio today but also reminded you of going to a honky tonk or a dancehall, something very Texas infused but also mixing it with a Buck Owen’s Bakersfield sound. In my writing days I’ve spent a lot of time working with older writers in Nashville, people who had success in the late 80s and 90s. One of the songs I wrote was with Dennis Morgan, who wrote I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool and Smokey Mountain Rain. Wood Newton was another guy I wrote with, his songs have been recorded by The Oak Ridge Boys and Steve Wariner. I wanted my sound to be traditional and not like much of the pop music that’s on the radio today. I also wanted the sound to be authentic with live instruments, like someone is sitting in, listening to a live band that know what they are doing. I also get to do a lot of writer rounds when I’m in Nashville writing songs. I’ve done The Bluebird Café, which was on my bucket list.
From the lyrics on many of the songs on your album RHINESTONE COWGIRL, I get the impression that you’re no shrinking violet and quite independent. Were the songs written from personal experience or imagined?
A little bit of both. A number were written from personal experiences.Goodbye is one of them and Gypsy is an autobiographical song about my life. Hey There Cowboy I wrote after going to the National Rodeo Championship in Las Vegas, which is a big event they have in December. I had some of the strangest pick-up lines that I’ve ever heard. So, I came up with that song about how I would go about if I wanted to be flirty. The song Kiddies Pool is about one of my best friends who had a guy go off on her. She was so upset, but I told her that if someone leaves you then you’re better off without them. I told her to come on over to my place, we’ll open a bottle of wine and sit in my kiddie’s pool. It seemed a decent song idea so I took it to Nashville and they liked it. All the songs probably come from real life in one way or another.
Were they recently written or did you raid your war chest?
They’re all pretty recent. I’ve been commuting back and forward to Nashville for the past four years but most of those songs were written in the last year and a half or so. Goodbye was one of the older ones, I left the writing room in Nashville thinking ‘this is one I definitely want to hold on to.’
You spoke earlier about seeking out the right producer to represent the sound you were looking for. You chose D. Scott Miller, who certainly achieved exactly that. What players did he use?
He did a great job. We used Brett Cobb as one of the guitar players, an incredible steel played named Smith Curry who’s played The Grand Ole Opry many times. We had Allison West who played the fiddle parts. We did quite a bit of pre-production, we did acoustic recording of the tracks and I did the vocal recordings. I took those home and played around with the tempos to get them right and to do my own harmonies. We then booked the studio for ten days in Nashville and tracked all ten songs in the first day, a very long day. Over the next few days, we did some overdubs and added the utility instruments, added some baritone guitar and extra vocal parts. We had what we needed after ten days and they mixed it and mastered it from there. It was completed over a three-month period but I didn’t want to release it with everything going on with Covid. I didn’t want it to be overshadowed so I waited a while and then released one song at a time to get people interested.
For me the song I Don’t Want You (But I Need You) is a perfect example of how a song can be mainstream and radio friendly and remains a country song.
That song is special to me. I have so many friends of my age that want to settle down instead of being stubborn and waiting to find the right person and instead say ‘oh well, I’m in my mid-twenties’, I’d better bow to the social pressures and just get on with it and get married. I’m not that way. I have a busy lifestyle and I’m capable of taking care of myself, and I’ll wait until I meet someone that makes my life better and enhances it.
How difficult is it for you to get your music on the radio and getting it heard by a larger audience?
It is difficult to get radio play especially as an independent artist, but I do have many independent radio stations and shows, like your own one in Ireland, that support my music and I have had success in getting people from my demographic to listen to my music. I know my market and so don’t try to play at all the country music festivals. I look at Texas style country music festivals and the traditional ones where I know I’m going to have a better shot. As long as I also know my niche market, I can get people of my age to hear what I play.
Have you ever felt pressure to go down a more mainstream route?
Not really. I’ve come the full circle, because growing with Joni Harms as my mom, I was literally thrown into traditional country music, listening to that music, seeing the artists wearing western outfits and hats. When I went through my teenage years, I had that rebellious period where I wanted to blaze my own trail. I did veer away from country and western a bit. You can hear that in my first album which I recorded when I was sixteen, where I was going down the contemporary country music route. Taylor Swift was my idol when I was sixteen years old, so I was definitely going more for that sound. But the more venues I played and the people I met made me realise that my people are folks that live western lifestyles. I’m a country girl from Oregon that grew up on a ranch. That’s where my heart is and it’s better for me to be authentic from what I’ve lived and experienced versus trying to be someone that I am not.
Like your mom, you totally embrace the western style fashion wise. Is that important for you?
Yes, it is. That’s how I grew up and I love it. That lifestyle and fashion is also an art form. Many people don’t realise how expensive a pair of boots or a custom hat are. It’s only when they see the price tag on those items that they appreciate the artwork behind them.
Your mom recorded her album OREGON TO IRELAND in Westmeath, Ireland with The Sheerin Family. How did that come about?
Seven or eight years ago she was playing in Sweden and the Sheerins saw that she was going to be in Europe. They emailed her and told her that it was their parent’s 50th wedding anniversary and that they are a family band, love her music and asked what it would take for her to come to Ireland. They offered to be her backing band and thought it would be a great surprise for their parents. Because mom was already going to be in Europe and loved the idea of the surprise party, she made it work. She was blown away as to how talented the family band were. They hit it off and she came back a few years later and recorded the album with them. I went over to Ireland with her in 2019 because I really wanted to meet them all. We went to England, Ireland and then on to Scotland and I loved it. I had the best time in Ireland. I can’t wait to get back to Europe and get to play Ireland and Sweden. We’re booked to play a festival in Germany in 2022 and hopefully one in Geneva also. The people in Europe seem to get my music almost better than the folks in my own country, so I would be thrilled to come back.
I expect you’ve got a long-term plan going forward?
I do of course. I have so many goals for myself but for the rest of the summer I’m just going to continue playing music. I’ve sixty more dates booked between now and October. I’m then spending October and November down in Texas and Oklahoma playing honky tonks and bars trying to broaden my horizon. From there I’m just going to continue to write. I already have songs for another album down the road but in the meantime, I have to push this one and see what happens.
Interview by Declan Culliton