Barry Ollman

This just in...

My latest song, Banker's Holiday, featuring Garry Tallent of the E-Street Band.

Hungary Rock

I recently returned from a trip to Eastern Europe as a guest of the Kogart House Museum and the Kovacs Gabor Art Foundation in Budapest. I lent them some items from my collection for their exhibit, From San Francisco to Woodstock, The Golden Age of American Rock Posters 1965-1971 and they were kind enough to bring me in for the opening. By way of background, a few years ago I was introduced to the Chief Curator of the exhibit, Andras Simonyi, former Hungarian Ambassador to the US, (here interviewed by Stephen Colbert in 2006), by my friend and fellow collector Paul Harbaugh who was a Co-Curator on the project. One night about two months before we left for Budapest I was speaking with Paul on the phone and he told me that they could use a foreword/introductory essay for the exhibition catalog and he asked if I'd like to have a shot at it.

Andras, who is an accomplished Rock musician himself, is a firm believer that Rock & Roll played a critical role in the fall of the Iron Curtain, and his vision informed much of the content of this exhibit. As I began to work on the essay, I had to search for some basic truths about what music has meant in my own life, and when I sent my finished piece to the folks at the Museum the next morning, I was delighted to find that it resonated strongly with my new friends in Hungary. They love the same music that I love but in a way that I'd never been able to appreciate. They grew up in a situation where all of the amazing sixties music that endlessly flowed out of The States and UK was really hard for them to get their hands on! The Wall couldn't stop the music, even in a pre internet era, but that didn't make it easy to find, nor did it make it safe to listen to. I've taken it for granted my entire life that I could listen to any music I want to hear, whenever I want to hear it...

That is a true luxury!

Here's The Music Had Become Everything which was published in the beautifully illustrated catalog that Kogart produced.

Crosby/Nash

The Crosby/Nash tour came through Denver and their Swallow Hill RootsFest show at the Paramount Theater will be talked about for years to come—they were fantastic! Graham, generous as ever, dedicated the entire show to our friend Harry Tuft, founder and proprietor of the Denver Folklore Center, which celebrates its 50th year in 2012. He also gave a shoutout to Nick and Helen Forster of eTown while introducing "Our House" and to our friends U.S. Congresswoman Diana Degette, her husband Lino and daughter Francesca along with all the teachers in the hall, before launching into "Teach Your Children". For the final encore of the evening, "Chicago," Graham shouted out "This one's for you, Barry!" What a guy...

I did get to spend a lot of time with Graham and David over that weekend and I'm happy to report that they are indeed best of friends, thrilled to be performing together and writing new music daily. They played a bunch of new songs for me and it's excellent work, relevant and powerful. As always, they both have many exciting projects in the works that I think you'll want to know about. Stay tuned. The day before the Paramount show they gave the closing address at the 63rd Annual Conference on World Affairs in Boulder to a very excited and inspired packed house at Macky Auditorium. Here's a little of what they had to say.

Twist & Shout

Read Barry's interview with Twist & Shout owner Paul Epstein. If you're not familiar with Twist & Shout, it's one of the world's great independent record stores, right here in Denver.

Singer, Songwriter, Guitarist

In addition to Banker's Holiday, feel free to stream or download three other songs in the music section of this site. They feature my longtime friends Nick & Helen Forster of the beloved national radio program eTown, guitar wizard Dave Beegle, and the incomparable David Amram. Hope you like what we're up to!

Collector of Rare Letters, Interesting Autograph Material, First Editions

Over the last 30 years my collection has taken on a focus of American social movements from 1920 to 1970 with particular interests in the handwritten papers, letters, art works, and ephemera of Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, as well as artists and musicians from the early days of rock and roll, and a wide variety of interesting literary and historical papers. Recent finds range from Otis Redding to J.R.R. Tolkien with Ralph Ellison, Ernest Hemingway, The Weavers and Ella Fitzgerald in between!

Articles on my collections:
Barry's Interview with Twisted Spork
Rock History For Sale
Wild About Woody

Contact

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