Description
Olé is the fifth full-length studio album by the American singer and songwriter Tonio K., independently released on Gadfly Records in 1997. The album was originally slated to be released in 1990 but was canned by A&M Records, Tonio K.’s label at that time.
Tonio K’s fifth full-length album was originally slated to be released in 1990 on the heels of Notes From the Lost Civilization, thus completing his trio of comeback recordings. Due to the inherent nature of corporate restructuring, however, this project was canned by A&M only to see the light of day seven years later courtesy of Gadfly Records. This album, while being denied a final mix due to financial and political constraints, continues stylistically in the vein of Notes From the Lost Civilization. Tonio K’s patented form of intelligent funky roots rock and commentary-laced ballads is complemented greatly by a stellar cast of musicians like Peter Case, T Bone Burnett, Booker T. Jones, Bruce Thomas, David Hidalgo, Paul Westerberg, and Charlie Sexton. Co-produced by Burnett and David Miner Olé contains several intense and substantive songs like «Hey Lady», «Day and Night», (co-written with Burnett) and the caustic «What a Way to Live» which revisits his ornery heyday as a burgeoning voice of unreason. [Dave Sleger, AMG]
I was introduced to Tonio K. during college, and his Romeo Unchained and Notes from the Lost Civilization became the soundtracks for my university years. His stark admissions – and admonitions – about love and life and social issues challenged and inspired me, often more than my professors did. Then in 1989, he just disappeared. Or so it seemed.
The truth is, as a reslut of A&M’s sale to Polygram, many smaller acts were dropped. Tonio K. was one of the casualties. With the masters from an unreleased Olé seemingly destined to collect dust in some dark corner, a disillusioned Tonio turned his attention to other things. He hung out in Austin, Texas and did a little songwriting with his friend Charlie Sexton. He lent a tune to the Michael soundtrack (sung be Al Green) as well as contributed to the Batman Forever soundtrack. Oh, and he wrote the most played song of 1993, the duet «Love Is» recorded by Vanessa Williams and Brian McKnight. But still, Olé remained unreleased.
Enter Gadfly Records. The little label in Burlington, Vt., acquired the CD rights and put out the album that almost wasn’t, as well as re-released all four Tonio’s previous full-length works (including the very raw Amerika and Life in the Foodchain).
With stellar production by T Bone Burnett and the musical support of Paul Westerberg, Charlie Sexton, David Hidalgo (of Los Lobos) and others, Olé is a classic that has weathered the years well. Tonio wraps his throaty vocals, sometimes almost speaking more than singing, around issues such as homelessness, child abuse and evil ex-girlfriends, twisting ordinary words into extraordinary songs. His dark but quirky sense of humor and unique style of storytelling are as relevant today as they would have been had Olé been released on schedule in 1990. A&M’s loss is Gadfly’s gain. And ours. [Wendy Lee Nentwig, CCM, February 1998]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/ol%C3%A9/694130724)
CD tracklist:
01. Stop The Clock – 3:51
02. Time Steps Aside – 3:55
03. Maybe There Isn’t – 4:00
04. Stuck – 3:45
05. That Could Have Been Me – 5:00
06. Hey Lady – 6:19
07. Come With Me – 3:46
08. I’ll Remember You – 4:15
09. What A Way To Live – 6:10
10. Day And Night – 3:57
11. Pardon Me For Living – 4:15
12. We Walk On – 4:15
“We Walk On” (MUSIC VIDEO)
In the late ’80s, it appeared as though K. might remain with A&M indefinitely, and that he would perhaps release an album every two years or so. Alas, however, that did not turn out to be the case. After completing and promoting Notes from the Lost Civilization, in 1988, K. began work on what was to be his fifth solo album. As in times past, he enlisted a cast of exemplary players and spent the spring of 1989 putting together tracks at Ocean Way studio in L.A. Several weeks into recording, however, Polygram Records struck a deal in which they bought A&M, and the label’s new owners immediately set about transferring distribution from RCA (who had handled distribution for A&M since the ’60s) to Polygram. On the advice of management, K. took a break from recording to “let the new distribution arrangement settle in, and to allow the kinks to get sorted out.”
Later that year, the distribution arrangement seemingly intact, K. and his bandmates re-entered the studio and picked up where they had left off. For the next several months they worked to complete the album, and in the spring of 1990 the project was finished. Meanwhile, however, Polygram had begun a downsizing process that, in essence, translated into dropping all artists whose sales didn’t surpass 50,000 units. K.’s new album, titled Olé, was an early casualty. K was devastated.
“I was so frustrated when Olé didn’t come out, I didn’t know what to do. I was totally beside myself, just completely shattered. We had spent a year and a half making that record. Luckily, around that time Charlie Sexton called and asked me if I wanted to come out to Austin, to help him co-write his next album. I was, like, ‘Yes, I’ll do anything. Just get me out of here.’ So I went out there for a couple of months, and we wrote about half of what turned out to be the first Arc Angels album. And that was a turning point. After that, I decided I would just write, since that’s what I had always enjoyed most. I figured, from then on, I would just let someone else record the songs.”
[Excerpt from an interview with Tonio K by Russell Hall, featured in Goldmine Magazine, May 7, 1999]
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