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Tom Dyer & The True Olympians -“Olympia: A True Story” Record Release Show
November 4, 2022 at 8:00 pm – 10:30 pm PDT
Tom Dyer & The True Olympians have released “Olympia: A True Story”, a 40-song, 47 track, 3-CD box set with 80-page book, and over 100 Olympia musicians. Their record release show is Friday, November 4, 8:00pm at the historic Olympia Ballroom – 116 Legion Way SE Olympia (doors @ 7:00). They are the only band playing. Advance tix can be had at olytruestory.eventbrite.com. The show is a benefit for the Olympia Arts + Heritage Alliance.
This is the tale of Olympia told through the lens of a third-generation Olympian who left town after graduating from Olympia HS in 1971 and who finally returned in 2016. The album a loving ode to Olympia, Washington, telling the story of the greater Olympia area going back 2 million years. Recorded over four years thru the pandemic, it is a monumental brew of eclecticism writ large.
Dyer: When I moved back to Olympia in 2016, I was most impressed by the Sylvester’s Window collection at the downtown Olympia Library, a series of eight Olympia cityscapes ranging from 1841 to 2001. These drawings really got me thinking about Olympia on some sort of time continuum in a way I probably hadn’t before.
I was at least partially inspired by David Scherer Water’s entertaining little “Olympia’ book, first encountered in the spring of 2017, where I first learned about things like Bordeaux and the 1959 downtown train station crash. I grew up here and had never heard of either.
The other book that really kicked this off for me was “Olympia: A Peoples’ Almanac”. Out of print, I got it from the library early on and it inspired further digging. It was the first place I had read much of anything about Little Hollywood, Olympia’s shantytown in the 20’s and 30’s.
The oldest song on the album is “Olympia, My Home,” written in late October 2018, a couple months after The True Olympians released our first album, “12 New Recordings”. We tracked our first five songs for the album in August, 2019. We did not suspect a pandemic was around the corner and how difficult that would make everything. Three years, three drummers, three Tom Dyer solo albums, and one True Olympians Holiday album later, it is done!
This is not any sort of complete history; it is a collection of sonic sketches reflecting my particular take on the many-headed beast that is Olympia. We hope our little entertainment will inspire people to dig deeper into the story of our hometown and have provided many references you can pursue for more information.
I’d like to give a giant thank you to all the Olympia musicians who donated their time and skills to this undertaking – on their behalf, we will be donating a portion of album proceeds and all the show profits to the not-for-profit Olympia Arts + Heritage Alliance.
The album is available at many stores in Olympia: Archibald Sisters, Browsers Books, Cascadia Grill, Childhood’s End Gallary, K-Records, Lantern Records, Music 6000, New Traditions Fair Trade, Orca Books Cooperative, Rainy Day Records, Rhythms Coffee, The Evergreen State College Bookstore, and The Legislative Gift Center in the Capitol Building.