Olga Wilhelmine Munding

Olga Wilhelmine Munding (born October 18, 1976) is an American New Orleans-based blues musician, producer and actress.[1]

Olga Wilhelmine Munding
Background information
Birth nameOlga Wilhelmine Munding
Born (1976-10-18) October 18, 1976
San Francisco, California, United States
GenresBlues, country, pop
Occupation(s)Actress, producer, singer
Years active1990–present (actress)
1996–present (singer)
Labels219 Records
Websitewww.about.me/laolga

Early life and education

Munding was classically trained in music as a child. She went to the Nueva School for gifted children in Hillsborough, CA, where she received a Yehudi Menuhin scholarship in classical piano, violin and music composition. She went into public school when her parents divorced and that began a long spiral downwards into "the blues", which finally culminated into hitting rock bottom with her divorce many years from Clarksdale-based Squirrel Nut Zippers musician James "Jimbo" Mathus. She studied drama and musical theater at San Mateo Performing Arts Center in San Mateo, CA, and Judy Berlin's, Kids on Camera in San Francisco.

In college, she lived in Boulder, CO and hosted multiple radio shows [2] at KGNU and produced a syndicated college show called Joes Blue Plate Special which aired on over 200 college stations and had a sponsorship with Doc Martin's. At the radio station, she hosted six regular local radio shows on KGNU Boulder/Denver CO, as well as ran the Community Calendar. In 2000, she was voted "the most alluring voice on the front range" by Best Of Boulder, Boulder Weekly newspaper.[3]

Career

Music

Munding is a blues vocalist and guitar player known for her sultry voice and Southern sound. Munding first took interest in the blues, when she was in high school.[4] She developed her signature style through an extended tutelage under the pioneering female blues musician Jessie Mae Hemphill.[5] Munding and Hemphill recorded together extensively and participated together in Martin Scorsese’s The Blues.[6]

Munding has released five albums on her label 219 Records , Now Is The Time, North Mississippi Christmas, Whatever You Want, Kiss Your Blues Away, and Blues Babe.[6][7] In 2011, she released her fourth album "Whatever You Want",[8] which was written with Cody Dickinson of the Grammy-nominated North Mississippi Allstars and mixed and produced by Emmy winning producer Winn McElroy.[9][10]

She has played with Chris Isaak, Los Lobos, North Mississippi Allstars and co-engineered the Grammy nominated song, "Monkey to Man" by Elvis Costello.[6][11][12]

She is also the founder and president of the Jessie Mae Hemphill Foundation, which honors the legendary and influential musician who served as her mentor and friend.[13][14][15] The foundation supports, preserves, and archives the indigenous music of northern Mississippi and provides assistance for musicians in need from the region who could not survive on meager publishing royalties. This gained prominence in 2008 when Munding fought publicly with a popular musician Cat Power who has used but not credited a Hemphill song on one of her albums.[16] On August 16, 2011, Munding was elected to the Blues Foundation's Board of Directors.[17]

On February 3, 2012, Munding in association with the Jessie Mae Hemphill Foundation organized the “Hill Country Blues Celebration” in Como, Mississippi to celebrate the “Repatriation of Como, Mississippi Recordings, Photographs and Videos from the Alan Lomax Collection” and the loan of the Hill Country Blues Photography Collection from the Jessie Mae Hemphill (JMH) Foundation to the Emily Jones Pointer Library.[18][19] Alan Lomax was an American folklorist and ethnomusicologist who traveled throughout the United States, Europe and the Caribbeans as part of his quest to record previously unrecorded and often overlooked folk music. Lomax visited the Como area during the 1950s and again in the 1970s. His recordings, photographs, and film from his time in Como comprise the collection presented to Como's Emily Jones Pointer Library.[19] Lomax's recordings, film and photos are in the process of digitization and wider availability online.[20]

She released her fifth album, a Christmas EP in 2012 called North Mississippi Christmas.[21]

Acting

She has appeared in numerous television shows and movies. She acted, and co-produced in the short film, The Statue which not only screened in 36 different film festivals, it won the New Orleans Film Festival in 2010.,[22] and producing the Jessie Mae Hemphill & Friends documentary,"Dare You Do It Again". In 2016, Munding began audiobook narration.[23]

Filmography
Actress Roles in Films
Year Film Role Notes
2010 Statue Actress (Girl Musician) Short film
The Somnambulist Actress (Nurse) Thriller
Red Mary Louise Parker photo double Action/ Comedy/ Crime
2011 Cutoff, LA Actress (Alice) Short/ Drama
2012 Django Unchained [24] Stand-in / violinist Western
The Courier Actress (Doctor) Action/ Crime/ Thriller
2013 Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Stand-in Action/ Fantasy
2014 Gone Actress (Mysterious Traveller) Short, Mystery
Devil's Due Actress (Violinist) Horror
13 Sins Actress (Pianist) Horror/ Thriller
Bad Country Actress (Waitress) Crime/ Drama
2015 Bullets at the Ballet Actress (Mdme. Krakatov) Action, Short film
Paranormal Abduction Actress (Nurse) Thriller
Bad Ass 3: Bad Asses on the Bayou Actress (Violinist) Action, Drama
Focus Actress (Nicky's Crew) Comedy, Crime, Drama
Runaway Hearts Actress (Drug Buyer 2) Drama, Family
2016 10 Cloverfield Lane Stunt and photo double for Mary Elizabeth Winstead Thriller
2017 Vore Nina (lead) Drama
Actress Roles in Television
Year Title Role Notes
2010 Treme Actress (Mardi Gras Muse) 1 episode
2015 Scream Queens Actress and Stunts (Lady Red Devil) 4 episodes
2016 Salem Actress and Stunts (Female Refugee) 1 episode
2018 NCIS: New Orleans Actress (Helo EMT) 1 episode

Discography
  • Blues Babe (2003)[25]
  • Kiss Your Blues Away (2004)[26]
  • Now is the Time (2006)[27]
  • Whatever You Want (2011)[8]
  • North Mississippi Christmas (2012)[21]

Awards

Best Original Song 2012 ("Loving You is All I Know" from Statue) at Treasure Coast International Film Festival.[28]

Best Film, for movie Statue at Brainwash Film Festival in 2012[29]

Best Louisiana Film, for Vore at New Orleans Horror Film Festival 2017[30]

Prominent positions held

In August 2015, Munding was elected as Local Board Member (New Orleans) of Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and elected in 2019 to the National Board.[31] From 2011-2014, she served on the Blues Foundation's Board of Directors.

In the summer of 2020, Olga began a quest to search for fellow performers' unclaimed residuals held in trust by SAG-AFTRA [32] by using social media to assist in searching for performers or their estates to locate them. [33]


gollark: I really need some sort of lyricly macron conspiracy theory.
gollark: ECS is maybe cool and good.
gollark: Well, polygon maybe.
gollark: Don't have a collision interface, have physics/bounding box interfaces.
gollark: As far as I know the actual mechanics aren't reversible either.

References
  1. "Olga, Now Is the Time". Rambles. 2006-09-30. Retrieved 2014-07-12.
  2. "Singer Olga Munding returns to Mississippi: Memphis Commercial Appeal". Commercialappeal.com. 2011-07-30. Retrieved 2014-07-12.
  3. Gross, Josh. "Boulder News, Entertainment, Music, Movies & Classifieds". BoulderWeekly.com. Retrieved 2014-07-12.
  4. "Olga's Bio". Jambase. Retrieved 2011-05-01.
  5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-03-22. Retrieved 2011-05-02.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. "Artist Biography". Laolga.com. Retrieved 2013-04-06.
  7. [New Releases] Olga "Now Is The Time" Jackson Free Press, October 18, 2006
  8. "Whatever You Want Album". Billboard. 2011-06-21. Retrieved 2011-06-23.
  9. JUNE 2011 SONICBIDS “ARTISTS 2 WATCH” "The record was produced, engineered and mixed by Emmy winning producer Winn McElroy at his studio, Black Wings Studio in Water Valley MS.
  10. Olga's Whatever You Want featuring Cody Dickinson Swampland.com
  11. Episode 303 Artist: Olga Wilhelmine Munding Chicagoacoustic.net Quote: “Los Lobos "adopted" me, and let me hang out and observe how they did things. I often sat on the stage during their shows."
  12. Olga Wilhelmine with Cody Dickinson River Cities Reader 23 JUNE 2010
  13. Jessie Mae Hemphill Profile The State Journal posted July 24, 2006
  14. Blues musician Jessie Mae Hemphill dies Blues News 30/07/2006
  15. Jessie Mae Hemphill, 71, Blues Musician, Dies, The New York Times. July 25, 2006,
  16. Matador Records Skips Important Credit on Cat Power's Jukebox SF Weekly. Andy Tennille Wednesday, Apr 9 2008
  17. Blues Foundation Archived 2016-05-30 at the Wayback Machine The Blues Foundation Board of Directors posted August 17, 2011
  18. "Repatriation in Como, Mississippi". American Blues Scene. Retrieved 16 February 2012.
  19. "Como to celebrate 'Hill Country Blues' Feb. 3". The Panolia. Retrieved 16 February 2012.
  20. "Folklorist's Global Jukebox Goes Digital". The New York Times.
  21. "Two Sides of the Same Coin". My Spilt Milk. 2013-01-01. Retrieved 2014-07-12.
  22. "Statue (2010)". Thebuskingproject.xcom. Archived from the original on August 30, 2011. Retrieved January 20, 2020.
  23. "Olga Wilhelmine: Books". Amazon.com. Retrieved January 20, 2020.
  24. "Django Unchained". IMDb.com. Retrieved January 20, 2020.
  25. "Blues Babe Album". Cduniverse.com. Retrieved 2011-05-01.
  26. "Kiss Your Blues Away Album". Cdbaby. 2010-11-17. Retrieved 2011-05-01.
  27. "Now is the Time Album". Cdbaby. 2010-11-17. Retrieved 2011-05-01.
  28. "Services". Tcifilmfest.com. Retrieved 2014-07-12.
  29. "18th Annual Festival Winners! 2012! – Brainwash Movie Festival: Drive-in Bike-in Walk-in Film Festival in Oakland, California". Brainwashm.com. 2012-11-21. Retrieved 2015-10-20.
  30. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2017-10-06. Retrieved 2017-10-27.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  31. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/opposition-party-wins-big-run-032428266.html. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  32. Robb, David; Robb, David (2020-06-04). "SAG-AFTRA Board Member Olga Wilhelmine Is On A Mission To Connect Actors With Their Unclaimed Residuals". Deadline. Retrieved 2020-06-12.
  33. "https://twitter.com/olgabluesbabe". Twitter. Retrieved 2020-06-12. External link in |title= (help)
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