Ola Podrida

"Ola Podrida, the brainchild of David Wingo, was born in early 2005, after Wingo had returned to his native Texas from New York. Although he had played instruments throughout high school and college and even composed the scores for friend David Gordon Green's movies George Washington, All the Real Girls, and Undertow, he had yet to make anything as a singer or songwriter. He recorded the songs on what would later be his debut album alone in his basement before shifts at the video store where he worked, but brought on friends guitarist Robert Patton and drummer Matthew Frank for his live show. All three musicians moved to Brooklyn in 2006, where they added Johnny Christ on keyboards and guitars and American Analog Set singer Andrew Kenny on bass. In the spring of 2007 Plug Research released Ola Podrida, and Wingo continued to work on film scores, including Todd Rohal's The Guatemalan Handshake and Craig Zobel's Great Wall of Sound, which premiered at the 2007 SXSW festival in Austin."
– All Music Guide

Selected Press

Ola Podrida is a cohesive, confident album full of folky, quiet guitars and thoughtful lyrics that coalesce into complete songs. But what sets the group apart from similar acts like Iron & Wine and Paul Duncan is its cinematic flair: Wingo treats his words like images, so that the music acts like a soundtrack that gently reinforces their meaning and impact.

  • Pitchfork (8.0)
  • This is 'Texas Music', in the best sense of the phrase.

  • Gorilla vs. Bear
  • The folksy calm lets the songs feel easy, lets them feel familiar; and yet deep in there, beneath the easy and familiar songs, is something more than status quo. There's a fierceness that feeds these soft-voiced things, something far too sensuous for bedtime. If this were a 2006 album, it would be one of my albums of the year.

  • Said the Gramaphone
  • unfailingly cinematic

  • Exclaim
  • Wingo's mastery of the sound is hard to deny

  • Coke Machine Glow
  • very good album…fantastic live show. Definitely worth checking out

  • Brooklyn Vegan
  • it's easy to fall prey to Ola Podrida's rustic charms

  • Textura
  • …the upcoming album is a thing of quiet beauty reminiscent of the very best under-the-radar homegrown ’70s folk experiments…I have a feeling this is only the beginning.

  • Aquairum Drunkard