The story of Waterville, OH indie-folk trio, Oliver Hazard, is the digital age’s version of classic band myth-making. One member of the band came home to Ohio after leading camping trips in California and decided to make an album with two childhood friends. They won a Facebook raffle to record one song at a studio. Instead, they played their whole album straight through once, resulting in their debut LP 34 N River (2018). The Fader called the album a “folk-pop masterpiece” and the band was booked at Bonnaroo and Mountain Jam shortly thereafter. In 2019, the band released their 6 track EP, The Flood, which Billboard called a “souvenir.” Their most recent self-titled album was released in July 2023, which led to touring with The 502s and Houndmouth, as well as touring throughout North America in support of their album release. They saw great radio support at Americana radio, notably with in-studio visits to WCBE/Columbus and WUMB/Boston. Oliver Hazard are on their way to be staples in the indie-folk genre, alongside contemporaries The 502s and Noah Kahan. Oliver Hazard has been on the road since the beginning of the year, touring around the US on a run of shwos with Proxima Parada and now currently headlining shows all over the US and Canada. They are road warriors and true outdoorsmen, taking in nature wherever they can on the road. With Raindrop River, “[the band] wanted to take what we did with our first album, how raw and live it was, and merge it with our last album, where everything was simple and clean.” You hear this on tracks such as ”Blood Moon,” about gazing at the stars and feeling humbled by how small we are, which is a folk stomper that manages to be at once tactile and crystalline in sound. The EP’s plaintive coda, “The Morning,” was written within a day of “Blood Moon,” and is perhaps even more deceivingly nuanced (not to mention gutting) in its pristine counterplay between confessional vocals and gentle, arpeggiate guitars.