Offa Rex

A group whose sound fuses resonant, impassioned singing with meticulously played guitar and organ, Offa Rex unites English singer-songwriter Olivia Chaney and the Portland indie-rock band the Decemberists in psychedelic folk-rock. Their approach echoes the folk lineage of Sandy Denny, Anne Briggs, Steeleye Span, and Fairport Convention. The project began when a single tweet linked Chaney to the Decemberists’ Colin Meloy, an admirer of her 2015 debut The Longest River, prompting an exchange on the platform that soon led to her serving as opener for the band’s coast-to-coast U.S. tour. During that run Meloy asked whether she had ever considered working with a backing band—he had the Albion Dance Band in mind—and her interest, paired with his long-held wish to assemble a 1960s-styled psychedelic folk group, brought Offa Rex into being. Their first full-length, The Queen of Hearts, appeared in summer 2017. Cut at Meloy’s Portland home studio with Tucker Martine (My Morning Jacket, Modest Mouse) and arranged by Chaney, the album ranged across an eclectic palette that saluted numerous strands of 1960s folk-rock and psychedelia.