A meticulous student of American popular culture, Zephaniah OHora’s musical path began in a high end salon in New York City. Styling hair for the New York Fashion Week and the big city elite might not be the most common route to a career in country music, but when you hear OHora discuss the subtle trends of different decades, it all seems to make sense. “I think to be a good hairdresser, to give someone a really specific look for a photoshoot or for their personally desired aesthetic, you need to really understand the era that you’re drawing from. It’s the same way if you want to make great music.” he says.
OHora’s almost encyclopedic decennary knowledge glows triumphantly throughout his new album “This Highway”, which frames his original songs right in the crossroads of a golden era in country music; the meeting of the Bakersfield and Nashville Sounds in the late 70’s, laced with subtle 80’s countrypolitan production. From the New York City subject matter of “I Do Believe I’ve Had Enough” and “High Class City Girl From The Country” to the Porter Wagoner inspired “I Can’t Let You Go (Even Though I Set You Free)”, OHora’s songwriting feels immensely personal even while presented through the smooth, crooning sound of a bygone era. Perhaps it’s a credit to his ability to imagine himself in any place or time. “I did a lot of psychedelic drugs in my 20s, and once you take that life-changing trip, everything seems surreal in a way”. Listening to the Ayahuasca inspired “Way Down in my Soul”, you can almost envision OHora floating through a late-70’s country love affair.
OHora is originally from New Hampshire, where he grew up leading the music for worship meetings as part of a new-age Christian group. “It was kind of like a cult, although I didn’t realize it at the time”, he says with a laugh. It was through his hair salon job that OHora first found the New York City country scene that has now become his home. Already an avid record collector and DJ, he befriended a salon co-worker and guitar player on “This Highway”, John Shannon. Through Shannon he met numerous musicians including Jim Campilongo, who eventually became a close collaborator and the producer for “This Highway”.
When OHora was hired through his DJ work to book music at a newly opened NYC club, he wanted to curate a music scene for the late 70’s and early 80’s country music that he loved. That club, Skinny Dennis, soon became a gathering place for some of New York’s top country musicians, such as Alex Hargreaves, Roy Williams, and Jon Graboff, who appear on OHora’s album. “This record is a really beautiful culmination of all the amazing people who are involved in that scene” he says of This Highway, “it’s not that I’m special, I’m just a product of this amazing wealth of talent and all these hardworking musicians that exist in one place here in NYC. I think the community really made this album”.
It is clear, however, that OHora is something special. At a time when “throwback” artists are a dime a dozen, he has captured a beautiful, specific, and lesser known moment in the history of country music, and brought it to life through his own voice. Back in the 80’s, country music decided it needed to try appealing to an urban demographic, and maybe it’s some kind of beautiful irony that New York’s OHora is now creating some of the best countrypolitan music around.