BIRTHDAY BAMA LAMA: A Calendar of 365 Musical Mugshots by Olaf Jens

By Mike Stax

Dutch-born California resident Olaf Jens is one of my favorite living artists. Inspired by great comic book illustrators like Will Eisner and Robert Crumb and the New Objectivity artists of the 1920s like Otto Dix and Max Beckmann, his work is executed with skill, imagination and an all-too-rare flair for character and atmosphere. His artwork can be seen on an array of record covers released over the past decade or so including the Twisted Tales from the Vinyl Wasteland series, Back from the Grave Volumes 9 and 10, and releases by the Jackets, the Chrome Cranks, the Kentucky Colonels, the Legendary Stardust Cowboy, and more. He’s also responsible for the fabulous banner for our “Echoes from the Vault” reviews section in Ugly Things.

Olaf’s character portraits of his favorite musicians from the world of rock ‘n’ roll, R&B, punk, garage, country music and more are especially well-rendered. He recently produced an eye-popping calendar with an incredible 365 color illustrations, each assigned to their date of birth—from country singer Ernie Chaffin on January 1 through Egyptian vocalist/actress Oum Kalthoun on December 31.

Famous names like Dolly Parton, Little Richard, Gene Vincent, Don Everly, Tina Turner, Bo Diddley, Lou Reed, Roy Oribson and Iggy Pop, are featured alongside lesser-known cult figures like Cathy Berberian, Adrian Lloyd and Robert Drasnin. There’s ‘60s garage icons like Sky Saxon, Gerry Roslie, Question Mark, Moulty, and Sam the Sham; UK ‘60s heroes like Syd Barrett, Chris Britton, Dave Davies, Screaming Lord Sutch, and Sharon Tandy; blues and R&B artists like Jimmy Reed, Elmore James, Slim Harpo, Ruth Brown, Nathaniel Mayer, Howlin’ Wolf, and Charlie Patton; rockabilly cats Johnny Burnette, Gene Summers, The Phantom, Charlie Feathers, and Cliff Gallup; country singers like Loretta Lynn, Porter Wagoner, and Red Sovine; legendary producers like Sam Phillips, Joe Meek, and Sir Coxsone Dodd; a plethora of punk rock and post-punk characters including Jean-Jacques Burnel, Mark E Smith, Rat Scabies, Joey Ramone, Poly Styrene, Richard Hell, Lux Interior, Ed Kuepper, and  Johnny Strike; neo-garage rock mavericks like Billy Childish, Russell Quan, Holly Golightly, Jon Spencer, Johnny Bartlett, King Khan, Fink, and Monoman; and outliers like Sun Ra, Eric Satie, Harry Smith, Chopin, Nico, Jack Kerouac, Korla Pandit, Criswell, Brigitte Bardot, Omar Korshid, and Anton LaVey. Scattered among them all are a host of upper echelon Ugly Things heroes including Phil May, Viv Prince, Wally Tax, Joop Roelofs, Arthur Lee, Cyril Jordan, Gary Burger, and Gabor Szabo.

Each portrait was painted with acrylic on 3.5” x 5” wooden panels, most of which were quickly snapped up by collectors and fans. But if you want every last one of them, you can hang this beautifully-presented collection of 365 on your wall instead.

For more details, email olaf.jens@g

mail.com