Artist · chart history
Okkervil River
Band Austin United States Formed 1998
Okkervil River formed in 1998 in Austin, United States. Okkervil River has 21 chart appearances on 16 radio countdowns from 9 stations on RockLists, spanning 2008–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Down Down The Deep River”, which appears on 4 lists with a best position of #7. The station that charted Okkervil River most often is The Colorado Sound (Fort Collins–Denver, CO), with 5 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 2013.
Will Sheff named his band after a short story by the Russian writer Tatyana Tolstaya, set along the Okkervil river in Saint Petersburg, which tells you plenty about the bookish streak running through the Austin outfit he started in 1998. Okkervil River began as a trio, Sheff plus friends from his home state of New Hampshire, and the lineup has been reshuffled so many times since that the band is best understood as Sheff's songs and whoever is in the room to play them.
They made their first album, Stars Too Small to Use, in a garage and put it out themselves, and it got them to South by Southwest and then onto Jagjaguwar. The concept record Black Sheep Boy won over the critics, The Stage Names moved 10,000 copies in its first week in the US, and The Stand Ins, in 2008, carried the wordy, wounded folk-rock of "Lost Coastlines" and "Calling & Not Calling My Ex". In 2010 they turned backing band for psychedelic rocker Roky Erickson on True Love Cast Out All Evil.
The Silver Gymnasium, in 2013, is full of big-hearted rave-ups like "Down Down the Deep River" and "Stay Young". By Away, in 2016 on ATO, Sheff had titled a song "Okkervil River R.I.P.", and still the band carried on: In the Rainbow Rain followed in 2018.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Okkervil River on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Down Down The Deep River | 4 | #7 | – | 2013 | |
| 2 | Lost Coastlines | 3 | #38 | – | 2008 | |
| 3 | Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe | 2 | #357 | – | – | |
| 4 | Unless It's Kicks | 2 | #66 | – | 2008 | |
| 5 | Rider | 2 | #67 | – | 2011 | |
| 6 | Knoxville Girl | 1 | #335 | – | – | |
| 7 | Stay Young | 1 | #42 | – | 2013 | |
| 8 | Pulled Up The Ribbon | 1 | #612 | – | – | |
| 9 | Don't Move Back To L.A. | 1 | #508 | – | – | |
| 10 | Pop Lie | 1 | #611 | – | – | |
| 11 | Okkervil River R.I.P. | 1 | #63 | – | 2016 | |
| 12 | Calling & Not Calling My Ex | 2 | #82 | – | 2008 |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Year-end chart timeline
Combined year-end countdown points per year. Taller bars mean more songs placing higher across more stations.
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