Betsy Olson

Betsy Olson Is A Montana-Bred Seattle-Based Artist Releasing Her First Full-Length Album Entitled "Lonely Woman Blues" In Octboer 2009. Olson Pulls From A Wide Range Of Influences Ranging From The Classic Sounds Of Led Zeppelin And Jimi Hendrix To The More Modern Gritty And Soulful Sounds Of The Black Keys And The Gossip. Her Live Performance Is A Two-Piece Guitar Vocals Drums . With This Spare Instrumentation She Is Able To Create An Energy And Electricity That A Full Band Might Produce. Olson's Debut Is An Assortment Of Tunes That She's Been Molding On Stage With Drummer And Sub Pop Recording Artist Sera Cahoone. In "Lonely Woman Blues" She Strays Mildly From A More Sparse Live Set-Up By Adding Soulful Hammond And Keyboard Solos And Lead Guitar Tracks Performed By Olson Herself. With Help From Jonas Haskins On Bass And Cahoone On Drums Kim Ruehl Of City Arts Says "...It Is The Instrumentation...That Makes This Disc Formidable." "This Seattle Guitarist/vocalist Debuts With A Promising Album Of Gritty Stripped-Down Blues-Rock Reminiscent Of The Black Keys Though She Stretches Out With Some Haunting Atmospheric Ballads And A Couple Of Straight-Up Rockers. While She Just Performs Live As A Two-Piece With Sera Cahoone On Drums She Fleshes Out Her Sound A Bit More With Bass And Keyboards. Still The Focus Is On Olson's Primal Guitar Riffs And Cahoone's Equally Ferocious Drumming." -Don Yates Seattle's KEXP 90.3 "With What Seems Like Little Effort She Leans Hard Into Some Raw Rocking Blues Tune That Sounds Almost Recognizable But Not Quite....She Sings From Somewhere Deep Between Biting Guitar Riffs. It's A Difficult Target For A Young Songwriter To Hit--That Which Stands So Convincingly On The Shoulders Of Tradition That It Sounds Like It Couldn't Possibly By New." -Kim Ruehl Sound Magazine read less