Betsy Olson

Biography

Betsy Olson is a blues guitarist and vocalist originally from Montana but currently based in Seattle. From the early blues legacies to Jimi Hendrix, Olson imbues her own modern take, owning her own Lonely Woman Blues. Her all-women, blues and rock band, The Betsy Olson Band, reminds listeners that women were the first people to record the blues and is evocative of its early revolutionaries. Olson has been featured on recordings with Sera Cahoone, Moe Provencher, Rebecca Young among others.

“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)

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