Betsy Olson - Lonely Woman Blues (2009)

Betsy Olson is a Montana-bred, Seattle-based artist releasing her first full-length album entitled Lonely Woman Blues in October, 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 and off-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, in an October 2009 review, Kim Ruehl of City Arts says, “…it is the instrumentation…that makes this disc formidable.”