Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter Sarah Olson will perform today in Barnes & Noble. This is the second concert in the “Beans and Notes” series, which began last month with Rebecca Loebe.Olson was discovered by the Campus Activities Board at a Birmingham conference in October 2006. She impressed them with her passionate style and incredible work ethic.
“[Olson plays] very mellow music,” said Patrick Young, Coffeehouse Entertainment Division Head of CAB. “Extremely great for a coffeehouse setting. You can tell that what she writes is from her life and heart. Very personal music. But it also has a certain edge to it. You can tell she’s had some downfalls in her life. But you can also tell that she always comes back up. She’s completely independent. She’s a hardworking gal. She runs her own agency.”
Olson’s style is quite varied. This makes placing it under a single genre difficult even for Olson herself.
“I guess I’ve been saying folk pop,” she said. “My new album was classified as pop, and my last EP was folk. My parents were kind of hippies back in the day, and I was influenced by all these old throwbacks that my parents listened to on vinyl like Bob Dylan and Bob Seger. I’m kind of a throwback. Kind of folky.”
Olson’s first album, Maybe I Can Change, was released in December 2005 on iTunes and soon had risen into the folk chart’s Top 10 slot among the likes of Bob Dylan and Cat Stevens. She said she’s been picked up by 169 radio stations all over the country and XM satellite radio. Olson’s relationship with music, however, began long before her successful career.
“I think I was born naturally musical,” she said. “My mom took me and my siblings to an audition once, and we all got in this big production of Oliver. It was so amazing to me. I just fell in love with music then. My mom had an old guitar under the piano, and I just picked it up when I was 13. I just started playing. I didn’t take lessons, I just figured it out. I didn’t go to school for the guitar until 2002. My mom bought me a Marten guitar when I was 15, and I’ve written a lot of songs on it.”
The messages of Olson’s songs are quite varied, but all are personal works based on her life experience.
“I write what I know,” she said. “Any message is going to be about what I think or I feel or I observe. Some of my songs are explanations of what’s wrong in the world. Some are love songs. I definitely have a couple of angry songs.”
Olson’s shows have a very relaxed, casual atmosphere.
“It will be very laid back,” Young said. “It will be her and her guitar.”
Olson maintains this friendly atmosphere through storytelling and casually conversing with her audience.
“I am very chatty when I sing and play,” she said. “I try to explain what made me write the song. I try to capture what was going on for me when I wrote the song and why I wrote it.”
Olson’s Mississippi State show is a stop on her college tour, which she’s thoroughly enjoying.
“The tour is a blast for me,” she said. “I’m having so much fun. The album is picking up steam, and people are responding.”
Playing colleges, however, has been a bit of an adjustment from her usual club audience.
“It’s kind of a different crowd,” she said. “But for me, it’s so fun. The person I’m playing for is that person who wants to hear my music. I always sing for the person who cares and wants to hear.”
For her Mississippi State show, Olson intends to play a wide variety of original music, along with covers of old favorites.
“I’m so excited to come to Mississippi State,” she said. “My show’s an hour. I’ll probably do a mix of my favorite writing of my own and my favorite writing of others. I’m going to play my favorites. I’m going to do what I do.”
Olson’s show will begin tonight at 7 p.m. Admission is free. For more information visit CAB’s Web site at www.msstate.edu/org/cab, Sarah Olson’s Web site at www.saraholsonmusic.com or call CAB at 325-2930.