Olson first began serious work in that capacity in 1997 for singer-actress Mare Winningham. In the years since, she's recorded a wide range of styles, from elegant jazz and blues with Phil Upchurch to some rowdy Texas guitar heroics with Jake Andrews.
"It was very easy because she is a musician and knows how to relate to musicians," says Upchurch, whose well-reviewed "Tell the Truth!" was Olson's first jazz project. "I've worked with producers who have no idea how to communicate with a musician. With her, the communication was always dead-on."
Sipping coffee at the Bakery, the North Hollywood studio where she does most of her work, Olson says she aims for that same raw spontaneity on all of her productions. "Things that are impromptu can be so fresh," she says. "I really like working like that. I like that kind of pressure. It brings out the best in me and the best in my players. Flying by the seat of your pants, you know!
"I've tried to develop a relationship with the performers where it's not an adversarial relationship," she adds. "I'm here to help. I'm not going to tell you what to do. And most of the people I've worked with have a real sense about themselves. They know what they want to sound like. And I need to help them get there."
Olson's attitudes are little different from when she arrived in Los Angeles from Texas in 1979. And she isn't going to change now.
"Look at me," she says with a laugh. "Long hair. I've been wearing cowboy boots all my life. I'm just what I am. I can't be trendy."
And back to the late Phil Seymour: he was Dwight Twilley's partner on the classic '70s albums - some of the greatest power pop ever recorded - and his first solo album is a lost exemplar of power pop-leaning new wave. The available hits collections of both Seymour and Twilley are well worth having.
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