Hans Olson
Encyclopedia
Hans Olson is an American
musician
and songwriter
, originally from San Bernardino
, California, though he now resides in Scottsdale
, Arizona. Olson usually performs solo, although he has played with several bands throughout his career. Olson combines a blend of blues
, country
, folk music
and original songs. He plays an amplified acoustic guitar
and harmonica
. He is currently endorsed by Lee Oskar
harmonicas.
In 1986 Olson helped found the Sun Club, a former hub of the Tempe
music scene. The Sun Club was fundamental in launching the careers of acts such as Dead Hot Workshop
and the Gin Blossoms.
Throughout his career Olson also helped to establish and organize the Phoenix Blues Society, the Arizona Green Party, the Arizona Blues Hall of Fame, the Arizona Music Heritage Foundation and the Arizona Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame.
As of 2007, Olson has released thirteen album
s. His music has also been released on Virgin Records
in Europe
and on the independent record label
Fervor Records
in the U.S.
An Olson song was featured as the title track on the Fantasy Records
release, Deal It Out, by Tom Fogerty
.
s and film
soundtrack
s. Olson's voice was featured in the opening and closing theme for the Burt Reynolds
television series Evening Shade
. His music has also appeared in episodes of;
Olson has toured, performed, been an opening act for, and/or recorded with the following musicians: (and many more...see website for full list)
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
and songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
, originally from San Bernardino
San Bernardino, California
San Bernardino is a city located in the Riverside-San Bernardino metropolitan area , and serves as the county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States...
, California, though he now resides in Scottsdale
Scottsdale, Arizona
Scottsdale is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, adjacent to Phoenix. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2010 the population of the city was 217,385...
, Arizona. Olson usually performs solo, although he has played with several bands throughout his career. Olson combines a blend of blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
, folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
and original songs. He plays an amplified acoustic guitar
Acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
and harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
. He is currently endorsed by Lee Oskar
Lee Oskar
Lee Oskar is a Danish harmonica player, notable for his contributions to the sound of the rock-funk fusion group War, which he formed with Eric Burdon, his solo work, and as a harmonica manufacturer...
harmonicas.
In 1986 Olson helped found the Sun Club, a former hub of the Tempe
Tempe, Arizona
Tempe is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, USA, with the Census Bureau reporting a 2010 population of 161,719. The city is named after the Vale of Tempe in Greece. Tempe is located in the East Valley section of metropolitan Phoenix; it is bordered by Phoenix and Guadalupe on the west, Scottsdale...
music scene. The Sun Club was fundamental in launching the careers of acts such as Dead Hot Workshop
Dead Hot Workshop
Dead Hot Workshop is an American rock band based in Tempe, Arizona. They were a popular fixture of the Tempe music scene in the 1990s, when Tempe was being dubbed as "The Next Seattle" by music reps, and as a region that would produce many new, talented bands that would be ripe for national...
and the Gin Blossoms.
Throughout his career Olson also helped to establish and organize the Phoenix Blues Society, the Arizona Green Party, the Arizona Blues Hall of Fame, the Arizona Music Heritage Foundation and the Arizona Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame.
As of 2007, Olson has released thirteen album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
s. His music has also been released on Virgin Records
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and on the independent record label
Independent record label
An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...
Fervor Records
Fervor Records
Fervor Records is an American independent record label based in Phoenix, Arizona. Since its origin in 1990, this netlabel has issued releases featuring a wide variety of artists and genres from the 1950s through the present.- Company history :...
in the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
An Olson song was featured as the title track on the Fantasy Records
Fantasy Records
Fantasy Records is a United States-based record label that was founded by Max and Sol Weiss in 1949 in San Francisco, California. They had previously operated a record-pressing plant called Circle Record Company before forming the Fantasy label...
release, Deal It Out, by Tom Fogerty
Tom Fogerty
Thomas Richard "Tom" Fogerty was an American musician, best known as the rhythm guitarist in Creedence Clearwater Revival and the elder brother of John Fogerty, lead singer and lead guitarist in that band....
.
Notable credits
Olson penned songs have appeared on numerous television programTelevision program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
s and film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
s. Olson's voice was featured in the opening and closing theme for the Burt Reynolds
Burt Reynolds
Burton Leon "Burt" Reynolds, Jr. is an American actor. Some of his memorable roles include Bo 'Bandit' Darville in Smokey and the Bandit, Lewis Medlock in Deliverance, Bobby "Gator" McCluskey in White Lightning and sequel Gator, Paul Crewe and Coach Nate Scarborough in The Longest Yard and its...
television series Evening Shade
Evening Shade
Evening Shade was an American sitcom television series that aired on CBS from 1990 to 1994. The series starred Burt Reynolds as Wood Newton, an ex-professional football player for the Pittsburgh Steelers, who returns to rural Evening Shade, Arkansas to coach a high school football team with a long...
. His music has also appeared in episodes of;
- Cold Case
- The George Lopez Show
- Ghost WhispererGhost WhispererGhost Whisperer is an American television supernatural drama, which ran on CBS from September 23, 2005 to May 21, 2010.The series follows the life of Melinda Gordon , who has the ability to see and communicate with ghosts...
- Criminal MindsCriminal MindsCriminal Minds is an American police procedural drama that premiered September 22, 2005, on CBS. The series follows a team of profilers from the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit based in Quantico, Virginia. The BAU is part of the FBI National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime...
- It's Always Sunny in PhiladelphiaIt's Always Sunny in PhiladelphiaIt's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is an American television sitcom that premiered on FX on August 4, 2005. New episodes continue to air on FX, with reruns playing on Comedy Central, general broadcast syndication, and WGN America—the first-ever cable-to-cable syndication deal for a sitcom...
- Braving Alaska (National Geographic)
- The Wild West (Time-Life/Warner Bros. mini-series)
- The Music of the Wild West (TNN)
- Man Outside (Virgin Vision Films)
- Mill Ave., Inc. (Independent film)
Olson has toured, performed, been an opening act for, and/or recorded with the following musicians: (and many more...see website for full list)
- Michelle ShockedMichelle ShockedMichelle Shocked is the stage name of Michelle Karen Johnston, an American singer-songwriter.-History:Shocked received her first international exposure in Europe, particularly Britain, with her debut album The Texas Campfire Tapes .Her first U.S...
- Tom WaitsTom WaitsThomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
- Brownie McGheeBrownie McGheeWalter Brown McGhee was a Piedmont blues singer and guitarist, best known for his collaborations with the harmonica player Sonny Terry.-Life and career:...
- Al KooperAl KooperAl Kooper is an American songwriter, record producer and musician, known for organizing Blood, Sweat & Tears , providing studio support for Bob Dylan when he went electric in 1965, and also bringing together guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills to...
- Albert LeeAlbert LeeAlbert William Lee, born 21 December 1943 in Leominster, Herefordshire, England, is an English guitarist known for his fingerstyle and hybrid picking technique. Lee has worked both in the studio and on tour with some of the most famous musicians which stretch through a very wide of genres...
- Dallas TaylorDallas TaylorDallas Taylor may refer to:* Dallas Taylor , an American session drummer* Dallas Taylor , vocalist for the band Maylene and the Sons of Disaster* David Dallas Taylor, one of the FBI's ten most wanted fugitives in 1953...
- Boz Skaggs
- Dave MasonDave MasonDavid Thomas "Dave" Mason is an English singer, songwriter, and guitarist from Worcester, who first found fame with the rock band Traffic...
- Allman Brothers Band
- Arlo GuthrieArlo GuthrieArlo Davy Guthrie is an American folk singer. Like his father, Woody Guthrie, Arlo often sings songs of protest against social injustice...
- Bonnie RaittBonnie RaittBonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...
- Albert CollinsAlbert CollinsAlbert Collins was an American electric blues guitarist and singer whose recording career began in the 1960s in Houston and whose fame eventually took him to stages across the US, Europe, Japan and Australia...
- John HammondJohn P. HammondJohn Paul Hammond is an American blues singer and guitarist. The son of record producer John H. Hammond, he is sometimes referred to as "John Hammond, Jr.".-Background:...
- Jeff HealeyJeff HealeyNorman Jeffrey "Jeff" Healey was a blind Canadian jazz and blues-rock vocalist and guitarist who attained musical and personal popularity, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s.-Early life:...
- Five Blind Boys of Alabama
- Nitty Gritty Dirt BandNitty Gritty Dirt BandThe Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is an American country-folk-rock band that has existed in various forms since its founding in Long Beach, California in 1966. The group's membership has had at least a dozen changes over the years, including a period from 1976 to 1981 when the band performed and recorded...
- Elvin BishopElvin BishopElvin Bishop is an American blues and rock and roll musician and guitarist.-Career:Bishop was born in Glendale, California, and grew up on a farm near Elliott, Iowa. His family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, when he was ten years old...
- Joe CockerJoe CockerJohn Robert "Joe" Cocker, OBE is an English rock and blues musician, composer and actor, who came to popularity in the 1960s, and is most known for his gritty voice, his idiosyncratic arm movements while performing, and his cover versions of popular songs, particularly those of The Beatles...
- Gatemouth Brown
- Paul ButterfieldPaul ButterfieldPaul Butterfield was an American blues vocalist and harmonica player, who founded the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in the early 1960s and performed at the original Woodstock Festival...
- Canned HeatCanned HeatCanned Heat is a blues-rock/boogie rock band that formed in Los Angeles, California in 1965. The group has been noted for its own interpretations of blues material as well as for efforts to promote the interest in this type of music and its original artists...
- John FogertyJohn FogertyJohn Cameron Fogerty is an American rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist, best known for his time with the swamp rock/roots rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival and as a #1 solo recording artist. Fogerty has a rare distinction of being named on Rolling Stone magazine's list of 100 Greatest...
- Johnny WinterJohnny WinterJohn Dawson "Johnny" Winter III is an American blues guitarist, singer, and producer. Best known for his late 1960s and 1970s high-energy blues-rock albums and live performances, Winter also produced three Grammy Award-winning albums for blues legend Muddy Waters...
- Edgar WinterEdgar WinterEdgar Holland Winter is an American musician. He is famous for being a multi-instrumentalist. He is a highly skilled keyboardist, saxophonist and percussionist. He often plays an instrument while singing. He was most successful in the 1970s with his band, The Edgar Winter Group, notably with their...