Tucson Weekly: Ready And Willin' (April 30

Troy Olson Saddles Up For The Big Ride.
By Dave Irwin
COUNTRY SINGER TROY Olson is waiting for the call that will take him to the big leagues. As much as he loves it here, he knows Tucson is a minor-league town for music. He's ready to go to the majors. And the majors are interested. His recently released five-song, self-titled CD is creating a buzz in the business. National labels and some very serious management firms are looking at the 24-year-old musician. His chance to go to The Game could happen very soon.
Music The surprising thing is that Olson started this quest less than two years ago. He's just that good. He sings with the same natural strength and grace that a gifted young pitcher has delivering a sinking curve at 94 miles per hour. "One day, I just decided to drop everything, follow my dreams and see if I could do it," Olson says. "I always had a guitar around the house, but I just plunked on it. I never really sang that much. I never even dreamed of being up in front of people."
Five nights a week, you'll find this good ol' boy grinning from the bandstand at the Maverick, Tucson's country music bastion. There, he fronts his band, Overdrive. Together they're serving up some of the best live country music in town with a list of more than 150 songs. Their covers are so perfect that if this were money instead of music, they'd wouldn't even be locked up for counterfeiting.
The current lineup includes Keith Caudill on bass, fiddler Dave McIsaac, new drummer Vinnie Frigetti (replacing Nashville-bound Bobby Allen), and sizzling lead guitarist John Chastain.
The gig has taught Olson how to take care of his gift. "The most important thing I've learned," he notes, "is how to pace myself--how to be able to play five hours a night, five nights a week."
Being a lead singer in country, where your voice is out front, is a lot tougher than playing in a rock band one or two nights a week.
"There's three distinct versions of my voice on the CD," Olson explains. "The first is a thick baritone on 'Little Miss Mabel,' deep and gravelly. On 'The Other Side of Town,' which is a slow waltz, it's still low, but more wispy, breathy, which I really like, but it's tougher to do that live, because it gets lost. The third is a higher register, kind of a George Strait country." Baseball isn't really Olson's sport; rodeo is. He grew up ropin' 'n' ridin' as a kid.
A graduate of Marana High School, he still rides and takes care of the horses at his family's ranch. He lives there in an adobe barn with foot-thick walls that he's remodeled into a two-room cowboy bachelor pad. Not that he has time for a personal life.
Right now, taking his music to the next level is all he wants to think about. "I've made it my priority in life," he says without hesitation. "I'm not focusing on anything else. My mind has been on music for so long, it's hard for me to not think about it."
"The music business is a funny thing," he explains. "Garth, Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt, that whole class in the early '90s, they took country to that new space and created all these new fans.
Now country is at a crossroads. I think Nashville is deciding which direction it's gonna to go. They're trying to figure out how to hold on to the fans they've created and still hold on to middle America. The winds of change are blowing right now in country music."
There's a possibility that those winds could carry Olson farther west, rather than east to Nashville. He has no problem with becoming an L.A. cowboy, like his idol Dwight Yoakam. "I'm kinda hoping for that, actually," he admits. "I love Dwight Yoakam and what he's done with his career.
"I just want to do quality work. If it's gonna have 'Troy Olson' on it, I want know exactly how it's being made. I don't want to stand back and let somebody else figure out what my destiny or my image is going to be. You live or die by the decisions you make."
Olson continues to learn and hone his skills, both singing and songwriting. "I was involved in every aspect of the CD, producing, mixing. And I'm proud of that. I learn more about singing every night. I'm just soakin' this stuff up like a sponge. I'm into alternative country, rockabilly, but the more top 40 stuff I play, the more my writing is changed and molded," he notes.
The CD, on his own Barnsour label, is available from Olson at the Maverick, where he'll happily autograph it. It's also available at all three Zia Records locations. But the CD is only the current pitch in his effort to grab the attention of the music industry. "I'm always looking ahead to the next project," Olson says. "Right now I'm a young artist. These are the times that are going to form the rest of my life.
"If this surge doesn't follow through with anything, I'm already starting the next wave. It's gonna be a lifelong thing."
Troy Olson and Overdrive play Tuesday through Saturday at The Maverick, King of Clubs, 4702 E. 22nd St. For more information, call 748-0456.

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