Dustin Olson

Growing up in the far western suburbs of Chicago, you might think Olson was raised on ‘hot country radio’ but that’s not the case. Instead it was his dad that helped shape his musical palate as father and son first farmed together and then worked side by side building custom motorcycles, motors and restoring classic cars, all to dad’s soundtrack of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Dr. Hook.

Dustin attended college ultimately earning a Master's degree and landing a job in corporate banking. In the end, his career took him far from the finance world as he became the owner of his own business building muscle cars for six years, but even the need for speed didn’t give him what he truly wanted.

“I always wanted to play music,” says Olson. “Even when I was working in racing and had my shop, I would always go see live music and wish I could do that.”

It wasn’t until 2009 that Dustin mentioned to his brother Jared how he wished he could play. Remembering that conversation Jared, a guitar player himself, gifted Dustin a jet black Stratocaster. Dustin dove in but like most guitar students, got frustrated and within a few months he put the guitar down, opting instead to run sound for a local country band. That led to Dustin hosting open mic nights at a local bar which reignited his desire to play, so much so he walked into a local guitar shop and walked out with his new best friend, an acoustic Taylor guitar.

From that point his sole focus was learning to play, eventually learning enough chords to play George Strait’s “Troubadour.” Excited he showed his brother who immediately insisted on dragging Dustin onstage to perform it with him that night. That night turned into another night, and another, until Dustin formally joined his brother and Melissa Olson to become a full-fledged acoustic trio performing gigs all over the area as The Olson Band.

It wasn’t long before Olson formed his own band, the Blue Collar Rebellion. Playing many of the same bars, Olson performed primarily covers but introduced his newfound fans to the likes of ‘red dirt’ country. Artists like Cross Canadian Ragweed, Pat Green, Bart Crow, Randy Rogers, Charlie Robison filled his set lists and began to lay the groundwork for the songwriter Dustin was becoming.

While he became more and more comfortable onstage, it was the loss of his mother in October of 2013 that solidified his belief in himself. On the day of her memorial service he and his brother strapped on their guitars and performed their mom’s favorite song, Eric Church’s “Like Jesus Does” and likewise played it again at their show that night. Understandably the second time around was too much but Dustin got through the tears, the song and the show because he knew that’s what his mom would want him to do.

By 2015 Dustin was taking regular trips to Nashville. The visits got more frequent and Nashville got harder and harder to leave to the point he eventually gave in to his heart, selling his business and in early 2016 making the move to Music City.

“It was exactly where I wanted to be and scary as hell all at the same time. I don’t think I played out live for the first nine months I lived in Nashville because everyone is so good.”

The days of self-doubt are now a thing of the past as Olson has forged a number of friendships and writing partnerships with some of Nashville’s songwriting elite, some even considering him in that circle as well. Now with a fully loaded band behind him the time has come to pack up his guitar, load up his growing list of songs and take it all out where it needs to be to breathe – out on the road.

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The Music

After countless hours of songwriting and the production brilliance of Marc "Butter" Fortney (Trailer Choir) Dustin's debut EP, "Prayer Of A Simple Man," was released in November of 2017. The album reached as high as #14 on the iTunes country Pre-Order chart and debuted in the top 100 on the iTunes country chart on release day. Since its release the songs of "Prayer of a Simple Man" have gathered nearly 25,000 streams and racked up over 20,000 music video views in 2018 alone.



Moving forward 2019 is already shaping up to be a big year with a whole bunch of new music and new tour locations already on the calendar. Dustin's next single, "Memories We Didn't Make," is set to release on March 1st and is a complete change of pace from the fun party songs that made up his debut EP. This new single, inspired by a breakup, shows a softer more fragile side of Dustin that we have not previously seen. Dustin is planning on releasing at least two more songs by the end of the summer and using all of that forward momentum and new material to take his touring and music to the next level throughout the year.