PJ Olsson 'The Ironwood Sessions' album

It’s no secret that a lot of artists have experienced some frustrations with the record business in recent years. But one of inventive singer-musician P.J. Olsson’s chief concerns is not something much discussed: a loss in the immediacy of music. In the major-label machine, the process of getting a deal, making a record and setting up marketing strategies can mean a long time between creation and release.

“By the time a record comes out it can be as much as two years after you’ve handed it in,” says the Michigan native. “How can an artist really have great communication with fans if what they’re hearing was written a year and a half ago? The digital age promises us immediacy, and I’ve been looking for a way to take advantage of that.”

No such problem with his latest batch of songs, the five tracks collected in a set titled The Ironwood Sessions showing a mature artist at the peak of his abilities as a writer, arranger and performer and very much in touch with where he is in his life.

“I handed in my record and it comes out a few weeks later,” he says, delightedly. “I’ve always made my music as who I am – I put a mirror up to my life and it comes out sound. With that, I’m very excited that these songs are coming out, and now I’m on to making the next five.”

As one of the first artists signed to the re-launched – and re-envisioned – CBS Records, Olsson has been afforded flexibility few artists have had, at least without giving up the reach and exposure of a major label. On that latter front, he’s also poised to benefit greatly from CBS Records’ reinvention of the music business. By integrating the music of CBS Records artists into CBS television programming and using the vast expanse of the company’s traditional and new media outlets, the venture represents an overdue paradigm shift for music and an array of exciting new horizons for artists. The music will primarily be released through digital distribution avenues, including an alliance with the iTunes Store and other digital music retailers, maximizing a cost-effective, direct-to-consumer strategy.

Olsson has seen life from the other side of the business, with a decade of experience in both major-label and independent situations. Despite three albums (1998’s P.J. Olsson, 1999’s Words for Living and 2005’s Beautifully Insane) acclaimed both for their bold 21st century troubadour combinations of traditional instruments and innovatively utilized electronics and his often-revealing lyrics, he had little commercial success. In fact, what was probably his biggest break came not via the standard avenues but when his carefree ode “The Whistle Song” (which did, indeed, feature him doing some rather jaunty whistling) was used in a nationwide 2004 Starburst candy TV commercial.

A year ago, Olsson wasn’t even sure he had a place in the music business – music yes, the business no. He’d left Los Angeles, his home during most of his time getting his career going, to focus on family life with his wife and three children while reassessing his musical life. There were issues to deal with, including some disillusion with himself and with some fair-weather relations, including, he notes wryly, music equipment manufacturers who called and asked him to send back the guitars and gear they’d gladly given him when he was a “major label artist.”

“Two years ago I moved back to Michigan with my family,” he says. “I knew I’d always stick in music. I got an independent record deal and knew I’d put stuff out. I’m proud of my stuff. And then the CBS offer came out of the blue. I think about how many showcases I did to get my first deal, and with this one I didn’t do anything. Someone called me and said, ‘We love you and want to work with you.’”

That someone was Larry Jenkins, who had worked with Olsson in the course of his tenure as a Columbia Records executive and now had joined CBS Records as a creative consultant.

“Larry’s someone I respect and he said, ‘I’m a real big believer in your talent and still think it has a place,’” Olsson says. “I still get goosebumpy telling about it. I am really ecstatic about this.”

The timing was perfect, as the changes in his life had inspired Olsson.

“This music is very reflective of me,” he says. “Sometimes I feel as if I’ve been going from boyhood to manhood – even though I’m not a teenager or anything. The last couple of years with my children and my wife, moving back to Michigan and being in a midwestern philosophy compared to living in Hollywood gave me a very natural centering. And that goes hand in hand with wanting to be more responsible. In my personal life I had some ups and downs that I’m very glad to have worked out. And that positivity also comes through my music.”

But so do the ups and downs. The first song of The Ironwood Sessions, “Hold My Light,” charts a hearty inner dialogue both in the questioning lyrics and the staccato acoustic guitar face-off. With the lush, soaring “She Says To Fly,” Olsson recounts the personal voyage of discovery, finding inspiration and hope to wash away bleakness.

“I was on tour in Russia, in St, Petersburg in my hotel room,” he says of the song’s genesis. “There you are in this dark environment and the snow started to fall, and I wrote down the first line of the song, ‘Snow in St, Petersburg, falling gently on trees.’ I didn’t finish the song there. In the next six months I had a lot of ups and downs and ended coming back to that song, taking the idea I had at the time – there’s so much personal stuff going on that I can’t explain. Sometimes it’s a plague to have to use music to express what I am.”

In contrast, “Rain Song” is all about the up.

“I wrote that for my daughters, looking at me one day,” he says, quoting the lyrics:
I woke up a different man today
I feel the power in all the daybreak words you say
As long as I am here you will always have a home
And I will always be with you, even when you are alone

“As long as my daughters are there, it will always be there – the magic in music,” he says.

The song “Send Me a Message,” in contrast, is all about devotion.

“It’s a very happy song,” he says. “I always heard about relationships where one person said, ‘If you die, please come back and do something to send a message.’ So I wrote about that. If my wife dies before me, change the channel or raise the chairs, all about her letting me know that heaven’s there. I really mean that song. If I was to die, I would do everything I could to let her know I was waiting.”

The music-making reflected the immediacy and intimacy of the songs, much of the recording done at home, with contributions from long-time friends and collaborators, guitarist Emerson Swinford and bass player John Fregmen, plus newcomer Mark Lucier on drums. But even though Olsson and Lucier had never played together before, they have strong ties -- for many years Lucier has worked with Olsson’s father Milton, the orchestra director at Michigan Technological University. The result, Olsson believes, is a much more open and revealing set of songs than he’s ever done before.

“In past records, maybe with the electronics and things I was hiding emotions,” he says.

This time he wanted everything to shine through.

“If I didn’t feel good now, something would really be wrong with me. I feel good and happy that my happiness isn’t based on the music business. I have no expectations except for my own artistic expectations.”

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PJ Olsson - The Ironwood Sessions