Most people know Jesse Olsen as the grandson of Tell Me a Riddle author Tillie Olsen, or as the tuba player and “leader” of the rambunctious Hubbub Club Marching Band. Most don’t know about his solo projects, like Ojito, which was recorded over a year in the high desert of New Mexico. With only a stream for water and limited solar electricity, Olsen used a hand-held cassette recorder to record pensive, smart, intricate compositions—sometimes with the rain falling in the background—and using those cassettes, the album was finalized with economically layered acoustic instruments and sparse, intimate vocals. Some of the songs sound like Guided by Voices outtakes, others recall the Mountain Goats; all of them evoke empty landscape and arid solitude with telltale sounds of the clunky “record” button being pushed. Olsen celebrates Ojito’s release with Reverent Sisters, a new duo with Joni Davis and Faun Fables’ Dawn McCarthy, on Saturday, Oct. 24, at Sebsatopol Center for the Arts. 8pm. $10. 707.829.4797.Gabe Meline
.Oct. 24: Jesse Olsen at Sebastopol Center for the Arts
