Olsen & Dunn first crossed paths at the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop in the ‘80s. Olsen remembers being captivated by an all night jam that would pop up every night in the main meadow. To her it seemed the vortex of the jam was gypsy-jazz guitarist and luthier extraordinaire Michael Dunn, and much of the excitement and energy was coming from the museum quality guitars he had built for some of the players there.

Singer-songwriter Kristina Olsen felt like an outsider but loved dancing to the music at the perimeter of the jam. Every summer they would both show up like persistent weeds to soak in the knowledge and fecund cross pollination of musical styles in the week long camp. For the rest of the year, Olsen traveled the globe, bringing her songs and stories to her fans and Dunn built guitars and toured in Europe as part of the The Thieves of Sleep.

As the decades rolled by Olsen won songwriting awards, put out four albums on Philo/Rounder, then nine albums on her own label and wrote an ebook with twenty imbedded songs.

Dunn played with many bands, put out five cds, wrote two books himself, and taught guitar building at Douglas College. Not to mention building almost 700 stringed instruments. When Olsen was in Vancouver in 2021, Dunn invited her to a jam at his home. At the end of the evening, she told him what a fan she was of the the guitars he built. He quipped, “Then why don’t you own one?” She said she didn’t know that was an option. He built her her own Dunn guitar and they started playing music together, then started doing some concerts together. Their new music tips it’s hat to their beginnings with gypsy jazz infiltrating world music, blues and the songwriter, seemingly out of context, but that is where the magic starts. The fire and passion of gypsy jazz and flamenco with the intellect and carnality of Olsen’s originals.