Welcome
I’m Holger Olesen — bassist, vocalist, and resonator guitar player from Birchdale, MN living in the greater Johnson City area.
Since 2020 I’ve been touring with The Little Roy & Lizzy Show as their bass player. We perform all over the country — festivals, theaters, churches, cruise ships — and getting to make music with Little Roy and Lizzy Long every night is something I never take for granted. My fiancée Molly Yates also plays guitar in the band.
In 2026 I was nominated for SPBGMA Dobro Performer of the Year. I won first place in Dobro at the 88th Annual Galax Old Fiddlers’ Convention in August 2024, and that same spring I got to sit in with Rhonda Vincent playing bass at the Grand Ole Opry. I’ve also sat in with other bands like The Cleverlys and played with various acts at Ole Smoky Moonshine Holler in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
Molly and I perform together as a duo whenever our schedule allows.
Before joining the Little Roy & Lizzy Show, I co-founded Continental Drive in 2018 with Matthew Songmaker, Jacob Wright, Jake Riggins, and Andrew Lathe — all of us scholarship students in the ETSU Bluegrass program at the time. We all went on to careers in the bluegrass world.
Earlier on, I played dobro and sang in Porcupine Creek, a band out of Minnesota that won ribbons in several band contests, including the state fair, recorded two albums, and filmed two PBS television specials on Pioneer PBS’s Grassland Jam.
I grew up playing music with my family band Sloughgrass from the time I was very little. My cousin Gary Hultman — who plays full-time with Blue Highway, and was previously in the Boxcars and the Highland Travelers — got me started on the resonator guitar and was a role model growing up. Rob Ickes’ dobro camps really helped turn me towards pursuing bluegrass music as a living.
When I’m not on the road, I teach at East Tennessee State University as adjunct faculty in both the Bluegrass and Engineering departments. I teach guitar building and engineering courses. I hold dual degrees from ETSU in Bluegrass, Country & Old-Time Music and Manufacturing Engineering Technology, plus a Master of Science in Engineering Technology.
I’m available for session work — reach out through the contact page.