Olive Klug will perform Thursday, July 24.

Say what you will about the short attention span of the youth of today, TikTok for all its spyware and data-mining faults is one of the few remaining digital outlets where the song rules all. In the endless video scroll wheel it takes not only a reel talent (pun intended) to catch your thumb long enough to listen, but also a captivating song. With just a banjo, a guitar and a cell phone, Olive Klug fostered an entire digital community around her songs and it has blossomed into a glorious fledgling music career. And it turns out, those songs are just as beautiful and evocative in long form.

Her latest is Lost Dog, a quick eight tracks of conversational campfire folk songs, beautifully composed to suit their light soprano vocal. The songs are wistful and lean on a folk tradition, but are contemporary in their lyrical preoccupations and self-reflexive sensibility. Though Joni Mitchell or Joan Baez would certainly be a suitable comparison point, Olive Klug is devoutly of the internet era and a street-level groundedness.

A Portland-raised Gen Z songwriter who has lived in a van, Olive Klug matches the moment with anxious aplomb. If you find yourself scintillated enough by Klug’s musical musings, maybe you’ll be tempted to become one of Klug’s Bugs, an entire digital community organized on instagram and discord around Klug’s music and magnetic digital personae.

–Liam Prost