Mark Olson & Gary Louris

A belated response to their Union Chapel show last month

I have an awful lot to thank Mark Olson and Gary Louris for. Their band, The Jayhawks, were my first Americana heroes and in the fifth form I wore out my cassette of their album Hollywood Town Hall. That record, along with a photo of Evan Dando wearing a Gram Parsons t-shirt on a Lemonheads sleeve, were the chief ingredients mixed in the crucible that formed my love of 'alt.country' (whatever that is/was). Sadly I never got to see Louris and Olson sing their wonderful harmonies together on stage. I think The Jayhawks played in London the day before my English A-level so that was a no-no. By the end of 2005 Mark Olson had left the band.

Since then I've seen both the Louris-led Jayhawks and Mark Olson perform plenty of times but I never thought I'd ever get to see the pair play the songs together that first set my musical taste on a twang trajectory. I'd heard rumours that Louris and Olson had recorded a new album together and at Dingwalls last year I asked Mark Olson if a tour was likely. He was optimistic; I was excited.

And so to a 19th-century Gothic church in Islington a few weeks ago...

Watching two middle-aged blokes with acoustic guitars isn't comparable to seeing a band in their youthful prime but the fantastic reaction to songs they wrote together like Settled Down Like Rain and Over My Shoulder proved that I wasn't alone in being overwhelmed by both nostalgia and enormous affection for the men in front of the pulpit.

Thankfully, a lot of the songs on their new album, Ready For the Flood, are pretty good. They're certainly more Simon & Garfunkel than Gram & Emmylou but you can imagine tracks like Bloody Hands being worked up into full-on country rockers.

Unless you're a Jayhawks fan of old this I can't imagine this reunion would mean much. Perhaps the tracks below might convince you otherwise. Let me know.

MP3: The Jayhawks - Sioux City

MP3: The Jayhawks - Settled Down Like Rain

MP3: The Jayhawks - Over My Shoulder

MP3: Mark Olson & Gary Louris - The Rose Society

MP3: Mark Olson & Gary Louris - Bloody Hands

Related Posts
Mark Olson - Dingwalls, 17 October 2007

Related Links
Mark Olson - MySpace

Gary Louris - official site

Buy This Music

The Jayhawks: Amazon | 7digital
Mark Olson & Gary Louris: Amazon
Mark Olson: Amazon | 7digital
Gary Louris: Amazon | 7digital

Mark Olson

Dingwalls, Wednesday 17 October

In the early 90s, The Jayhawks, more than any other band, opened the door to me then labeled alt.country. I owned a second-hand copy of Hollywood Town Hall before I owned a CD player and while my school friends were singing along to Cigarettes and Alcohol, I was discovering the delights of the steel guitar.

Originally The Jayhawks had two singer-guitarists, Mark Olson and Gary Louris, but Olson quit in 1995, upping sticks to Joshua Tree, CA with his new wife Victoria Williams. I never got to see the twin-pronged Jayhawks live. I seem to remember that they played a London gig the day before my English A-Level.

Mark Olson's new album, The Salvation Blues, is his first proper solo record and sits comfortably alongside his albums with The Jayhawks. After leaving that band he formed The Original Harmony Ridge Creekdippers with his wife and released a solid run of A-grade twang. However, that marriage ended a year or so ago and this new record is the sound of Olson reasserting himself.

Wednesday's all too short set drew heavily from The Salvation Blues, plus three old favorites from The Jayhawks' classic Tomorrow The Green Grass and a handful of Creekdippers tunes. Olson's small continental band comprised a sprightly Italian, Michele Gazich, on fiddle and double bass and a Norweigian, Ingunn Ringvold, playing percussion and keyboards.

They sounded terrific and though not exactly chatty Olson seemed to be having a good time. Much of The Salvation Blues was written in the UK so it's also entertaining to hear references to the Clifton Suspension Bridge and National Express coaches in such rich slices of Americana.

Gary Louris and Mark Olson have recently recorded an album together, due out some time next year (after Louris' first solo LP) and they're hoping to tour together next Autumn. I can't wait.

MP3: Mark Olson - Poor Michael's Boat

MP3: The Jayhawks - Over My Shoulder

MP3: The Original Harmony Ridge Creekdippers - Custom Detroit Railroad

Buy Mark Olson CDs at Amazon

Buy Jayhawks CDs at Amazon

myspace.com/markolsonmusic

Mark Olson - Salvation Blues (Live)



Mark Olson - National Express