What would inspire a songwriter/guitarist in a successful alt-country
band with devoted fans across the country and beyond to throw
in the towel, move to the California desert, and put together
his own homespun folk band? In the case of ex-Jayhawk Mark Olson,
it was field recordings by the Holy Modal Rounders and Lucinda
Williams’ early records. "Those are the kind of records
I play," Olson says, "so I might as well sound that
way." And despite the commercial success the Minneapolis-based
Jayhawks were enjoying in 1995 when Olson decided to quit the
band, his decision was also influenced by what he perceives
as the fickle nature of the rock ’n’ roll world. "With
pop music, you’re up one day, down the next," he says.
"With folk music, you can build a following that will stick
with you over time—regardless of whether or not you get played
on the radio." Olson got a good look at that kind of devoted
following when he toured with his wife, cult heroine and singer-songwriter
Victoria Williams, who has been doing her own quirky thing since
releasing her first solo recording, Happy Come Home (Geffen),
in 1987.
There was something magical about Olson’s collaboration
with Gary Louris, his co-writer, cofrontman, and electric guitarist
in the Jayhawks—the blend of their voices, the way Louris’ soulful
lead guitar parts filled the spaces in the melody—but Olson
is creating a different kind of magic in Joshua Tree, California,
with a whole new crew of collaborators dubbed the Original Harmony
Ridge Creek Dippers.
The Creek Dippers’ new recording, My Own Jo Ellen (HighTone),
is a collection of Americana penned by Olson and featuring
himself and Williams on vocals, acoustic and electric guitar,
dulcimer, piano, and electric banjo; Mike Russell on fiddle,
mandolin, and bass; Greg Leisz on acoustic and electric guitar,
mandolin, bass, and Dobro; Brian Kane on acoustic guitar, clarinet,
and sax; and Danny Frankel and Don Heffington on drums. It’s
actually Olson’s third recording as a Creek Dipper; the first
two, The Original Harmony Ridge Creek Dippers and Pacific
Coast Rambler, were not only self-recorded but self-released.
The latest presents more of Olson’s simple, singable songs in
a kind of loose, folksy format (despite the high-quality production
provided by engineer Michael Dumas). "My songs are really
simple," Olson says. "Anyone with a basic knowledge
of music can sit down and play with me."
The off-kilter harmonies spun out by Olson and Williams are
something of an acquired taste, and that singing-around-the-kitchen-table
vibe is amplified tenfold when the group loads its equipment
(and its dogs) into the van for a concert tour. Williams plays
guitar in the Creek Dippers, and Olson plays bass in Williams’
band, and their down-home, seemingly off-the-cuff shows are
immensely appealing.
Olson writes the majority of his songs on his workhorse Guild
D-25 but also writes on piano and has recently taken to the
dulcimer. He discovered the appeal of the dulcimer while playing
for mentally retarded kids, who "really liked it."
The sound of the instrument inspired him to write some of the
strongest tunes on My Own Jo Ellen, including "Walking
Through Nevada," a sweet, romantic duet with Williams;
"Ben Johnson’s Creek," an old-timey ecological awareness
song; and the country-flavored title track. "I wrote ‘Letter
from Africa’ and ‘Linda Lee’ on the piano," Olson says.
"We have this old van and we’re able to carry a weighted
keyboard in there, so I get to play three different instruments
when I’m performing my own songs [on the road]. I really enjoy
that."
The change in band status has certainly taken some getting
used to. The Jayhawks traveled with a full entourage of managers
and roadies and essentially had only to show up and play. With
the Creek Dippers, Olson and his cohorts are necessarily hands-on,
handling everything from booking the tours to loading in their
gear to working with venue managers and sound engineers. But
the physical labor is a small price to pay for expressing what’s
in his heart. "Now there are new fans who have just heard
of me through the Creek Dippers," says Olson, "and
that’s a nice thing."
WEB EXCLUSIVE:
Simone Solondz' interview with Mark Olson
How did your tour with Victoria Williams and the Original
Harmony Ridge Creek Dippers go?
OLSON It went well. We just
finished. Thirty shows in 35 days!
That’s quite the family scene you have on the road: your
wife, your buddies, the dogs. . .
OLSON Yeah, it’s kind of like
home on the road.
Does working with your spouse pose an extra challenge?
OLSON She plays in my band,
and I play in her band. We both enjoy that.
I get the sense that your music is profoundly affected by
your surroundings: that the Jayhawks sound was born of Minnesota
and the Creek Dippers songs are very much influenced by the
west. What can you say about that?
OLSON I record with people
who live in this area: L.A. and around here. Lyrically, stuff
that’s going on around me [turns up in songs]. I read the newspaper
here, and every now and then I pick up an idea from a newspaper.
Like "Meeting in Lone Pine" is pretty much right out of a newspaper.
It’s not necessarily the article, but the ideas behind it.
So the songs on the new record, My Own Jo Ellen,
are things you recently wrote?
OLSON They have been ideas
in my head for a while—certain experiences I’ve had over the
past couple of years. I actually just sat down and wrote them
a couple of weeks before we recorded. I made a schedule to record
because there was this engineer available, and I called up some
people, and then I had a week basically to write the songs.
If something impresses me, I file it away in my head.
Do you write things down for later use?
OLSON No, I don’t take notes.
I try to memorize the song as I write it. But I do have the
whole song done before I start recording. I don’t go in and
create in the studio.
So they songs were very fresh when you recorded them. Have
they changed on the road?
OLSON Yeah, the songs are
a little bit different But that’s kind of nice in a way. I don’t
say we have to play it just like the record because that depends
on the people playing, too, what their talents are.
You’ve really gone down a folksier road since your rock
’n’ roll records with the Jayhawks.
OLSON It was a conscious decision.
We’re going to do some folk festivals in Canada. Vic played
one in Denver this summer. It was real fun. That’s the direction
that interests me. It seems like more of a long-term thing.
With pop music you’re up one day, down the next, and with folk
music it seems like you can build a following that will stick
with you over time—regardless of whether or not you get played
on the radio.
How did the loss of collaborator [and Jayhawk] Gary Louris
affect your songwriting process?
OLSON I’ve been trying to
write songs for 20 years. I’m more able to express a single
idea now. I used to try to bring in a lot of things. I’ve had
to work at it. With Gary, we basically wrote our own songs and
then came together to fill in the blank spaces. Now I have to
fill in my own blank spaces, which is fine.
Do you run ideas by Victoria?
OLSON I usually just play
the song for Vic and Mike [Russell] and let them play along.
If I have any musical question, I ask them, but for the most
part it’s pretty easy going. My songs are really simple. Anyone
with a basic knowledge of music can sit down and play with me.
But at the same time they’re complex in their simplicity. It’s
difficult to write the straight three-chord songs without having
it sound like something else. You have to throw in a few curves.
You’re still mixing acoustic and electric instruments, but
the balance has definitely shifted to the acoustic side. Is
that a product of the songs themselves or an overall sonic decision
you’ve made?
OLSON With our studio, it’s
easier to record acoustic stuff. The homemade [Creek Dippers]
records were basically all acoustic. This new record has some
electric guitar and some drums. I basically put out one record
a year.
What else were you up to between 1995, when you left the
Jayhawks, and now?
OLSON We did the Lilith tours
and some small tours . . . Vic’s Musings tour. We have
this place out in the desert, and I worked on that for quite
a bit. I got a little orchard going.
On the first two Creek Dippers records, you cowrote tunes
with Victoria, with Allbright, with the Williams brothers. How
did those collaborations work?
OLSON On the first Creek Dipper
records, we’d have one person come [into the studio at a time],
and I would engineer. I would come in with a basic idea, and
they would help me finish the song—put in either musical or
lyrical ideas. We’d be recording as we wrote the songs.
Do you think that adds a different dimension to those records?
OLSON Well, I like when Victoria
sings on the Creek Dippers stuff, because it gives another side
to it, I think. I can listen to my voice for only so long.
I see that [electric guitarist] Greg Leisz plays on Jo
Ellen, too. How did that come about?
OLSON Greg played on Victoria’s
record, and we have the same birthday. We’ve known each other
off and on for years, and when it came time to get a guitar
player I naturally called him. He’s good. He’s real good in
the studio, too. He’s really knowledgeable and easy-going. He
basically did a lot of that stuff live—one or two takes. When
you’re doing a record real quick, you have to have someone who
can do that.
And you recorded it in your home studio in the desert?
OLSON Yeah, we have a couple
of ADATs out there. But we had Michael Dumas come in with some
of his own gear. He’s worked with Dwight Yoakum a lot, so he’s
a real good engineer.
How is touring with the Creek Dippers different from touring
with the Jayhawks?
OLSON When I was with the
Jayhawks, we had a tour manager, and a manager, and all kinds
of things, and mostly it was just get up and play. In this band,
we’re responsible for pretty much everything: we tour manage
ourselves, we haul our own gear. It’s just a completely different
thing. Now there are new fans who have just heard of me through
the Creek Dippers. And that’s a nice thing. It’s not too much
of a crossover anymore. There are still a couple of people who
come up and say, "I like you in the Jayhawks."
I’ve always liked to write. That’s been important to me. I
guess when someone comes up and says, "I like you in the Jayhawks,"
I feel a little bad, but I just write it off. If they don’t
like [the new stuff], they don’t like it.
Did you model the Creek Dippers record after any folk recordings
you heard?
OLSON I love the Holy Modal
Rounders and field recordings. That was inspiration. I like
the Folkways Lucinda Williams records a lot. Those are the kind
of records I play, so I might as well sound that way.
What kind of guitar do you play on the road?
OLSON I play a Guild D-25
somebody gave to me. I don’t really have to worry about it on
the road. It has a pickup in there. Either I plug it in or have
a mic on it. People say it sounds pretty good out front. I also
have a dulcimer I’ve been using a lot. I have a job working
with mentally retarded kids, and I started playing the dulcimer
for them and they really liked it. It’s got four strings
on it. I wrote "Walking Through Nevada," "Ben Johnson’s Creek,"
and "My Own Jo Ellen" on the dulcimer. I’ve been playing the
piano too. I wrote "Letter from Africa" and "Linda Lee" on the
piano. We have this old van and we’re able to carry around this
weighted keyboard in there, so I get to play three different
instruments when I’m performing my own songs, and that’s fun.
I really enjoy that.
I’ll bet the dulcimer inspired some different kinds of songs.
OLSON The way I write songs
is I pretty much set aside some time and dig in. I don’t just
grab an instrument. It’s hard for me to just pick up a guitar
and start writing. For the most part, I’m focused on my daily
activities. When I do write, I write in spurts.
