Mark Olson Sings the Blues

The Salvation Blues
Mark Olson
(HackTone)

In 1995, Mark Olson left the Jayhawks to pursue a romantic and musical life with singer-songwriter Victoria Williams in Joshua Tree, Calif. Early last year, Olson and Williams split. A heartbroken Olson went on a solo tour, drafting songs as he drifted around Europe. The resulting album, “The Salvation Blues,” is bittersweet, beautifully melodic and brimming with lyrics that could be construed as alluding to the breakup of his marriage. His pain is listeners’ gain: It’s also as good as anything Olson recorded with or without the Jayhawks.

“The Salvation Blues” bears the characteristics of Olson’s best work: sweet harmonies; strong melodies; poetic, thought-provoking songs and a compositional style that blends country, rock and folk. The disc is produced by Ben Vaughn (Los Straitjackets, Charlie Feathers), who made the most of Olson’s simple style by surrounding him with a band of seasoned players that included Tony Gilkyson (electric guitar) and Greg Leisz (pedal steel, dobro, mandolin) and provided him with sympathetic arrangements. The supporting cast also included, on harmony vocals, Cindy Wasserman of the Los Angeles band Dead Rock West and Olson’s former Jayhawks bandmate Gary Louris. In addition to the great writing and clean playing, the “limited” first edition of “The Salvation Blues” comes in a classy hardcover digipak, complete with dust jacket, containing lyrics and black-and-white photography.

Louris’ presence will be of particular interest to Jayhawks fans, specifically on the Olson/Louris-written “Poor Michael’s Boat,” which sounds like a lost classic from the “Hollywood Town Hall” era. (Little surprise, as Olson said in a recent No Depression feature that the song indeed dates back to that period). The harmony vocals sound like they could have been lifted off the early albums that made the Jayhawks a leading light in the Americana movement.

“The Salvation Blues” is more than a rehash of Olson’s early career. The disc certainly recalls that work, but the songwriting exhibits world-weariness and wisdom acquired in the course of time and travel. Olson’s verse is open to a range of interpretations, but the divorce seems to hang heavily over “The Salvation Blues.” The protagonist in “My Carol” has “wandered in the muck.” Though it was reportedly written years before the breakup, the inclusion of “Poor Michael’s Boat” is fitting. Olson seems to be punching holes in the old, gentle folk song “Michael, Row the Boat Ashore” by pointing out that “Poor Michael’s boat is taking in water.” And on “Look into the Night,” “The weeds have grown in the playground.”

Olson appears to address the state of his disunion most directly in the closing track, “My One Book Philosophy.” Accompanying himself simply on an electric piano, Olson, in a whispery, wounded voice, sings of “a honeymoon no more,” and realizes that the one to whom he sings “don’t need my book no more.” As a result, he sings, “I’ve become a hobo in a hobo camp / Burnt beans by the fireside / My baby’s been crying, my baby’s been crying / … And I don’t have a home no more.”

Despite the sadness, the prevailing theme of the album is optimism. In “My Carol,” Olson proclaims that “Louder still is the sound of love,” and in closing says that “Daylight rings the bells of joy.” “Clifton Bridge” poses a question to those thinking about jumping into the river, “Which way would it be, up or down?” For himself, at least, Olson answers clearly: “Some people came here to die / We came here to live.”

Olson’s optimism in the face of sadness is at the heart of the title track:
There’s such joy and sweet moments
To be found in this world
We know they’ll come to an end
Just how makes our hearts hurt
Salvation Blues
And these blues will help us all.

A chapter of Mark Olson’s life came to a sad end. With the simple, plainspoken triumph of “The Salvation Blues,” he chooses to happily turn the page.