By: Jen Paulson
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Mark Olson - Photo by Alexa Jones
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Stranger things have been known to happen. On a Minneapolis day that had sent January temperatures from 45 degrees and sunny into dusk and rain with overnight lows that dropped by over 50 degrees, my conversation with Mark Olson started with him thinking I might be the person who was coming out to fix the washed out road outside of his Joshua Tree desert home. He began to elaborate, then cut himself off, “We had a flood out here and someone is going to be calling… this is no concern to you of course…”
A lot has changed since he and wife, Original Harmony Ridge Creekdippers bandmate Victoria Williams, split up and he was left without a home or such a road to wash out. During that difficult time in his personal life, he left the United States entirely and took up with friends in Wales and Norway to mend his heart, sort it all out. Left with plenty of time alone, he soon found himself writing the songs that would make up The Salvation Blues. “I was in a foreign country and with the language barrier I didn’t really have a lot of people to talk to so I kind of got lost in my head and it was good for writing,” Olson said. “If you spend a lot of time, upstairs in your head or mind thinking about what it is you want to say, or inventing characters or inventing storylines, that’s all about writing. You can’t really do that unless you go there.”
The Jayhawks, of which Olson was a founding member, released four classic albums and the Creekdippers released seven albums. Consider this a tell-tale sign that Olson is obviously a musical workhorse, but in this new period of his career, redemption came in the form of a solo album. Out of what seems like a gut-wrenching time in this man’s life, came a perfectly constructed work of pure emotion containing years worth of underlying feelings. As he has entered another phase in his career as a musician, it seems to all come down to the human need to improve. “Well I’d say in each I was trying to improve the best I could within that group,” Olson said. “I think to me, the most important thing is that you always have ideas looking forward, what you want to do on the next album, what kind of music, and what kind of musical influences, what you’re playing…"
In the middle of our interview, a guest arrives at Olson’s home and I am allowed a glimpse inside of an otherwise regular life, as he warmly makes sure his guest is situated and we get back to our conversation.
Having already come through his old hometown last summer, Olson has hit the road again and makes a return appearance to the 400 Bar this Sunday, the 10th. Being such a hardworking, prolific songwriter, Olson savors his time on the road as he explains, “It’s just been a very wonderful experience playing music every night, you know, with a group that, we communicate on stage and really work on our sound and our singin’ and our playin’ and you know – I’m a musician – to be able to do that every night it’s where it’s at.”
That kind of genuine statement sums up Olson as a performer. The man is not flash and overstyling, he is a musician who loves the profound pleasure of simply creating music. Typically, when you interview a musician, the obvious question of inspiration always seems to come into play, and I am provided a slightly unlikely response as he explains, “Definitely the wind… The wind and the wide-open spaces, and even just fixing up my house inspire me. I think it’s that man against the elements thing, when you are way out in the desert it’s a big deal to have a fridge and I put in the propane to have a water heater so it’s just those little things that are a big deal – the simplicity of life.”
And while life might not always be simple, and the road is not always a smooth one, Mark Olson’s journey might be a lesson to us all about perspective, and doing the best to find our creativity in the hardship – because the end result can sometimes be more rewarding than we ever expected.
Artist Info: Mark Olson
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