Former Jayhawks vocalist Mark Olson plays Redlight Cafe on Sat. May 10
GLOBE TROTTER: Mark Olson (photo by Krissie Gregory)
With his latest solo album, The Salvation Blues, former Jayhawks vocalist Mark Olson has crafted a collection of simple, languid Americana and spiritually at ease singer/songwriter fare. The demos for The Salvation Blues were recorded in various haunted locales around the globe, including an abandoned Communist music school in Krakow, Poland, in the hills and mountainous rural outskirts of Oslo, Norway and in the recesses of his hometown of Minneapolis, MN. Each song summons a skewed and world-weary take on Americana that wraps around drifting narrative tales that cloud the lines between heartbreak, happiness and warm, reflective bliss. These songs arrive at then end of an era of depression and soul-seeking after Olson’s break-up with his wife, neo-folk songwriter Victoria Williams.
Olson’s global travels may have been part of a spiritual journey to get away from it all, but the songs that make up The Salvation Blues prove that no matter where you go, there you are.
Chad Radford: The Salvation Blues has a very old timey Americana feel to it, but when I read about the locations of where the demos were recorded my mind starts looking for these exotic and far away locations and how they may have worked themselves into the songs. How did these places influence you?
Mark Olson: Songs and songwriting come from inside you. So you’re kind of yourself wherever you go. The idea of traveling was brought about by circumstances. I really enjoyed Cardiff, Whales because I have friends there and there is a really cool community arts center there. I met some people there — an engineer — and I just kind of used the place and the people. Some places are conducive to music and theater and things of that nature. This was one of them. So I got my mind going in that direction and I set up 10 days there to work on a song. I knew a couple of friends there and I saw them, but most of the days I was totally isolated. That eased my mind and I was able to think about the songs and the chord changes and things like that. Being in different places where I didn’t have my normal routine was a very important part of it. I had the time and the space and didn’t have anyone to talk to. I was alone with my thoughts so I put what I was thinking about into the songs. When I got into it I also started noticing a lot of coincidences happening around me, so I put a lot of those into the songs as well.