The Salvation Blues Here starts the third stage of Mark Olson’s recording career. He first came to prominence as the primary singer-songwriter for the Jayhawks, before leaving that seminal alt-country band to make music with his wife, Victoria Williams, in the more acoustic, organic Creekdrippers. With his reedy voice and elemental imagery, Olson details the painful dissolution of that marriage on this solo album, clinging to music as a lifeline when everything else is lost. In the album-opening “My Carol,” he compares his love to “an animal bleeding in the snow,” while “National Express” asks “Where’s my home? How could I lose this in a day?” Yet musically, “Clifton Bridge” and “Winter Song” rank with the best of his Jayhawks work, and both the title track and “Look into the Night” find redemption in the midst of despair. Gary Louris joins his former Jayhawks bandmate for harmonies on three cuts. –Don McLeese
Customer Review: A Treasure
I love this album. There is pain in it, there is hope in it. Mark lays it all out. I get a knot in my throat when I here it.
Customer Review: Nervous Music
Mark Olson’s “Salvation Blues” begins with the weeper “My Carol” and continues with tracks like “Poor Michael’s Boat” and “National Express” that have Olson’s nervous vocals with his high and thin voice. The songs “Keith” and “Sandy Denny” appear to be musical biographies of people with problems. While I like this acoustic folk genre, neither Olson’s voice nor his songwriting connect with me in much the same way that I’ve shelved all the Jayhawks CDs after a couple of listenings. “My Salvation Blues” sounds like nervous music for nervous people. It doesn’t strike me as overly original or likeable. However, I do like the photography in the booklet. On the closer “My One Book Philosophy,” Olson’s vocals are particularly painful. I fail to relate. Taxi!