Mark Olson - Salvation Blues

The Jayhawks had something special for a while. Founders Olson and Gary Louris reached that rarified place where two singers harmonizing become one (think Gillian Welch/David Rawlings or Paul Simon/Art Garfunkel). '95's Tomorrow The Green Grass was perhaps their finest moment, when the quality of the songs caught up with the singing's simple profundity. And then Olson left the band to tend to his wife, singer/songwriter Victoria Williams, who had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The Jayhawks kept on, ambling into less-fulfilling rock and psychedelia, while Olson and Williams kept the folk and country in their sound, releasing a handful of albums under the name The Original Harmony Ridge Creek Dippers.

Olson and Williams are divorced now (though still performing together). Perhaps the split of husband and wife, a separation even greater than philosophical abstractions or their tangible counterparts, wide-open Midwestern highway, caused him to leave for Europe and travel it alone, eventually birthing the songs that would comprise his solo debut Salvation Blues. Or maybe Olson's always written warm, fighting a cold within. Either way, the lyrics of Salvation Blues are both more literate, and more desolate, than typical of Olson's previous work. Which way is the way between the heart and soul? he asks on "Clifton Bridge" and later, Look into the night and see if we can find/A place to be on "Look Into The Night." There's an industriousness in the sadness of those words - of someone who wants to make something come of his sadness; someone with a plan for his pain.

Salvation Blues can disappoint when homebodied tunes fail to match the scope of their evocative text, giving the album a discordant effect. But then you remember that Olson has a purpose for that incongruousness, summed up when he sings, 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.