Mark Olson has never been an easy artist to figure out. From the rambunctious debut that evolved into the eased maturity of the Jayhawks to the strident anti-George W. Bush statement, Political Manifest—the fan-polarizing album by Original Harmony Ridge Creekdippers—Olson has embraced change. When he finally gave into the compact disc revolution, Olson’s first purchase was an eight-CD set by the Louvin Brothers.
Beginning with his first exit from the Jayhawks in 1992, Olson settled into a mainly acoustic mode that has served him well. Magdalen Accepts the Invitation, the third album by Olson and his multi-instrumentalist wife Ingunn Ringvold was recorded in the summer heat of Death Valley, Calif. But you wouldn’t know it by listening.
Ringvold’s Armenian qanon, Mellotron, dulcimer and djembe drum give the songs a wider range of sonic color to folk melodies recalling a time when chamber pop and baroque music mingled with the sunshine pop of Top 40 charts. Her crystalline vocals blend richly with her partner’s unadorned Midwest character.
Olson retains an underlying sense of melancholy and spiritual bliss hinting at William Blake, mystical theology or Marcel Proust’s reveries. Mixed by John Schreiner whose work reaches back to The Monkees, the sounds of harpsichord, flute and pedal steel add to a pastoral sense. Nature (black locust trees, ravens, parks, fountains), places (Excelsior Park, Golden Gate Park) and names (Baby Jane, Fisherman of Men, Christina, Silent Mary, Elmira) all add up to the reality the duo conjure on the 10-song album.
