Original Harmony Ridge Creek Dippers

Released on his own record label and available through his website, Mark Olson’s post-Jayhawks effort, The Original Harmony Ridge Creek Dippers, is a low-key effort that takes a distinctly homemade approach. On these informal tracks, Olson strums his acoustic guitar — augmented by a varying combination of harmonica, fiddle, bass, and mandolin, with touches of percussion here and there — and he sings in a plaintive voice, accompanied here and there by his wife, Victoria Williams. The result is somewhere between Gram Parsons and Nick Drake, a country/folky sound on songs of personal meaning delivered offhandedly. As commercial releases go, one would have to call it underperformed and under-produced, with the feel of late-night exhaustion and dreamlike expression. Recorded in February 1997 and released soon after, the album was picked up for distribution by KOCH in August 2001. – William Ruhlmann