With that renewed energy, Olson decided to put the band’s first three albums out himself, doing everything from writing the songs to shipping the finished product directly to listeners.
I think it gives you renewed strength or energy.” But I would say that it’s good for anybody to change things in theirĪ couple times. And it was scary because financially that was how I made my living for a long time in the Jayhawks I had to work up something new. I didn’t know what it was I just knew I needed a new path. “We’d just gotten married, and really like to be with Vic” Olson said, I wanted to have a new direction our life. When Olson and Williams married seven years ago, he left the Jayhawks and formed the Original Harmony Ridge Creekdippers with Williams and fiddle player Mike “Razz” Russell. “I’m just sitting over here thinking, ‘boy, I’m not doing a very good job,”” Williams responded, laughing, “Look at him. “Best thing that ever happened to me bar none. Olson penned “Miss Williams Guitar” for the Jayhawks’ 1995 masterpiece Tomorrow the Green Grass in response to what he saw as crowds not appreciating the sublime beauty of her performances It would be just the first of many songs he’s written about Williams, who he married a year later. I went back to Minnesota where I felt like I could get back in music a little more and find my way.” Vic’s three years older than me, so I didn’t really stand a chance with her at that point. “I was still going to City College and I hadn’t really decided what the heck I was gonna do, like anybody. “Vic had written these great songs at the time” Olson recounted. He offered to carry her amplifier to her car, and they exchanged phone numbers. In 1984 he saw her perform in Los Angeles, and (like many who’ve been to a Victoria Williams concert) Olson was captivated. Before he founded the Jayhawks, before she married musician Peter Case and recorded berįirst album, Happy Come Homy, Mark fell in love with Victoria. The story of Mark Olson and Victoria Williams is, more than anything else, a love story. “He likes the plants, and I like the animals” she said. When she returned, she was anxious to show me her pets: three dogs, two donkeys and a little family of chickens. Williams pedaled up on an old bicycle, said a brief hello, and headed to the pool to clean up.
So when I got out to the desert with Vic-whammo-it was like coming home again.” When I was with the band, we’d do a lot of sitting around backstage, and no one kept me busy. I had two grandmas, and they kept me busy. She brought me to this place with the most endless amount of chores, and I really took to it like a fish to water. We went up to a little cabin, and, boy, I liked it. “When got married,” he said, “she brought me out here. After 16 months of touring last year and releasing a new album this year, it’s obvious he doesn’t enjoy wasting his time, and he confessed that part of his difficulty playing with the Jayhawks was the empty time spent waiting around before concerts, And thick, flowering bushes surround the natural pool he’s built. Honeysuckle climbs all over one side of the house. Landscaping as a vocation is new to the singer/songwriter, but the land around his house rises like an oasis out of the endless sand and dry shrubs beyond. He’s recently taken up landscaping to keep himself busy between records and touring, He pointed out the impressive needles and the variety of colors with enthusiasm. My second guess was rewarded when I saw Mark Olson, the primary Creekdipper, returning home from the open desert carrying two brown paper bags filled with treasures-clippings from cacti and other plants that he’ll cultivate. But the difference between a legitimate dirt road and a rough path between the cacti was far from clear. In a land where nothing moved but the cars around me, I was mesmerized by the sudden and expansive forest of giant white windmills, like a sci-fi take onĪided by locals, I soon found myself looking for the “first legitimate dirt road on the left” in accordance with directions given to me by the manager for Victoria Williams and Mark Olson. This was apparent the moment I arrived at their home in Joshua Tree, California.Īfter transecting the country by airplane and taking a rental car from Los Angeles, the desert seemed like another planet. Victoria Williams, a Louisiana native, and Mark Olson, a child of Minneapolis’ suburbs, are desert people. In the town best known for lending its name to a U2 album and for Gram Parsons’ death, these two Creekdippers have found a place to live, write and do a little yard work.
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