Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Here’s the press release I received from loyal reader Shawnte of HackTone Records. Olson’s here May 9:
There are two versions of Mark Olson’s The Salvation Blues:
There’s the critically acclaimed CD release, the first solo outing by this figurehead of alt-country, which vaulted him back into the public conscious after years of introspective desert wandering…
…And there’s the sock-ya-in-the-gut documentary by NYC filmmaker Ray Foley, who followed Olson and his merrymakers around the city during a rainy, bleak April, capturing a deep well of emotion in a man whose work and mind could never even approach shallow.
Once the main songwriter for The Jayhawks, Mark Olson spent the last year summarily erasing and exceeding expectations—both public and private. The cowpoke country ramble of The Creekdippers, Olson’s musical map for the past decade, has been replaced with soul-seeking and sparkle—his band is the tightest he’s had in years, and this body of work, produced by Ben Vaughan, has been called “Olson’s best work since The Jayhawks.” (Harp)
With Foley’s documentary now beginning to screen at film festivals across the US, Olson enters his artistic renaissance, having reinvented himself from the early-90’s alt-country Big-Name-Turned-Homebody to the Musical-Troubadour-With-A-Guitar-Made-Of-Heartstrings-And-Hope.
Mark and his international backing band (Italian professor and virtuoso Michele Gazich on violin; Norwegian singer-songwriter Ingunn Ringvold on harmonies and everything but the kitchen sink) hauled their beautifully crafted music across North America and Europe over the past year, logging miles in vans, planes, and trains—the latter of which served as the initial inspiration for The Salvation Blues.
SPRING TOUR 2008
MAY
1 – PHILADELPHIA – The Tin Angel
2 – ANNAPOLIS – Ramshead Tavern
3 – EASTON, MD – Coffee East
4 – VIENNA, VA – Jammin Java
6 – CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA – Gravity Lounge
7 – CHARLOTTE, NC – The Evening Muse
8 – CHARLESTON, SC – The Map Room
9 – ASHEVILLE, NC – Grey Eagle Tavern
10 – ATLANTA – The Red Light Café
www.myspace.com/markolsonmusic.com
