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The Original Harmony Ridge Creek Dippers - The Original Harmony Ridge Creek Dippers (1997)

Track listing:
  1. Flowering Trees 3:13
  2. When School Begins 2:37
  3. Run With the Ponies 3:48
  4. Be On My Way 2:26
  5. She Picks the Violets 2:33
  6. Valentine King 3:45
  7. Eyes are the Window 3:13
  8. Humming Bird 3:05
  9. Mr. Parker 4:11
  10. Jericho 3:02

Notes

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.