Search - The Original Harmony Ridge Creek Dippers :: The Original Harmony Ridge Creek Dippers

Two Hearts

D. Bencuya | 12/22/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This debut album from the former jayhawks singer/songwriter simply astounds in it's beauty, like hearing the sound of wind in fields of grass. When my beloved grandmother died this was the first album i put on to comfort me. A Folk Masterpiece that i'll be listening forever."

Stellar acoustic return of former Jayhawks front man

hyperbolium | Earth, USA | 10/02/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"After leaving the Jayhawks in 1995, vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Mark Olson retreated from Americana/alt.country stardom to form a three-piece with his singer/songwriter wife, Victoria Williams (billed, at her regular record company's behest, as Mabel Allbright), and multi-instrumentalist, Mike "Razz" Russell." This debut album was originally released in 1997 on their own Creekdippers Records. Koch has reissued a straight-up reproduction of the original ten tracks.



Divesting himself of the more complex trappings of the Jayhawks (and the escalating demands of their fans and record company), Olson has placed his thin, songwriterly voice amid laconic, acoustic music. There's a sense of weariness to Olson's singing, but there's also a sense of discovery and freedom. Perhaps two sides of the in-a-band, not-in-a-band-anymore coin. The overall feeling is similar to Dean Wareham's work with Luna and Tom Verlain's with Television. But where these groups invoked trance-inducing electrics, the Creek Dippers strip their music to its bones - an acoustic guitar (or banjo or mandolin or fiddle), a harmonica, a lightly played piano, a drum. The spare arrangements and harmonies create a sincerity and closeness that leaves the songs to speak as melancholy mood pieces.



"Quiet is the new loud" - something the Creek Dippers recognized a few years ahead of the curve. The effect is subtle, and highly compelling. [©2001 hyperbolium dot com]













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