Mark Olson (founding member of the Jayhawks)

Olson's new CD Many Colored Kite is both a culmination of everything that came before it, and an exploration of uncharted waters. Recorded over a month’s time in Portland with producer/engineer Beau Raymond (Chris Robinson, Devendra Banhart), the album finds Olson embracing a decidedly brighter path towards the future, exploring themes of freedom and struggle, isolation and belonging, spirituality and love.

As a founding member and principal singer/songwriter of The Jayhawks, Olson spent a decade at the front of the alt-country movement, until leaving the band—and the familiar environs of Minneapolis—in 1995, for the California desert.

While The Jayhawks were experimenting with pop and rock influences and earning mainstream appeal, Olson wanted to strip back down to the essentials. He formed The Creekdippers with then-wife Victoria Williams and violinist Mike Russell, paring his brand of timeless folk down to a desert roots ramble.

After a decade with The Creekdippers, Olson left the desert for the train cars of Europe, creating what would become his 2007 solo debut, The Salvation Blues, a poetic rumination on redemption that earned him comparisons to the likes of Gram Parsons and Bob Dylan.

Mark Olson, founder of legendary Americana band The Jayhawks and a critically acclaimed artist whose influential catalog spans 25 years, will be releasing his new full-length, Many Colored Kite, on Ryko Records on July 27, 2010.

Ruby Marchand, Head of A&R for Ryko, says “Mark Olson is a truly iconic American singer/songwriter and Ryko is honored to welcome him to our family. On Many Colored Kite, Mark reveals himself in a new way. The affirmation inherent in his lyrics and his keen sense of melody make this album a deeply pleasurable experience.”

Many Colored Kite is the follow-up to his 2007 personal milestone Salvation Blues, a soul-searching album of loss and change that further cemented Olson’s reputation as one of the true heroes of the folk/roots scene. The album was a New York Times Critics pick and received rave reviews for its autobiographical, often painful songs.

www.myspace.com/markolsonmusic

VANDAVEER is the alt-folk song-singing/record making/globetrotting project penned and put forth by DC-by-way-of-Kentucky tunesmith Mark Charles Heidinger. Vandaveer’s debut album, Grace & Speed, a mostly live, stripped down affair, swiftly entered this great big dusty world in the spring of 2007. The press responded heartily, with The Washington Post saying Vandaveer “revives the earnestness of the pre-psychedelic 60’s,” and XM Cafe calling him “this generation’s Nick Drake.”

www.vandaveer.net

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