When Mark Olson exiled himself from the Jayhawks a decade ago, curious ears were eager to hear what he would come up with off the beaten path in Joshua Tree, California, with his wife, Victoria Williams. The self-titled, self-released 1997 debut, billed as the Original Harmony Ridge Creek Dippers, answered the question with laid-back, home-fi Americana that was at times solemn and gorgeous, but at other times simply not all that engaging. Lazy, even.
It’s a template Olson has mostly stuck with throughout several albums since then, to the point where each release comes across as more of the same and only mildly fulfilling, if fulfilling at all. Shrug.
But learning that Olson had set his sights on post-September 11 America, and specifically George Bush, made things interesting again. In perhaps the most turbulent chapter in this country in a generation, few seem to be addressing the issues in song. Credit where credit’s due.
Olson’s latest is described as “a musical reaction to the Bush Administration.” If only it were a “powerful, focused, articulate musical reaction to the Bush Administration.” Instead, Political Manifest is mostly more of the same, albeit wrapped in an activist package. It has its moments — “Walk With Them” is a lovely waltz of reconciliation, and the sobering “Where Is My Baby Boy” laments about children going off to war, with Olson singing, “Who am I to have shown him such things?”
But too frequently, the album sounds half-baked, as if written and recorded on a lark in one day. Worse is an odd sort of schoolyard anger that Olson exhibits. At one juncture he calls the president a “piece of snot”; at another he declares, “I’m calling Georgie out for a fight.” Hardly the articulation you’d hope for in these times.
