Mark Olson at The Slaughtered Lamb

Mark Olson + Ingunn Ringvold

Dean Owens

The Slaughtered Lamb, 7 December 2010

When I heard Mark Olson, one of the voices of under-appreciated alternative country pioneers The Jayhawks, was playing The Slaughtered Lamb, I pictured some old creaky pub, filled with work-hardened men nursing their beers, much like its namesake in the horror film An American Werewolf In London. The truth is, while the name is a homage to that film (check out the pentagram on the wall in the picture above, as in the classic pub scene), it's really a trendy bar with a small living room-like venue in its basement. In fact as I first walked in people were sitting comfortably in the large sofas filling the room, facing the stage, and listening to suitably soothing acoustic music fitting the coffeehouse atmosphere.

The singer in question was a Scots lad named Dean Owens, an unremarkable singer-songwriter type with a voice reminscent of Crowded House's Neil Finn. Inbetween typically reflective and mournful songs, he told stories of writing songs in Joshua Tree and recording in New York. He also played a grumpy Christmas song written for charity and inspired by the recent snowfall in Britain, all about feeling like he was "living in a snow globe". It felt like he played for ages.
Thankfully it wasn't long before Olson, looking charmingly dishevelled as always, shuffled over to the small stage area (more of a corner than a stage though), with Ingunn Ringvold, his Norweigan girlfriend and accompanist.
Starting off with a couple of songs from Olson's new album, Many Colored Kite, it seemed as if the show was going to be a showcase for the new record but Mark was more obliging than that treating us to songs from throughout his career, everything from classic Jayhawks numbers (in particular there was a nicely reworked Clouds) to The Original Harmony Creepdippers (an enthusiastic Ben Johnson's Creek, which saw Olson's dulcimer fly off his lap he was playing so hard and carefree, causing him and Ingunn to stop and laugh) and numbers from one of my favourite albums of the last decade, The Salvation Blues. Of The Salvation Blues numbers, Sandy Denny, Mark's ode to Fairport Convention chauteuse, was particularly sublime, his voice cracking with emotion as he sang "the things we dislike in others, we find in ourselves, summer left us with one, summer left us with one." Beautiful.

There were plenty more amusing moments not least Ingunn's story of how the album Many Colored Kite came about. Mark apparently had wanted to call it after the track Beehive partly as a way to get in with a local beekeeper and he had planned to wear a full beekeeper costume on the cover. But asking Ingunn and her friend their thoughts, they insisted that Many Colored Kite was a better title and he bowed to their wishes and, alas, the sight of Mark beekeeping was lost to us all.

When the pair returned for an encore and asked for requests predictably someone shouted for Blue (probably The Jayhawks' most famous tune) and Olson willingly obliged. But more excitingly the My Own Jo Ellen track Linda Lee was also requested. Ingunn seemed reluctant because she had forgotten how to play it, but Mark guided her through adding a droning harmonium part and put down his guitar to sing it unaccompanied. Because it was impomptu and partly improvised, it sounded raw, fresh and exciting. You have to hand it to Olson, not many can completely wing it and pull it off when put on the spot like that, but he and Ingunn managed to make it sound even more beautiful because it was in the moment and spontaneous and it absolutely the best moment of a fantastic night.