Mark Olson
(Ryko)
An album that radiates unfettered charms and idyllic sentiment, Many Colored Kite is Mark Olson's most expressive and luminescent effort to date. The ex-Jayhawk/Creekdipper makes every note seem effortless, thanks in large measure to his pensive vocals and a penchant for contemplative musings that sets his songs alight. Olson was, after all, the voice that gave both the aforementioned bands their pervasive sense of ache and longing, a fragile sound that often seemed as if it might unravel if given the slightest tug.
Olson's two solo excursions since the Creekdippers' demise - which, not surprisingly, took place at the same time as the dissolution of his marriage to Victoria Williams, his wife and former musical colleague -- retain that forlorn sensibility. But where his first album, Salvation Blues, was wholly immersed in tearstained sentiment and misty-eyed remorse, the new record offers an air of optimism that occasionally even verges on serendipity. Whether it's the tumbling melody of "Little Bird of Freedom," the angelic harmonies that waft through "No Time To Live Without Her" and "Scholastica" or the intimate spoken narrative that intersects the lovely "Wind and Rain," Olson's idyllic settings come across like wistful conjecture, thoughts both real and imagined.
Consequently, it would be hard to imagine a more sublime set of songs. Many Colored Kite bears both a faraway feel and an intimate embrace.
DOWNLOAD: "Wind and Rain," "Scholastica," " "No Time To Live Without Her" LEE ZIMMERMAN
