Editorial Reviews Music Review:
Music Review
6 Stas Op.2 for Transverse Flute
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.5/Coriolan Overture/Choral Fantasy
Best of the Del Fuegos: Slash Years [Import]
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Since splitting from the Jayhawks to go creek dipping with wife Victoria Williams, Mark Olson has continued to celebrate homespun musical values and his creative independence from the recording industry. While there's nothing slick about December's Child, the melodic warmth of material such as "Still We Have a Friend in You" and "Back to the Old Homeplace" has an almost spiritual glow to it, while the album's arrangements employ trumpet, fiddle, piano, wah-wah guitar--and even doo-wop harmonies--to seemingly organic effect. Uptempo fare such as "How Can I Send Tonight (There to Tell You)" and "Climb These Steps (We Will)" recall the reedy-voiced yearning of Olson's Jayhawks days, while "Say You'll Be Mine" reunites him with former bandmate Gary Louris. The closing "One-Eyed Black Dog Moses" is a hoot, with a hypnotically funky groove that has Williams pushing her vocals to cartoonish extremes. --Don McLeese