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There's nothing like the go-to relationship, the one made in heaven. Mark is kinda my guy. We fill in each other's blanks pretty well. -Gary Louris |
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Louris & Olson from Reveille Magazine
High Water And Crowes
Ready For The Flood is a peculiar but cool title, suggesting Biblical upheaval but also a sense of preparedness for the rising tide.
"Well, my title got nicked. People just chickened out [laughs]. My title was The Goat and The Sailor, which comes from a lyric of Mark's where it sounds like he sings,'The goat and the sailor,' which ended up being 'the coat' and something. I got obsessed with the idea since it really sounded like an old English folk record," recounts Louris, his voice tinged with nerdy record loving excitement. "We could be dressed up in crazy baroque outfits. We all liked it but started to think it was maybe a little too goofy. I think I was the goat and he was the sailor."
"Things going on in the world today seem flood-ish. And I lived in the desert for 10 years (Joshua Tree, CA), so you run into survivalist types out there. Everybody knows the type of person who's ready for the world to end," says Olson. "I spent just one evening looking at conspiracy theories on YouTube, and I thought, 'Oh, my God!' I don't how much of it is true, but if it isn't manufactured then it IS the end of the world!"
 Chris Robinson by Josh Miller |
Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes produced Flood, which led to him to also helm Gary Louris' terrific 2008 solo debut, Vagabonds (check out JamBase's exclusive feature from last year).
"The whole reason we asked him to do it was we both really liked him over the years. We did a number of tours with him at different stages in The Black Crowes, but through it all he was this thoroughly courteous person with us. There's this Southern hospitality thing going on, and I kind of admired him because he had so many crazy things going on in his life but when he stepped into the room to talk to you he'd be really be there. I thought that was neat," recalls Olson. "He's very present, and a very intelligent guy. We were mulling over the idea of a producer and we asked Chris. I hadn't sat down to listen to anything he'd produced but I had a general trust in the guy because of his music and the fact that he always made good sounding records himself. Always a warm sound. He was very serious with us. He wasn't goofing around. I think people judge people who are lively, and you need to have a frown on your face to be taken seriously."
Besides the plenty captivating voices and guitars of Louris & Olson, Robinson brought in bassist George Reiff (New Earth Mud), dobro & banjo player Ben Peeler (Josh Kelley, The Wallflowers), Hammond B-3 organist Jason Yates (Ben Harper, G. Love, Taj Mahal) and drummer Jimi Hey (Beachwood Sparks), all of whom play with empathetic subtlety on these sessions.
"They played in a very understated way. Even when they played with us - which wasn't every song - they played in the in same room without headphones, just very sympathetic to the songs. Chris did a good job rounding up these guys," says Louris. "You just have to hope the audience expands [for this kind of quiet music] and that it reaches another generation of people. We're working musicians, and right now folk musicians, and folk musicians have to figure out new ways to do this since they aren't usually playing arenas. [Live], we'll start with just the two of us and if we get enough people coming to the shows we'll add another player or two. We certainly have a plan in mind, but at this point, we also know how cool it is to do it with just the two of us."
Looking Towards England
The mood, even more than the mechanics, on Ready For The Flood gets down to core craftsmanship of this pair, with no song clocking in much past five minutes. There's a loose unity of purpose to the whole set.
 Gary Louris by Darren Ankenman |
"About four of them are older songs I culled from the vaults. There's certain things we used to do this [record] reminds me of, so it's sort of seamless. But, 80-perecent of it is new," says Louris. "We didn't put a lot of thought into it other than we both wanted it to be recorded live, basically two guys in a room singing, not even with headphones. We'd never made a record like that and it was time. We felt like we were good enough to do, and we both came to the English fingerpicking style that we'd always touched on with The Jayhawks but never went headlong into – Bert Jansch, (John) Renbourn and John Martyn were certainly on our minds, and Roy Harper is a favorite of mine."
Ready For The Flood captures the mood and unforced yet still artful feel of quiet classics like Martyn's Bless The Weather, Harper's Flat Baroque and Berserk and Jansch's Birthday Blues. It's a rare atmosphere to achieve, particularly amongst modern recordings but Olson and Louris are naturals in this rarefied, largely acoustic setting.
"It's not really a moneymaker vibe [laughs]. It's not gonna get you on the radio. There's a certain freedom to it; it does free you from that evil master," offer Louris. "I'm just happy we were able to work together again. Mark and I can be very synced together, and we were getting into this music on our own individually. When we got back together, we were like, 'Oh, you're listening to this, too?' Like we were both listening to the Louvin Brothers and other inspirational music like that."
"My aunt had that Lucky Thirteen by Bert Jansch way back in the '60s. It was at my grandmother's house and it made an early appearance, but I really discovered it later on down the road, along with John Martyn's stuff. They do a lot of good, complex fingerpicking," observes Olson. "When they play the blues it doesn't sound like the blues. John Renbourn's version is really different. A lot of the blues you hear gets to be a lot of 12-bars but his take isn't like that. It's his singing, too, the choice of notes, etc. It's really great. I tend to listen to a lot of this stuff at home. I just put it on."
"I'm not a purist at all. In the past couple years, I've been touring in really small groups, and this [English folk-rock] is always presented in that way. They'll have one or two musicians, maybe some percussion, and they seem a bit more adventurous, like introducing an Indian sound on one or two tunes. I like that, when there's stuff you don't expect," Olson says, who also appreciates the dark mood of many English folk songs, especially the more antique sections. "Oh, it's very dark [ominous, appreciative laugh]."
Continue reading for more on Gary Louris & Mark Olson...
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