Mark Olson & The Creekdippers: Creekdippin' For The First Time

ASPIRING SONGSMITHS Mark Olson and Victoria Williams first met in 1984. When they hooked up again, a little over 10 years later, things were different. Olson had formed Minneapolis' trailblazing alt.countryites The Jayhawks, releasing at least two genre gems in Hollywood Town Hall (1992) and Tomorrow The Green Grass ('95). But the marathon tours and studio sessions had blunted his edge, driven him spare. In '95, he upped and quit. Meanwhile, Williams had enjoyed a low-key career as an idiosyncratic LA singer-songwriter. Reunited with Olson (first recording as a duo on 'When We Sing Together', from her 1994 album Loose), she was now living with multiple sclerosis. They married, headed out to the Joshua Tree desert in California and set up camp on an earthquake faultline.