This review immediately struck me as a fusion between, say, an acoustically oriented Alan Parsons Project and Native American influenced New Age/acoustic rock music. The 14 musicians backing Tor, including the much heard Windham Hill Jazz steel drum player Andy Nareli, are all skillful multi-instrumentalists. Tor himself sings and plays keyboards and has a storyteller's feel to his straightforward singing voice.
Geronimo, featuring some tasty bottleneck slide acoustic guitar work, evokes the great Apache resistance leader: "You cannot catch someone/ who does not run/ Geronimo/ Why do we remember you/ The inner man does not move." Amazon is, again, that curious fusion, the electronic feel combined with beautiful Andean pipe flutes, gourd rattles, and native drums. It sings the praises of this river's mysteries: "Jungle heart keeps pumping/circulating wheel/jungle has its secret/this place makes oxygen." This might be a good teaching song for children, telling of the jungle's generative place in the global ecosystem.
All in all, this album impresses me with its uniqueness of message and delivery, sound and feel. It's thoroughly contemporary in style and yet, at the same time, grounded in a simplicity of spirit and lyric that speaks directly to our time on this Earth. Reviewed by Don St. Clair, Heartsong Review Dec. '94
Tor Olson has the kind of history I would have loved to live. After studying classical guitar in Chicago with world famous teacher Richard Pick, he followed the Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty travelogue that led to the San Francisco Bay Area. It was there that Tor founded a folk/rock bank entitled, The Only Alternative and His Other Possibilities. The band often appeared on the same bill as the Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead, and was signed to Warner Brothers within six months of its formation. WOW!
Now almost thirty years later, Tor Olson still embraces the community-centered philosophies of the sixties on Clubhouse Records. Picture is the latest release from Clubhouse and is a special treat due to Tor's unique and resounding vocals. Rounding out the bank is a wild assortment of great talents including Bobby Vega (Etta James) on Bass and master pan pipe virtuoso Enrique Cruz. But this is not to say Picture is a hodgepodge of talent. Picture is a smooth, flowing, unified presentation that is the obvious result of a group of people who have strived to create a magical tapestry of sound. Reviewed by DNA , Magical Blend
'E ' receives a lot of bad environmental music -- odes to the birds, bees and beasts by melodically challenged folksingers. But Tor Olson's CD Picture is different. Olson, a veteran of the legendary San Francisco rock scene of the 60s, offers a really integrated environmental message, couched in music that is fresh and distinctive -- a cross between Weather Report and the Beach Boys. The standout track is "Amazon," which presents the rainforest as a living, breathing organism. "Jungle has a secret/Secret you can feel/Jungle heart keeps pumping/Circulating wheel/Jungle has a secret/This place makes oxygen." As Lainey Goodman of KRCB put it, Picture "paints pictures with chant-like vocals and haunting melodies." Reviewed by Jim Motavalli, E Magazine
"From beginning to end, Picture asks tough questions, then answers them with courage and compassion," says reviewer Elizabeth Holmes. "The album's title cut, Picture, begins by asking: 'Cut through history / Look closely at the past / What have we been taught? / What do we want to last?' Olson's answer here speaks to the power of imagination. 'By envisioning a peaceful world' says Olson, 'we go a long way towards creating peace.' "
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