Harmony Ridge Creek Dippers Trying to Find the Right Mix

You’d think a collaboration between Victoria Williams and husband Mark Olson would yield at least an interesting band. The folk-rock singer’s colorful songwriting and eccentric soprano voice can be captivating, and guitarist Olson’s band, the Jayhawks, has made some swinging Gram Parsons/Neil Young-inspired country-rock. However, on Saturday at the Ash Grove, the local debut of their new group, the Harmony Ridge Creek Dippers, amounted to just so much strum and drag.

Williams and Olson were joined by violinist Mike Russell, who also played guitar and bass, as they traded lead vocals throughout an extremely loose, hourlong set blending traditional folk and country with Williams’ whimsical lyrics and quirky vocals.

Her high, odd voice has a tendency to range into shrillness, but here it generally remained playful and engaging. Olson’s sturdy tenor was most memorable during the evening’s high point, a rendition of Tom T. Hall’s rambling “It Sure Gets Cold in Des Moines.”

While Williams’ folksy avant-garde lyrics were winsome at times--as in tunes about hummingbirds and a horse that shares secrets with rabbits--they were more often treacly, even maudlin in their sentimentality. All in all, you had the sense that this group is still very much a work in progress.