Though the great Minnesota alt-country band is as much on as off, these days, following Mark's split and and later reunion with the band and band member Gary Louris, mark has also been following a solo path.

The great songs of the Jayhawks' debut Hollywood Town Hall album – none more so than single Waiting For The Sun – made them cult listening. But Mark left the band in 1995, worked with his former wife Victoria Williams in band The Original Harmony Ridge Creekdippers, before touring again with Gary Louris two years ago.

There are more plans for working together, but for the moment, Mark is a long way from Minnesota to work on new material in Norway with singer and percussionist Ingunn Ringvold and violinist Michele Gazich.

"I met them on my travels and we have been recording an extra song with Ingunn for the European release of the next album, Salvation Blues."

Over the years, Mark has learned not to miss home too much.

"I enjoy touring in Europe and if you are going to tour a lot, you can't miss home, but of course I do," he laughed. "For me, it's some vague memory of what I think it should be or could be. The way things ended up for me, I ended up being able to do this, so I don't miss home that much any more.

"The weather here is very cool, there's only a little sun. But the only seasonal effect on me is the Minnesota summertime, in the evening. I feel strange at that time and in the fall, at evening-time too, it's a weird reaction to being away."

Mark Olson, heading our way.

Mark prefers to travel by train on tour, when he can.

"In Norway, it's an eight-hour journey, in Scotland it's more like four. I start reading a newspaper, then read music magazines and follow up with a real book. I drink lots of coffee and dwell on past life, 'Boy, wasn't that bad!'," he laughed.

"When you grow up, you have ideas of how life is supposed to be. We all have romantic ideas about how it was going to be."

And has Mark lost his sense of romance along the way?

"No, I still have it," you hear him smile.

* Mark Olson supports the Dirty Pretty Things at the Ironworks, Inverness, on Sunday and he also appears at the Skye Festival on Saturday.

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