Victoria Williams

This has been a busy summer for Victoria Williams and her husband, former Jayhawk Mark Olson. Williams has just released Sings Some Ol' Songs, a collection of standards that the offbeat singer has been considering for release since the mid-'90s, and Olson recently dropped December's Child, his fifth album backed by the Creek Dippers.

And now the couple has hit the road to promote both projects, playing as headliner and opening act, with each supporting the other rather than performing as the all-encompassing Creek Dippers conglomerate. This configuration likely speaks to the need to keep some distance between Williams's take on her choices -- both obscure and well-known -- for Sings Some Ol' Songs and the spare rootsy Americana of Olson's Creek Dippers. Or not. With the Creek Dippers, in all their fascinating and countless permutations, any old roots rock/folk pop/old-timey front-porch kind of hootenanny is likely to break out.