The Jayhawks

Track	Album
Waiting For The Sun	Hollywood Town Hall
Blue	Tomorrow The Green Grass
Big Star	Sound Of Lies
Smile	Smile
What Led Me To This Town	Smile
Angelyne	Rainy Day Music
She Walks In So Many Ways	Mockingbird Time
Quiet Corners & Empty Spaces	Paging Mr. Proust
Everybody Knows	Back Roads And Abandoned Motels
Homecoming	XOXO

The Jayhawks (l-r) Mark Perlman, Gary Louris, Mark Olson, Ken Callahan – 1992 Def American Recordings press photo credit: Paul Natkin

The Jayhawks started out as part of the original late 80s midwestern alt.country scene that also birthed Uncle Tupelo (and, through them, Wilco and Son Volt). But, not unlike Wilco, they also evolved over time into a more baroque pop outfit, at least as indebted to Brian Wilson as to Gram Parsons. While some fans of their earliest work resisted that evolution, as the ten selections here evidence, I’m more a pop guy than a country guy myself, though there’s plenty to love in their earlier Americana work even if it’s admittedly underrepresented on this Toppermost.

Though initially fronted by two singer-songwriters, Mark Olson and Gary Louris, Olson’s country roots tended to dominate their early work. Their 1986 self-titled debut was largely penned by Olson, and it’s more a straight country album than country-rock (though a few tracks, like the perky Let The Critics Wonder, are a little more rocking). Likewise the 1989 follow-up, 1989’s Blue Earth, another Olson-heavy record, albeit one that starts to tip a bit more into the rock side of the country-rock ledger. The songwriting gets more interesting this time around, though it was initially recorded as a batch of demo tracks for a proper album and feels a little unfinished around the edges. Still, Blue Earth offers some fine music, with standout tracks like Will I Be Married, Two Angels, and Martin’s Song (the latter two re-recorded for the following record).

The band really arrived on 1992’s Hollywood Town Hall. This time, Olson and Louris co-wrote most of the songs, adding some musical variety. They elevate many of the tracks with lovely harmonizing, and add just enough production sheen to give the record some sonic depth. Waiting For The Sun in particular highlights the band’s developing pop hooks, still with plenty of down-home rustic vibes but some classic rock jamming as well. The re-recorded Martin’s Song and the catchy Settled Down Like Rain are other highlights, though the album is rock-solid throughout and holds up well as critical component of the 90s Americana canon.

1995’s Tomorrow The Green Grass served as the culmination of the band’s early run, sticking with Hollywood’s structure while filling out the sound with additional instrumentation and some more straightforward country-tinged rock & roll songs. The record opens with Blue, to this day arguably the band’s most definitive number, brimming with melodic, shimmering jangle and drop-dead harmonies. (It was later tastefully covered by The Thorns, a one-off supergroup with Matthew Sweet, Shaun Mullins, and Pete Droge.) It’s hard to top that one, but the record repeatedly swings for the rafters, with other winners including I’d Run Away and Miss Williams’ Guitar (dedicated to Olson’s then-paramour singer-songwriter Victoria Williams), plus a surprisingly great remake of Grand Funk’s classic rock radio chestnut Bad Time.

After the twin peaks of Hollywood and Tomorrow, Olson walked away from the band he had founded and initially helmed, leaving it largely a Gary Louris vehicle for the rest of its duration. You can hear the transition on 1997’s Sound Of Lies, which cuts way back on country twang, instead alternating between pretty ballads and ambitious pop. On the latter end you’ve got the hard-rocking Big Star, middle-of-the-road alt.rock that sounds particularly radio-friendly (though, consistent with the song’s self-deprecating lyrics, was not). The ballads are a little more hit and miss, though Trouble in particular is quite lovely, melodic pop infused with a touch of Beatles (or Badfinger).

But Louris made his biggest break with the past on 2000’s Smile. The record sees him in full-on Brian Wilson mode (the album title presumably not just a coincidence). It’s full of dense, baroque pop, soaring harmonies and layered production. The title track which opens the record is a gift to those of us who enjoy rich, sophisticated pop music, shades of Burt Bacharach and the Beach Boys and the Beatles, with multi-part harmonies to die for. What Led Me To This Town is at least as beautiful , again dominated by stunning harmonies. Which isn’t to say Louris dropped all the jangly rock—I’m Gonna Make You Love Me is another stand-out which sounds perfectly crafted for radio, and even got a bit of cultural recognition. But the record—probably my personal favorite—is the work of a very different Jayhawks than fans of the original band may have expected.

Pulling back from Smile’s studio embellishments, 2003’s Rainy Day Music sees the band returning to the twangy jangle of yore, a much more organic-sounding record full of catchy, almost Eagles-like mainstream-ready country-rock but still spotlighting Louris’ pop hooks. Angelyne feels most like a throwback to the band’s earlier work, gentle Americana with a killer hook, while Save It For A Rainy Day works similar territory.

Rainy Day, to some degree, brought the band full circle, and, marking a solid close to their run, seemed to signal their break-up, with Louris moving on to other projects. But in the years that followed, Louris reconnected with Olson, and the duo released a stripped-down acoustic record, 2009’s Ready For The Flood. Which would have made for a perfectly pleasant capstone, but it apparently inspired them to put the band back together. And in 2011—eight years after Rainy Day Music—a reunited Jayhawks, with Olson back in the fold, released Mockingbird Time.

The pair shared songwriting duties, and the record feels like a true partnership. There’s plenty of Americana twang, but filtered through the more polished pop sound of later records. It’s often lovely, and occasionally rocks out. She Walks In So Many Ways is among the band’s finest moments, gentle folk rock with a hum-along hook.

Unfortunately, Olson’s return was short-lived, and he again exited after Mockingbird. Louris soldiered on with the band, touring for a few years before finally returning to the studio for 2015’s Paging Mr. Proust. Without Olson, the record is back largely in pop territory, perhaps a bit too bland to leave much of a mark in their catalog, though album opener Quiet Corners & Empty Spaces stands out as another catchy, hum-along number. Two years later, the band felt a little more invigorated on Back Roads And Abandoned Motels. The album includes a number of songs co-written by Louris for other artists, and he lets a few other Jayhawks handle lead vocals on several songs, making for a more varied and interesting record than Proust. Everybody Knows, co-written with the Dixie Chicks (and originally appearing on their 2006 record Taking The Long Way), sounds like a classic Jayhawks song notwithstanding its authorship. But there are enjoyable, understated gems throughout the record.

The band’s most recent record, 2020’s XOXO, was an even more democratic outing than Back Roads, with all four then-members of the band taking turns writing and singing. That can be a mixed blessing; the record is eclectic to a fault, with wide stylistic leaps. Still, coming nearly 35 years after the band’s debut, it keeps the Jayhawks a vital and evolving force (and their studio silence since then all the more frustrating). Plus, songs like Louris’ baroque, Beatlesque Homecoming are as great as anything the band had done to date (while the more straightforward opening track This Forgotten Town is another keeper).

Beyond the core Jayhawks album releases are plenty of other records worth checking out. Newbies who want a helpful overview should consider 2009’s Music From The North Country, a well-selected collection of highlights up through Rainy Day Music. (It’s also available in a 2-CD version with a bonus disc of demos and rarities.) In addition to the 2009 collaboration noted above, both Olson and Louris (as well as other past members of the band) have released various solo albums. Louris’ Vagabonds, from 2008, sounds the most like a great lost Jayhawks record, albeit a little more stripped down. The band also backed the Kinks’ Ray Davies on a pair of his solo albums, 2017’s Americana and 2018’s Our Country.

Meanwhile, Louris and bassist Marc Perlman (the only other Jayhawk who has been there since the beginning) are also part of Golden Smog, the indie ‘supergroup’ also comprised of members of Wilco, Soul Asylum, and other bands. Louris has written or co-written a number of tracks which are far from mere side-project cast-offs; indeed, his contributions to 1998’s Weird Tales in particular stand alongside the Jayhawks’ finest moments, most notably the twangy power pop of Until You Came Along and the pretty Jennifer Save Me.