FREE 7" vinyl available exclusively at select independent record stores ONLY with purchase of "Music From The North Country: The Jayhawks Anthology" in stores July 7.
Features "Blue" and "Darling today" .
Visit www.recordstoreday.com to locate a participating record store near you.
Sounds Like
Discography:
Rainy Day Music 2003
.. Track Listing:
1. Stumbling Through The Dark
2. Tailspin
3. All The Right Reasons
4. Save It For A Rainy Day
5. Eyes Of Sarahjane
6. One Man's Problem
7. Don't Let The World Get In Your Way
8. Come To The River
9. Angelyne
10. Madman
11. You Look So Young
12. Tampa To Tulsa
13. Will See You In Heaven
14. Stumbling Through The Dark Reprise
..
.. Track Listing:
1. Smile
2. I'm Gonna Make You Love Me
3. What Led Me To This Town
4. Somewhere In Ohio
5. A Break In The Clouds
6. Queen Of The World
7. Live Floats By
8. Broken Harpoon
9. Pretty Thing
10. Mr. Wilson
11. (In My) Wildest Dreams
12. Better Days
13. Baby, Baby, Baby..
Sound Of Lies
..Track Listing:
1. The Man Who Loved Life
2. Think About It
3. Trouble
4. It's Up To You
5. Stick In The Mud
6. Big Star
7. Poor Little Fish
8. Sixteen Down
9. Haywire
10. Dying On The Vine
11. Bottomless Cup
12. Sound Of Lies
..
..Track Listing:
1. Blue
2. I'd Run Away
3. Miss Williams Guitar
4. Two Hearts
5. Real Light
6. Over My Shoulder
7. Bad Time
8. See Him On The Street
9. Nothing Left To Borrow
10. Ann Jane
11. Pray For Me
12. Red's Song
13. Ten Little Kids
..
..Track Listing:
1. Waiting For The Sun
2. Crowded In The Wings
3. Clouds
4. Two Angels
5. Take Me With You (When You Go)
6. Sister Cry
7. Settled Down Like Rain
8. Wichita
9. Nevada, California
10. Martin's Song
..
..Track Listing:
1. Two Angels
2. She's Not Alone Anymore
3. Will I Be Married
4. Dead End Angel
5. Commonplace Streets
6. Ain't No End
7. Five Cups Of Coffee
8. The Baltimore Sun
9. Red Firecracker
10. Sioux City
11. I'm Still Dreaming, Now I'm Yours
12. Martin's Song
..
..Track Listing:
1. Falling Star
2. Tried And True Love
3. Let The Critics Wonder
4. Let The Last Night Be The Longest (Lonesome Morning)
5. Behind Bars
6. Cherry Pie
7. The Liquor Store Came First
8. People In This Place On Every Side
9. Misery Tavern
10. (I'm Not In) Prison
11. King Of Kings
12. Good Long Time
13. Six Pack On The Dashboard
Jayhawks fans began to rejoice in late 2008 when it was reported that founding members Mark Olson and Gary Louris had completed an album. The duo had rekindled their association on tour dates over the previous three years, and the album Ready For The Flood (produced by Chris Robinson) was released by New West in January 2009. In support, Olson and Louris set out on a new round of cross-country tour dates, including SXSW in March.
The good news just keeps coming with the announcement of a Jayhawks reunion with bassist Marc Perlman (plus drummer/-vocalist Tim O’Reagan, and Karen Grotberg on keyboards and vocals) – the first time they have performed together since 1995. The band has been booked for shows in Europe during the spring and summer 2009 (including Barcelona’s Primavera Sound Festival, May 30th). Topping the schedule will be a homecoming reunion gig at the Basilica Block Party outdoor festival in Minneapolis on Friday, July 10th.
The historic Twin Cities reunion show will serve as the official launch party for MUSIC FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY: THE JAYHAWKS ANTHOLOGY, which will be available July 7th at all physical and digital retail outlets through American/ Legacy, a division of SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT. The magnificent vocal harmonies of Mark Olson and Gary Louris, the shimmering and intuitive layers of guitars, and above all the consummate songwriting bears witness to one of the most incandescent bands in the American country-rock tradition – be it labeled “alt country,” “Americana,” “No Depression” or any comparable genre.
Under the guidance of Gary Louris, the first compilation ever released on the Jayhawks is a career-spanning assemblage of 20 signature singles and album tracks – from their 1989 debut album on Minneapolis-based Twin/Tone Records, Blue Earth, through all five of their albums on the American Recordings label: the breakthrough Hollywood Town Hall (1992), Tomorrow The Green Grass (1995), Sound Of Lies (1997), Smile (2000), and Rainy Day Music (2003).
Adding provenance to the collection is an insightful liner notes essay by PD Larson, a Minneapolis-based writer who’s been a fan since witnes-sing the first-ever Jayhawks concert in 1985. Larson sets the scene by laying out the roots and branches of the Jayhawks influences in folk, rock and country – Bob Dylan, the Hawks (the source of the Jayhawks’ name, the backup group for Ronnie Hawkins and later Dylan, as they became the Band), the Flying Burrito Brothers, “the Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo, anything involving Gram Parsons, connoisseur-grade country, folk and blues sources.”
The 20-song career overview will be released separately as a single CD on its own, and as the cornerstone of a deluxe three-disc set. The eco-friendly three-panel paper foldout “soft pack” (no plastic jewelcase) will contain an additional CD of Jayhawks rarities – out-of-print tracks, demos, outtakes, alternate versions, single B-sides, live material, and one cut from their indie self-released, self-titled debut album of 1986 on the Bunkhouse label (referred to as The Bunkhouse Album).
Fourteen of the 20 tracks on this rarities CD are previously unreleased. All are extensively annotated by Larson, whose knowledge of the Jayhawks sheds light throughout. Citing “Cure For This,” for example, Larson writes: “This Perlman/Louris composition was at least partially a by-product of the widespread fascination at the time with Nick Cave’s 1997 album, The Boatman Calls… A reworked version of ‘Cure For This’ was released as ‘Goodbye Kiss’ in 2009 on 25:32:47, an EP Perlman recorded with Minneapolis singer Janey Winterbauer. There was a song on Golden Smog’s misunderstood 2006 album Another Fine Day also titled ‘Cure For This’ (sung by Muni Loco, wife of AFD’s Spanish producer Paco Loco), but it’s a completely different song than this Jayhawks demo.”
The third disc in the deluxe package is a DVD highlighted by all seven music video clips produced for the Jayhawks: “Waiting For The Sun,” “Settled Down Like Rain,” “Take Me With You (When You Go),” “Blue,” “I’d Run Away,” “Big Star,” and “Save It For A Rainy Day.” Additional video content for the DVD includes two EPKs (electronic press kits) produced for Hollywood Town Hall in 1992 (20 minutes, with full live versions of “Settled Down Like Rain,” Tim Hardin’s “Reason To Believe,” and “Take Me With You (When You Go),” filmed at the Metro in Chicago on Valentine’s Day, 1993) and for Sound Of Lies in 1997 (seven minutes). All DVD content is being released commercially for the first time.
Larson astutely lays out the “career arc” of the Jayhawks as a three-act play, in which Act I covers the years after Olson, Louris and Perlman first got together in 1985. The singing, songwriting and performing began to coalesce and early demos poured out from the band. After The Bunkhouse Album (“Falling Star”), interest and attention from indie labels and major labels never quite came to a boil, so the Jayhawks signed with Minneapolis-based Twin/Tone. The small company gathered the demos, which were “spruced up” and released in 1988 as Blue Earth, the band’s first nationally-distributed album (“Two Angels,” “Ain’t No End,” “Old Woman From Red Clay”).
Act II began in 1988, with Louris recovering from a near-fatal car accident and the band limping along without him. Rick Rubin’s Def American label (later to morph into American Recordings) entered the picture in 1989, in the form of producer/A&R rep George Drakoulias. Legend has it that he was intrigued when he heard Blue Earth playing in the background during a long-distance phone call to Twin/Tone. By 1991, the band was signed to American by Drakoulias, who produced their next two albums, two of the most influential classics of the ’90s: Hollywood Town Hall (1992, source of “Waiting For The Sun,” “Martin’s Song,” Clouds,” “Settled Down Like Rain”); and Tomorrow The Green Grass (1995, with “Blue,” “I’d Run Away,” “Over My Shoulder,” and “Miss Williams’ Guitar,” homage to Olson’s girlfriend and later wife, singer-songwriter Victoria Williams). These were high times for the Jayhawks, with appearances at Farm Aid, on The Late Show with David Letterman, and on tours with Bob Dylan and fellow American Recordings artist Johnny Cash.
Act III can be described as the post-Olson era, following his abrupt departure from the band in 1995, moving to California to follow his wife’s folksy leanings in the Original Harmony Ridge Creekdippers. Jayhawks stalwarts Louris and Perlman carried on, however, with singer/keyboardist Karen Grotberg (a member since 1993) and new drummer Tim O’Reagan, who turned out to be a gifted songwriter in his own right, and whose vocals with Louris were uncannily resonant of the Louris-Olson combo. To para-phrase Larson, the Jayhawks took off again on their next three albums that veered from the darkly modern mélange of Sound of Lies (1997, with “Trouble,” “Big Star,” “The Man Who Loved Life”), to the Bob Ezrin-produced orchestral pop of Smile (2000, with “Smile,” “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me,” “What Led Me To This Town”), and back to the more traditional Ethan Johns-produced Rainy Day Music (2003, with “Tailspin,” “All The Right Reasons,” “Save It For A Rainy Day,” “Angelyne”). Rainy Day Music gave the Jayhawks their highest Billboard chart debut (52), but top-rung success still eluded them, so the decision was made to “call it a day” in 2005.
Ironically, Olson and Louris reestablished their connection that same year, writing together again, and touring in 2005-2006. Louris, Olson and O’Reagan all released solo albums that were well-received by the press and Americana radio, and Perlman also “got around to working on some of his own compositions that had been piling up.” Olson and Louris first ventured into the studio in 2007, with “old friend and road buddy” Chris Robinson (of the Black Crowes) in the producer’s chair. Louris and Olson’s first major studio collaboration in over a decade, Ready For the Flood (on the New West label) sounded nothing like a Jayhawks album, critics and programmers agreed, yet the acoustic guitars and crystalline harmonies are unmistakable. The magic has been just as evident on their most recent 2009 touring.
“Over their long career,” Larson concludes, “the Jayhawks created an impressive body of work, rivaling the best music from anyone in the post-punk era. Only time will tell if the Jayhawks will rise again and reclaim their title as a living, breathing American musical treasure.”
Alternative country bands The Jayhawks and Son Volt have new releases today, as did Wilco last week. What influential alt-country band were Son Volt and Wilco born from?
I love the anthology! Got the special version at Best Buy because I've got all the regular albums. Thank you guys for all the years of wonderful music.
Hey guys- Thanks for the add! Fans and the curious can read my local review of Music From The North Country at www.myspace.com/roundthedial and my national review will be out in Elmore Magazine next issue- looking forward to covering the show on Friday for Elmore and hearing ya'll back on the same stage again!! Thanks for the great music!! -Tom Hallett, Elmore Magazine/'Round The Dial
Wish I could be at the show on the 10th, gonna be amazing. was great playing with you guys in Melbourne, hope to see you again somewhere on the road Matt
