The Jayhawks

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The Jayhawks

Rock band

For the Record …

Honed Country-Folk-Rock on Club Circuit

Seduced Critics with Major Label Debut

Broadened Sound on Green Grass

Selected discography

Sources

Reminiscent of country-rock bands of the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Jayhawks have become in the 1990s one of the most critically acclaimed performers of a blend of down-to-earth rock, country, and folk music. Their songs sketch life from the perspective of the common man; their music can shift from a rowgly good time feel to touching melancholy within a few bars. “We’re between the seams of different rock systems,” singer and lead guitarist Gary Louris told the Detroit Metro Times. “We do have American influences, but we don’t analyze what we do—almost to a fault. In Europe they keep trying to put us up as this band symbolizing America. We write songs because we have things that are calling out to be expressed.”

When singer and guitarist Mark Olson was growing up in California and Minneapolis, Minnesota, his musical tastes leaned toward performers like seminal folksinger Woody Guthrie, country vocalist Emmylou Harris, bluegrass’s Louvin Brothers, and traditional blues musicians. For a while he played bass fiddle with a rockabilly band called Stagger Lee; it was with that outfit that he

For the Record …

Members include Karen Grotberg (keyboards); Gary Louris (vocals, guitar); Mark Olson (vocals, guitar); Tim O’Reagan (drums); and Marc Perlman (bass). Previous members have included Norm Rogers, Thad Spencer, and Ken Callahan, all drummers.

Band formed in Minneapolis, 1985; released debut album, The Jayhawks, Bunkhouse, 1986; group disbanded briefly after Louris sustained serious injuries in a car accident, 1988; released Blue Earth, Twin Tone, 1989; signed to Def American and released Hollywood Town Hall, 1992; opened for the Black Crowes and toured extensively in the U.S., Great Britain, and Europe; appeared at Farm Aid VI; released Tomorrow the Green Grass, 1995.

Addresses: Record company —American Recordings, 3500 West Olive Ave., Ste. 1550, Burbank, CA 91505. Fan club— The Jayhawks, 14755 Ventura Blvd., 1–710, Sherman Oaks, CA 91403.

began performing his own songs. In the mid-1980s Olson met guitarist Marc Perlman, who had previously played with the Neglecters. Olson and Perlman decided to form a new band, with the latter switching to bass. The twosome was joined by drummer Norm Rogers, formerly of the Cows.

For his part, Louris got a late start as an electric guitarist, not purchasing his first instrument until graduating from college in 1977. He began playing lead at twenty-five, after which he established some local presence playing with two Minnesota bands, Schnauzer and Safety Last. Louris joined Olson, Perlman, and Rogers after seeing them perform in Minneapolis in February of 1985.

Honed Country-Folk-Rock on Club Circuit

Calling themselves the Jayhawks, the group honed their country-folk sound and won over an audience playing the club circuit. They recorded their first album, The Jayhawks, independently in 1986. Though only a few thousand copies of the album were made, the release helped expand the Jayhawks’ reputation outside of the Minneapolis area. Critics began labeling the group “the new Flying Burrito Brothers,” after the legendary country-rock band of the late 1960s and early 1970s, according to American Recordings press materials.

Olson and Louris clicked as a songwriting team, but the group was unable to earn a living from music alone. They continued playing gigs at night while working at day jobs. Sometimes they would grind out three sets a night in run-down watering holes and sleep on the floors of friends or strangers when they played outside of their hometown. Rogers was replaced on drums by Thad Spencer. Then, in the fall of 1988, Louris was almost fatally injured in an automobile accident. The group disbanded to reassess their musical direction.

Dave Ayers, an executive with Twin Tone Records, which had released debut albums by the Replacements and Soul Asylum—stalwarts of the underground rock scene who would go on to great prominence—recommended that the group put their demo tapes together to form an album. The result was Blue Earth, released on Twin Tone in 1989. Blue Earth featured a broader sound than was found on the Jayhawks’ previous release, and was received with some enthusiasm.

Seduced Critics with Major Label Debut

After recovering from his injuries Louris rejoined the group, and the Jayhawks became a full-time act. Another new drummer, Ken Callahan, brought a harder rock sound to the band, and frequent touring helped to build awareness of the group. As the story goes, George Drakoulias, a producer with Def American Recordings who had hit it big with an Atlanta band called the Black Crowes, was talking on the phone to Ayers and heard Blue Earth in the background. Impressed by the group’s sound, Drakoulias signed the Jayhawks to Def American (which would later drop the “Def” from its name).

The partnership with Drakoulias led to the group’s breakthrough 1992 recording, Hollywood Town Hall. Featuring a bigger, more developed sound and contributions from noted keyboardists Nicky Hopkins, who had worked with the Rolling Stones, and Benmont Tench of Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers, it provided the songs of Olson and Louris with a considerably richer presentation.

Critical praise for Hollywood Town Hall was virtually universal. In Guitar Player, Heidi Siegmund wrote, “The Jayhawks’ tough, country-tinged rock recalls the plain-spoken emotion of Neil Young’s earliest solo albums.” Entertainment Weekly reported that the album offered “blatant old-wave country rock” and “earnest, rugged songs about the travails of forlorn love and salvation.” Stewart Francke of the Metro Times described the band’s work as “taut, emotional music that falls somewhere between Bill Monroe’s hill-top country and the melancholy, myth-drenched rock of the Band.”

Particular attention was paid to Hollywood’s lyrics. Demonstrating a contentment drawn from tradition and hope for a better future, the poetry of the Jayhawks’ stood in stark contrast to the alienation and rage of the so-called grunge bands that were claimed youthful audiences in 1992. ‘The Jayhawks’ sincerity is refreshing: it implies a mode of acceptance and affirmation when all around is satire and rejection,” remarked Francke. Louris told him, “The lyrics are intentionally oblique. Maybe it’s our midwestern embarrassment at having to actually speak our minds. It’s easier for us to hide things in imagery.” The most popular song from the album was the lead single, “Waiting for the Sun,” for which the group filmed a video that earned airplay on the cable giant MTV. “Crowded in the Wings,” “Wichita,” and “Take Me with You (When You Go)” also received radio play.

In yet another change behind the drum kit, Tim O’Reagan replaced Callahan in 1993. While touring, the group added keyboardist Karen Grotberg, who had been playing with a weekend band called the Ranchtones. The Jayhawks spent 18 months on the road after the release of Hollywood Town Hall, sometimes opening for the Black Crowes, who were vocal supporters of the band. Various bandmembers also contributed songs or session work to albums by former Lone Justice singer Maria McKee and Rolling Stone Mick Jagger. The group also appeared at the benefit concert Farm Aid VI. Finally back in Minneapolis, Olson and Louris began working on songs for a new album.

Broadened Sound on Green Grass

Spring of 1994 saw the band’s return to the studio. This time Olson, Louris, Perlman, Grotberg, Tench, and former Lone Justice drummer Don Heffington serving as the basic recording unit. Experimenting with their sound, the group steered slightly away from their country tendencies. The addition of strings—arranged by Paul Buckmaster, highly regarded for his work on Elton John’s early albums—added new texture to several songs.

Tomorrow the Green Grass was released in February of 1995. Reflecting a widely held view, tastemaker Lorraine Ali said of the record in Rolling Stone, “This may be the album that breaks the Minneapolis-born band beyond its base of critics and country-rock connoisseurs.” She called Tomorrow “the finest album in their nine-year history,” remarking that it “still delivers sweet vocal harmonies and heartbreaking melodies, but this time around there’s more bite to all the pure prettiness.” Ali singled out the cut Nothing Left to Borrow for its “stunning yet uninhibited vocals.”

“We had a retro tag, but I don’t think anything on this record sounds like old stuff,” Olson told Ali. “In fact, it doesn’t even sound like our last album.” Two songs in particular, “Blue” and “I’d Run Away,” clearly crossed the line from country-rock to pop. Still, the band retained a connection to their roots with “See Him on the Street,” which sounded to some like it would have been comfortable on Blue Earth.

Touring to promote the album proved somewhat disillusioning; as opening act for the enormously popular Tom Petty, the Jayhawks frequently found themselves playing in large arenas where much of the crowd, there to see Petty, did not disguise their disinterest. “What I don’t like about these tours is the pressure to make some sort of an impression, to sell ourselves night in, night out,” Olson told Entertainment Weekly Despite their appearance on such a high-profile tour, meanwhile, members of the group did not appear eager to become a “mainstream” act. Nor did they think it likely. Said Perlman in Entertainment Weekly, “Maybe we’ll have a huge hit some day, but I think our stuff is too quirky and not straightforward enough.”

In fact, as 1995 wore on, the Jayhawks seemed as dedicated as ever to their rough-hewn version of what has become known as “roots” rock. Though they have not achieved the commercial success that many of their supporters believe is inevitable, they are intent on making music their way or not at all. “We have our thing that we do, and we don’t really pay attention to what’s happening tomorrow,” said Olson in the band’s press biography. “We just play what seems melodic and right to us.”