As a fan of The Jayhawks and their unique brand of alt-country since discovering Hollywood Town Hall and Tomorrow the Green Grass in the 1990s, recent reports that founder members Mark Olson and Gary Louris were to record and release a whole album together titled Ready For The Flood, was for me exciting news. It renewed my love for the band and it lead me to revisit The Jayhawks’ back catalogue and the satellite projects of both songsmiths.Before signing to a major label The Jayhawks released two albums: The Jayhawks and Blue Earth. Both albums are wonderfully roughshod and effortlessly flit from dewy-eyed ballads to cocksure barroom workouts with the skill of early Flying Burrito Brothers. But, it is 1992’s Hollywood Town Hall that heralds the bands first great leap forward in song writing and it is here that the vocal interplay truly begins to be explored. Gary Louris sports the more traditional rock howl in contrast to Mark Olson’s helium yelp, and the way in which these two voices work together is the secret to The Jayhawks' appeal. The pair share and swap verses, harmonising, at times singing completely different melodies simultaneously and the results are always breathtaking. It is a rare thing that two such voices find each other, so distinct, dissimilar but so perfectly suited. It is a sweet, heady mix that is highly addictive. Tomorrow the Green Grass (1995) continues with this winning formula, this time filling out the sound on certain tracks with strings and piano. It is also this album that contains Blue, arguably their finest song to date. With its bright guitars, falsetto chorus and giddying middle-eight the song is, quite simply, perfection,
Tomorrow the Green Grass was also the last Jayhawks album to feature Mark Olson. Gary Louris continued with the Jayhawks after Olson’s departure, with the band heading in a slicker, more radio friendly direction. One might venture that Louris’ most interesting post-Green Grass work lies with Golden Smog. An Americana supergroup who’s line-up has over the years included Jeff Tweedy and Jody Stephens. On the country-rock collective’s 1998 album Weird Tales, Louris takes lead vocal on three of the albums stand-out tracks. On the beautiful Jane, we hear a crestfallen Louris trying to make sense of a callous lover, rasping; “Jane, why don’t you give a damn?/Jane, why don’t you stay?” By contrast, the beer soaked Until You Came Along sees Louris clearly in his comfort zone with his troubles behind him as he belts out this cellar-bar sing-song. But it is the epic, sweeping Jennifer Save Me that steals the show. Louris’ voice trembles over a simple but powerful chord progression whilst heavily reverbed pianos build the song dramatically, before ultimately giving way to a cacophony of 303 bleeping and note-bending.
After leaving The Jayhawks in 1996 due to the twin pressures of demanding touring and recording schedules, Mark Olson continued to pursue his musical career with singer-songwriter Victoria Williams and fiddle-player Mike Russell as The Creekdippers. Creekdippin’ for the First Time packages together the group’s debut and sophomore albums which were originally released in the late-90s. The most impressive cuts of this two-fer are Flowering Trees and Pacific Coast Rambler, both songs are layered with haunting harmonica and Williams’ eerie backing vocals. The latter track recalls the melancholic mood of Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere’s quieter, more reflective moments and at times you can almost taste the California desert dust. Olson and The Creekdipper’s 2002 release December’s Child makes better use of light and shade. Each song contains lyrics that are poetic without being pretentious and the album underscores Olson’s ability to tell a story replete with characters, without the song turning into a sprawling ten minute audio-novel. All of Mark Olson’s tales of everyday folk and their daily trials are told in roughly four minutes. How Can I Send Tonight and Alta’s Song sit comfortably amongst his best, but the highlight of December’s Child is Louris providing guest vocals on Say You’ll Be Mine. It is a welcome cameo and the listener is reminded that it is when these two voices sing together that the magic really happens.
In the wake of the recent Jayhawks reunion tour, Ready for the Flood is perhaps not exactly the soaring, jangling comeback that fans were expecting. The album is sparse, predominantly acoustic with minimal percussion, often recalling Simon & Garfunkel rather than CSN&Y. Also, neither Olson nor Louris’ voice has escaped the net of time, but one imagines this is partly down to the one mic, one take approach of producer and Black Crowe, Chris Robinson. There is none of the punchy, polished production of times past here, and that’s clearly the point of this very raw, naturalistic album.
Despite Ready For The Flood’s imperfections, it is a joy to hear them singing together again over the course of a whole album and, as they duet on album opener The Rose Society, “Where does time take your garden?/The house of love still standing/The garden abandoned”, we should think ourselves lucky the duo haven’t abandoned us yet and hopefully the near future holds many more collaborations between them. Mark Olson and Gary Louis are truly authentic American masters. I, like many people thought the Jayhawks were long dead, but with such an impressive body of work past and present, they are more alive than ever.
