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The Jayhawks Biography

The Jayhawks Biography

 The Jayhawks are an American rock band. They released seven studio albums, including six on the American Recordings label. As of 2008, the band is on hiatus. While not active, they have not issued any official statement about disbanding and various members continue to collaborate on live shows and studio projects. The band formed in 1985 in Minnesota with Mark Olson (acoustic guitar and vocals), Gary Louris (electric guitar and vocals), Marc Perlman (bass) and Norm Rogers (drums). Their first album The Jayhawks was released by Bunkhouse Records, a small independent label, in 1986. Their music at the time, mostly written by Olson, showed a strong roots/country-rock influence. Rogers left to be replaced by Thad Spencer and the band worked for the next years on demo tapes in search of a major label recording contract. During this period, Louris left the band briefly (following a car accident) and Dan Gaarder replaced him. Louris returned and the sum of the collected demos from 1986-1989 were brought together to create Blue Earth, released on the Minneapolis label Twin Tone in 1989. On this album Gary Louris shared more of the songwriting with Olson. After touring the U.S. in support of Blue Earth, Spencer left the band due to commitments at home with his business. He was replaced by Ken Callahan in 1988 who stayed with the band until 1993. After a long touring schedule supporting the Hollywood Town Hall release, the band lost interest in Callahan. He left just prior to the studio sessions for Tomorrow the Green Grass.In 1991 Dave Ayers, the president of Twin Tone, was on a phone call with A&R representative George Drakoulias from Def American while Blue Earth played in the background. Drakoulias asked about the music, and eventually met with and signed the band to the label later that year.

 In 1992 the Jayhawks had their major label release, Hollywood Town Hall, on Def American. The album was produced by Drakoulias and recorded primarily in Los Angeles and at Pachyderm Recording Studio in Minnesota. Though Louris' fuzzy guitar was at the forefront, a clear folksy influence was also emerging in Olson and Louris' songwriting. The album was a hit, powered by the single "Waiting for the Sun", and it brought the Jayhawks a wider fanbase. Adding Karen Grotberg on the keyboards, the band toured extensively. In 1995 they went into the studio to produce Tomorrow the Green Grass on the renamed American Recordings label. Lead track "Blue" turned out to be a top 40 hit in Canada (peaking at #33), but the record's production had been very expensive and the album failed to sell as expected in the US. Among the album's songs is "Miss Williams' Guitar," a love song for Olson's then-girlfriend, singer-songwriter Victoria Williams (the pair later married, but divorced in February, 2006). Drummer and songwriter Tim O'Reagan joined the band for the 1995 tour.

 
By the end of 1995, Olson left the band to spend more time with Williams (with whom he would later form the Original Harmony Ridge Creekdippers). The band continued to record as The Jayhawks, though it no longer performed songs that had been written solely by Olson, adding Kraig Jarret Johnson on guitar. Johnson, another Minneapolis musical fixture, played in seminal SST band Run Westy Run, Iffy and Golden Smog. The Jayhawks released Sound of Lies in 1997, with Louris composing most of the songs and allowing all of his influences a share in the proceedings. The result mixed straight rock (the ironic "Big Star"), psychedelic, acoustic (the title track) and even some dub elements, taking the band far from its country-influenced origins. Although the band's sound was often described as Alt-country, or Americana, the majority of its music bore more of a resemblance to the vast oeuvre of Neil Young than to Hank Williams.

 Smile (2000), produced by Bob Ezrin, had more of a pop music feel, jarring some of the band's long-time fans. The New York Times positively reviewed the album, but in a nod to the band's lack of widespread recognition, titled the review "What If You Made A Classic And No One Cared?" The song "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" appeared in a Ralph Lauren commercial, the second soundtrack released from Dawson's Creek "Songs from Dawson's Creek Volume 2", and the 2001 film All Over the Guy. Rainy Day Music (2003), the band's last album to date, was stripped down, more acoustic, and generally seen as a return to their alt-country roots ("Tailspin," "Stumbling Through the Dark," "You Look So Young"). The band now consisted of founding members Louris and Perlman, along with drummer O'Reagan, and touring band member ex-Long Ryder Stephen McCarthy, from Richmond, VA who also played with Johnny Hott and The Piedmont Surprise. McCarthy added pedal steel, lap steel, banjo and guitar to the album and subsequent live shows. This lineup toured in 2003 and early 2004, including their first ever appearance on PBS's long running series, Austin City Limits. The band's final official show was in Valencia, Spain.

 
In addition to their studio albums, the Jayhawks released Live From the Women's Club, an all-acoustic live recording of Louris/Perlman/O'Reagan from 2002. It was sold only at concerts as an "Official Jayhawks Bootleg." It includes the original version of "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" called "Someone Will". A follow-up, Live From the Women's Club 2, features a cover of Tim Hardin's "Reason To Believe" and a rendition of "Jennifer Save Me" from Golden Smog, the alt/country supergroup of which Louris was a founding member (and which Perlman later joined). Olson and Louris toured together in the winter of 2005 and spring of 2006, billed as "From the Jayhawks: An Evening with Mark Olson & Gary Louris, Together Again." Both old and new Jayhawks members have now progressed to solo efforts and side projects, and the band as a whole is generally considered to be broken up, and not expected to produce new material anytime soon. However, the band members appear to keep in touch, tour together in their other projects, and have been known to "reunite" at recent Golden Smog and benefit shows.

The Jayhawks formed in the winter of 1985, if not by accident, then at least in the most inauspicious of ways. Armed with two weeks of rehersals, no name and a temporary guitar player who was already halfway to Texas, they walked onto a stage somewhere in Minneapolis. They played ten songs that night in front of as many people. A little country, a little folk, some rockabilly. When they walked off that little stage they were still without a name, but they were no longer strangers First they found an extremely talented, permanent singer/ guitarist. Then they found their name. Then they found their sound. And they worked on it. They became more aware of their different musical backgrounds and philosophies; they also became aware of their common urge to play soulful and honest music, no matter what the style. Each member exerted his own influence on their music to help shape it into songs that were both true to a genre but not really in it. It was a struggle, at times, to find that balance. But that's how The Jayhawks worked.

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