The Jayhawks Anthology Honors Alt-Country Legacy
My college roommate was a few years older than me and he had the coolest record collection of anyone I'd ever met, way deeper than my own stack of contemporary country discs. Because of him, I learned about left-of-center artists like Shawn Colvin, 10,000 Maniacs and the Jayhawks. It's been at least 10 years since I've seen him but he immediately crossed my mind when I heard "Waiting for the Sun" on Music From the North Country: The Jayhawks Anthology, a three-disc set released earlier this month. These Minneapolis musicians are certainly among the creators of the alternative-country movement, with 1992's Hollywood Town Hall and 1995's Tomorrow the Green Grass considered landmark albums in that elusive genre.
Of course, the term "alt-country" is notoriously vague. But if you're just a casual music fan who walked into a bar where the Jayhawks were playing, you'd probably think, 'Oh. A country band.' The close harmonies recall the Everly Brothers while the songs wouldn't be out of place on an Emmylou Harris album from the 1970s. Naturally I'm drawn to "Blue" (which starts with this line: "Where have all my friends gone?/They've all disappeared") and "I'd Run Away" (another fantastic opening line: "Yeah, I can take a hint from you") -- and that's because my favorite songs tend to have melancholy lyrics with bright, summery melodies. I can't explain it, and I guess I didn't even realize that about myself until I was exposed to a whole spectrum of music in college.
The new anthology compiles 20 songs from studio albums, 20 rarities, an extensive essay detailing the ever-changing lineup and nearly an hour of music videos and EPKs. The mid-90s version of the Jayhawks reunited at a Minneapolis festival in July and after reading this review, I hope a tour is in the works.
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Redmaz says:
I like a lot of the Jayhawks music, not all but Very smooth. I used to think of “Alt- Country”, as a vague term too, but it seems a lot clearer these days. I see it as either the generic version of “the alternative to Mainstream Pop Country” or as the musical birth of a genre starting in the late 80’s-90’s where the Rockers and the Punks who grew up around some country music decided to do it too. With a lot of great music resulting I might add. Did you know Olson amd Louris released an album this year? They were members of The Jayhawks………..