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The Jayhawks
Rainy Day Music
(American/Lost Highway)
The Music Box's #2 album for 2003
T.J. Simon's #3 album for 2003
First Appeared at The Music Box, April 2003, Volume 10, #4
Written by John Metzger
The award for most resilient band has to go to The Jayhawks. Frontman Gary
Louris was nearly killed in an auto accident as the band’s career was just
beginning, and more recently, as it was about to embark on a pre-release
promotional tour for its latest album Rainy Day Music, he was stricken
with a life-threatening heart infection, which sidelined him for several weeks.
Not to mention, the group’s line-up has been in a nearly constant state of flux
since its debut in 1986, although its biggest blow came nearly a decade into its
existence when co-founder Mark Olson split to pursue a solo career. Still, under
the guidance of songwriter and guitarist Louris as well as bass player Marc
Perlman, the ensemble has persevered, continuing to tour and record with amazing
consistency as if nothing had changed. Its subsequent outings Sound of Lies
and Smile explored new ground, turning away from the
collective’s original alt-country style towards the pop sounds of The Beatles, Big Star, and The Beach
Boys. The usual suspects, however, found fault with Louris for leading The
Jayhawks in a new direction, apparently believing an artist must stay within a
mold rather than continue to break it. Both Sound of Lies and Smile
were terrific, but largely underrated efforts that directly responded, at least
musically, to those that close friend Jeff Tweedy was making with Wilco.
Although The Jayhawks’ latest release Rainy Day Music finds the band
returning to its acoustic-tinged, country-influenced roots, it’s clear that
Louris and company never would have gotten here had they not traversed the
ground of the group’s last two outings. For certain, there’s little doubt that
the album will be heralded by some as a welcome return to The Jayhawks'
alt-country beginnings, and there’s certainly no question that the buoyant,
countryfied bounce of songs like Save It for a Rainy Day and Angelyne
will surely put smiles upon the faces of those who have strayed in recent years.
Indeed, there are vast portions of Rainy Day Music that retread some of
the same ground as the band’s most popular albums, most notably Tomorrow the
Green Grass. Even the influence of David Bowie that burst through that
effort’s Nothing Left to Borrow is resurrected here on Don’t Let the
World Get in Your Way, albeit in an entirely different manner.
Nevertheless, Rainy Day Music should not be viewed with such a singular
vision. The album is much broader in scope than many are initially apt to
realize, and what is revisited also is reshaped and perfected in ways not
possible without the personal pilgrimage the band has had to endure. Consider
this all to be part of the genius of this latest chapter in The Jayhawks’ great
American novel. The music is familiar enough to draw in the listener, but where
one winds up is often not where one expects. For this outing, Louris kept his
pop-fueled yearnings a bit more subtle and subdued than in the past, and yet he
still managed to create an album that shows growth rather than regression,
perhaps as a way of challenging his critics to see the light.
The title track from Sound of Lies was filled with harmonies straight
from Crosby, Stills, & Nash, and this influence is even more pervasive on
Rainy Day Music. A song such as All the Right Reasons opens like
something from Hollywood Town Hall, but before one knows it, vocals merge
together, first recalling The Eagles, then shifting towards CSN. Likewise,
percussion boils underneath Madman as acoustic and pedal steel guitars
lap at the tune’s edges, while on Come to the River, an electric guitar
slips and slides with sinewy exultation. And, for the record, that is the sound
of former Eagle Bernie Leadon’s banjo plucking its way through Stumbling
through the Dark. Even Matthew Sweet and Jakob Dylan drop in to provide some
backing vocals.
Make no mistake — Rainy Day Music is hardly a classic rock revival
either. Instead, Louris continues to mine the past in order to make music for
the present — music that only can be defined as that of The Jayhawks. His knack
at merging melody and lyric is simply beyond reproach, and his songs reach out
to audiences with vastly different tastes. He’s finally found a way to broaden
alt-country’s horizons, without alienating its often closed-minded fans. More
importantly, he’s crafted an album that even those that worship Hollywood
Town Hall will have to embrace as The Jayhawks’ second coming. 
Rainy Day Music is available from Amazon.
To order, Click Here!
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For UK orders, please
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2003
The Music Box
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