THE JAYHAWKS Music from the North Country (American)

For me personally, the Jayhawks has been a band I have tried to emulate when I started putting together a new band – the Groovy People – about two years ago. Basically, classic pop-rock with an alt-country edge, a sonic representation of Gram Parsons’ mythical Cosmic American Music.

This 3CD deluxe edition of this Jayhawks retrospective provides a pretty good enough idea of what this excellent band was/is about. “Was/is” because the band has been on hiatus since the last album, 2003′s fine Rainy Day Music. Disc one cherry picks the band’s five official albums – Blue Earth, Hollywood Town Hall, Tomorrow the Green Grass, Sound of Lies and the aforesaid Rainy Day Music. Disc two features rare and unreleased tracks whilst disc three is a DVD of music videos and EPKs throughout the band’s career.

Regular PoP visitors will be aware of how much I loved the Jayhawks, I still listen to them whenever I need a “pick-up” and songs like Trouble, Angelyne, Smile, Blue, I’m Gonna Make You Love Me are mainstays on my playlist. Not to mention that Sound of Lies remains one of my favourite albums of all time.

What is even more impressive is that after the departure of co-founder Mark Olsen (after Tomorrow the Green Grass), the band actually became stronger as Gary Louris, Tim O’Reagan, Marc Pearlman and Karen Grotberg delivered timeless music that still resonates today.

The remastering of these great songs has worked wonders as even an longtime fan like me is finding new delights from this oft-heard repertoire. So I can’t recommend Music from the North Country any higher. Every PoP visitor MUST have this compilation in their collection and after your appetite has been whetted (and it will be) and you want know more, go to the albums in order of preference – Sound of Lies, Tomorrow the Green Grass, Rainy Day Music, Smile, Hollywood Town Hall and Blue Earth.

Bloody essential.

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