Good Listening: The Jayhawks 7/9/03 – Chicago, IL

This year has been a good year to be a Jayhawks fan with the release of Jayhawks frontman Gary Louris’s solo CD Vagabonds, produced by Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes, and a long overdue retrospective for the all-star Golden Smog project.

Jayhawks fans can now begin salivating in advance over Ready For The Flood, a reunion of Louris and Jayhawks co-conspirator Mark Olson that was originally set for release this year.

The project has been bumped to early 2009, and the sound samples on their Myspace page suggest that the album, also produced by Robinson, will be worth the wait.

But whatever happened to those Jayhawks, anyway?

In the years following Olson’s departure from the Minneapolis-based Jayhawks in 1995, Louris kept the band name alive with three more studio releases.

2003’s Rainy Day Music was a great album that like much of the Jayhawks catalog, deserved a far greater audience than it received.

This particular show is a great document of the Rainy Day Music Jayhawks lineup, at this point consisting of founding members Louris, Marc Perlman, drummer Tim O’Reagan, and former Long Ryder Stephen McCarthy on pedal steel, lap steel, banjo, and guitar.

Recorded at the historic Chicago Recording Company, this show was the pilot broadcast for The Lost Highway Radio Hour, a planned radio series hosted by author/music fan Stephen King, that never quite got off the ground.

Seven tracks from Rainy Day Music are showcased within the broadcast, including the show opener “Stumbling Through The Dark,” a co-write with Matthew Sweet that is followed by two more Rainy Day Music tracks, including “All The Right Reasons,” one of my personal favorites from the album.

If you’ve ever found yourself searching every part of yourself inside a relationship, “All The Right Reasons” might sound like a familiar soundtrack to your thoughts.

I don’t know what day it is,
I can’t recall the seasons
And I don’t remember how we got this far
All I know is I’m loving you for all the right reasons
In my sky you’ll always be my morning star

Listen up and hear what you missed, and after you listen, put Sound of Lies, Smile, and Rainy Day Music on your musical shopping list.

p.s. – if you’ve got a good Jayhawks story/thought, feel free to share it in the comments!

The Jayhawks
7/9/03
Chicago Recording Company
Chicago, IL

Recorded for The Lost Highway Radio Hour

complete zipped download

Stephen King intro
Stumbling Through The Dark
All The Right Reasons
Angelyne
A Break In The Clouds
Don’t Let The World Get In Your Way
Blue
Trouble
Interviews
Save It For A Rainy Day (fade in)
The Eyes of Sarahjane
I’m Gonna Make You Love Me
Waiting For The Sun (acoustic)
From Tampa To Tulsa (acoustic)
Tailspin
Outro