CD reviews for July 17, 2009
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The Jayhawks
MUSIC FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY: THE JAYHAWKSANTHOLOGY
Formed in 1985, Minneapolis’ Jayhawks helped kick off the country-oriented rock sound that came to be known as alt-country and Americana. Harmonizing singer-songwriters Gary Louris and Mark Olson were the heart of the Jayhawks for a decade. The band released the widely hailed ’90s albums Hollywood Town Hall and Tomorrow the Green Grass, but then, at the peak of the group’s fame, Olson left. Louris and a lineup that variously included drummer-singer Tim O’Reagan, singer-keyboardist Karen Grotberg and singer-pedal steel player Steven McCarthy carried on with three more excellent albums, but the Jayhawks never regained momentum.
As Jayhawks’ chronicler P.D. Larson writes for the career-sweeping Music from the North Country: The Jayhawks Anthology, perhaps the recently reunited Jayhawks can reclaim their well-deserved title as a living American music treasure. The Jayhawks Anthology presents much evidence of the group’s significance.
While early Anthology tracks show the apparent influence of Sweethearts of the Rodeo-era Byrds, Bob Dylan and Neil Young and Crazy Horse, the distinctive blend of Louris and Olson’s vocals and pathos in their dynamic songwriting is already instantly recognizable. Great melodies within songs that erupt into sunshine, such as “Blue” and “I’d Run Away,” show the Jayhawks at their soaring best. Post-Olson tracks, including “Smile,” “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me” and “The Man Who Loved Life,” are grand, too.
The Jayhawks Anthology is available in two editions, one a 20-track single CD, the other a three-disc set featuring an additional disc of B-sides, demos and rarities and a DVD. For Jayhawks devotees, the deluxe edition has much to enjoy.
Various artists
(500) DAYS OF SUMMER
In the new film, (500) Days of Summer, a young man who believes in romantic love and a young woman who does not believe in love, period, meet to the accompaniment of the ultra-romantic Smiths masterpiece, “There Is A Light That Never Goes.” The boy of the story, Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), lights an instant flame for the story’s romance-resistant girl, Summer (Zooey Deschanel).
(500) Days of Summer director Marc Webb, a music video director making his feature film debut, piles the movie with mood-setting songs, 14 of which appear on the soundtrack CD. Regina Spektor’s “Us” is a rushing swoon of voice, piano and strings. France’s first lady, Carla Bruni, whispers through “Queliqu’un M’a Dit.” Simon and Garfunkel express youthful melancholy in the fragmentary “Bookends.”
In contrast to the soundtrack’s wistful songs, Black Lips does the loose and loud “Bad Kids,” Wolfmother goes Led Zeppelin with “Vagabond” and Mumm-Ra points a knowing finger at Tom in “She’s Got You High.” The exquisitely needy “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want” appears in its original Smiths conception and a faithful remake by She & Him, aka M. Ward and Deschanel, the film’s inaccessible Summer.
Santana/Jefferson Airplane/Sly and the Family Stone/Janis Joplin/Johnny Winter
THE WOODSTOCK EXPERIENCE
As the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock Music & Art Fair approaches, Woodstock-related books, CDs and DVDs include The Woodstock Experience series. Featuring five two-CD sets by festival acts Santana, Jefferson Airplane, Sly and the Family Stone, Janis Joplin and Johnny Winter, the sets pair complete Woodstock performances with the acts’ 1969 studio albums. The Santana and Winter packages, for instance, include their brilliant self-titled debuts. The series’ packaging is beautifully done, too, including flashback-worthy mini-LP sleeves.
Decades before the term jam band was invented, rising guitar stars Winter and Carlos Santana led their respective groups through blistering Woodstock jams. Winter, particularly, amplifies his blues roots with rock ’n’ roll ferocity and endless virtuosity.
The Woodstock festival and succeeding documentary film featuring Santana’s “Soul Sacrifice” performance were star-making breaks for the San Francisco Latin-rock band. The Woodstock Experience in-concert and studio discs from Janis Joplin and Jefferson Airplane also capture them at career turning points. Joplin had recently left Big Brother and the Holding Company. Jefferson Airplane was in the final year of its classic lineup. The funk, soul and rock mash-up Sly and the Family Stone unleashed on Aug. 17 did indeed take them higher.
These Woodstock performances are not perfect, but they do present a sonic flash on an extraordinary time and place.
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