Years before hitting on his trusty Gibson SG with the Jayhawks, Gary Louris was rarely seen without his Gretsch back in the 80s.
Here's the scoop from Jayhawks HQ...
The Gretsch is back! Since it's The Jayhawks 40th anniversary year, it was only fitting that Gary dug out a guitar that actually dates back farther than that - back to the early 80s when Gary was in Safety Last.
UPCOMING JAYHAWKS SHOWS
July 17 Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua - Bayfield, WI
July 18 Nature Rocks 2026 - Aitkin, MN. Get tickets here (only Minnesota appearance this summer).
Oct 16 Danforth Music Hall – Toronto, ON. Get tickets here.
The Jayhawks' new Sanctuary Park album is a Gary Louris love letter to Canada. Catch 'em at the Danforth Music Hall Oct. 16th!
Here's the scoop from Jayhawks HQ...
The Jayhawks announce their new album, Sanctuary Park (out August 28th via Thirty Tigers which you can pre-order right here here), along with the lead single, “Keeping Our Heads Above Water,” and a North American tour kicking off in Toronto at The Danforth Music Hall on October 16th – tickets go on sale Friday (June 26) at 10 am.
Produced by Bob Ezrin, Sanctuary Park shows why The Jayhawks remain such an important band after more than four decades. They’ve created music that embodies the enduring spirit and soul of classic American songwriting. Song after song the needle-perfect pop melodies, lush three-part harmonies and thoughtful lyrics reflect their genre-defying, category-busting style that dates back to the band’s pioneering days in post-punk Minneapolis when they foretold today’s Americana movement. Defying the winds of fashion, the band has always stuck to what it does best: write and perform great songs, whether on stage or in the studio.
For Sanctuary Park, The Jayhawks reunited with the legendary Bob Ezrin (Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, Alice Cooper, Lou Reed), who produced their 2000 album Smile, a “classic,” according to The New York Times. When he heard Gary Louris was seeking a producer Ezrin immediately signed on, and invited the band to his hometown of Toronto to record. “I love their music,” says Ezrin. “There is gentleness and a sweetness to their sound, and I found myself craving a little bit more of that.“
A conscious decision was made to highlight the strengths of the band – Louris’s songwriting, the band’s trademarked three-part harmonies, and the intuitive interplay between Louris, keyboard player Karen Grotberg, drummer Tim O’Reagan and bassist Marc Perlman – on display on “Keeping Our Heads Above Water” (listen below). This interplay only comes with years of playing together, creating their own musical vocabulary. “Get us in a room together and there’s no one better; we have a certain musical magic that happens without even a word or a discussion.” Playing live in the studio made this record what it is… a time, a place, music of the moment.
While the album title references an actual location in Dundas, Ontario, Sanctuary Park is also a fictional place where distant memories re-emerge, childhood friends from years prior start speaking again, and teenage lovers start lives that their older selves are determined to renew. In these songs the hands of time tick past regrets and move toward greater possibilities.
The album has a definite sense of place. Not only was it recorded in Canada with a Canadian producer and Canadian engineers in a Canadian studio, but lyrically there are numerous references specific to Canada. After marrying his wife Stephanie, a born and bred proud Canadian, Louris became a permanent resident, giving him a somewhat unique view and perspective that has contributed to the content of these songs. Ironically, although the band has always had the tag of a true “American” band, in truth there has always been something truly Canadian about their sound.
Sanctuary Park arrives at a momentous time for the band as they celebrate their 40th year – the Jayhawks self-titled first record (known to fans as The Bunkhouse Album) was released in 1986. The Jayhawks have played most every major music festival, from Farm Aid to Primavera Sound, Pinkpop to Wilco’s Sky Blue Sky. In the tradition of The Band and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, The Jayhawks have toured with and served as backup band for many of music’s most acclaimed visionaries, including Ray Davies, Roger McGuinn, and Johnny Cash. The band will be touring throughout the world in the fall of 2026 and spring of 2027 to promote the new album and build upon their already impressive legacy.
The Jayhawks – Sanctuary Park
1. Keeping Our Heads Above Water
2. Kingston Girl
3. Mr. Lincoln
4. Hands Upon The Wheel
5. Leap Of Faith
6. American Midnight
7. Always And A Day
8. Sanctuary Park
9. Familiar Strangers
10. It’ll Be All Right Tonight
11. Rowing The Boat
Tickets go on sale Friday, June 26th at 10 am local time. For more tour info, visit: https://bit.ly/3QytYP5.
Coming to Hugh’s Room on Friday, April 17 is singer/songwriter, guitarist and producer Gary Louris. He has built a deeply compelling body of music whose artistry and integrity has won the loyalty of an international audience and the respect of both critics and peers. Best known for his seminal work with The Jayhawks and Minneapolis rockabilly group
Safety Last, he has also worked with alt-rock supergroup Golden Smog. Gary's most recent recording, the largely autobiographical Dark Country, was released by Sham/Thirty Tigers in February 2025 and includes the song "Listening To Bobby Charles" which he performs following revealing interviews for WMOT-FM and The Current below.
Jayhawks mainman Gary Louris discusses moving to Canada after playing a few tunes from his new Dark Country album below.
Gary Louris Live at Hugh's Room
296 Broadview Avenue
Tuesday, April 22
8 pm to 10:40 pm (doors at 7 pm)
$35 in advance, $42 at the door
$15 Arts Worker/ Underemployed/ Student
Now making his home in Canada, singer/songwriter and producer Gary Louris of the Jayhawks is returning to Toronto for a show at Hugh’s Room on Tuesday (April 22). He has built a compelling body of music whose artistry and integrity has won the loyalty of an international audience and the respect of both critics and peers. Best known for his seminal work with The Jayhawks, he has also worked with alt-rock supergroup Golden Smog which at various times has included members of Soul Asylum, Uncle Tupelo, the Replacements and Big Star. Gary also formed the band Au Pair with Old Ceremony singer/guitarist Django Haskins in 2015 and apparently released an album that same year called "One Armed Candy Bear."
For Gary's highly anticipated Hugh's Room show on Tuesday (April 22), he'll be performing the songs from his great new solo album Dark Country (which you can check out via your platform of choice right here) and likely a selection of faves from his deep catalog. Get tickets right here. Watch a solo performance for WMOT's 30A Songwriters Sessions followed by an interview with Jessie Scott, a video for "Two Birds" and a few clips from Gary's show at The Loft in NYC last month.
"Almost Home" – which began as a jingle idea – is off the new Gary Louris album, Jump For Joy out June 4 via Thirty Tigers.
Here's the scoop...
The new Gary Louris single “Almost Home” is the latest song off his forthcoming solo album Jump For Joy, which releases June 4 via Sham/Thirty Tigers. The catchy, bouncy new single is accompanied by a music video Louris made himself.
“‘Almost Home’ started out as a jingle idea for a phone company, it was just the catchy chorus,” says Louris. “When the client didn’t use it, I wrote the verses and then it was a real song, and I’m glad they passed on it. It’s a story of travel and longing.”
His first solo release since Vagabonds in 2008, Jump For Joy includes 10 never-before-released songs written, performed and produced entirely by Louris himself, as well as cover art illustrated by his son, Henry Louris.
Acclaimed musician, singer, songwriter and producer Gary Louris has built a deeply compelling body of work over the last three decades. He is the lead singer/songwriter of seminal band The Jayhawks, and one of the founding members of alt-rock supergroup Golden Smog, which has included members of Soul Asylum, Wilco, The Replacements and Big Star. Louris has also produced records and contributed songs to GRAMMY Award-winning albums by Tedeschi Trucks Band and The Chicks, and recorded with a diverse group of acts including The Black Crowes, Uncle Tupelo, Joe Henry, Counting Crows, John Hiatt, Lucinda Williams, Roger McGuinn, Nickel Creek and The Wallflowers.
Jump For Joy follows The Jayhawks’ 2020 release XOXO, which garnered high praise from press including HuffPost, Billboard, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, BrooklynVegan and more. The new album is available for pre-order right here.
Check the album's track list following Gary's video for "Almost Home".
Gary Louris and crew are back with XOXO. Watch The Jayhawks perform three songs from the album in St. Paul below.
Here's the scoop...
Against tall odds, The Jayhawks 11th studio album XOXO was released via Sham/Thirty Tigers on July 10th. Recorded in late 2019 at Pachyderm and Flowers Studios in Minnesota, XOXO represents a bold step forward. For the first time, all four members – guitarist Gary Louris, bassist Marc Perlman, keyboardist Karen Grotberg and drummer Tim O'Reagan – contribute writing and lead vocal duties. XOXO is the most diverse and wide-ranging in the group’s storied history. Rather than marking a sonic departure, though, the collection signals a sharpening of focus for the band, an elevation in understanding of who they are and what they do best. In classic Jayhawks fashion, the songs here mix the influence of American roots music with British invasion and jangly power-pop, but there’s a newfound vitality at play, as well, an invigoration of confidence and energy that could only come with the injection of fresh blood. The result is an album that, much like the band’s lush harmonies, brings multiple distinctive voices together into a singular whole, a collection that, ironically enough, finds unity in individuality and identity in reinvention. Watch The Jayhawks perform the lead off track "This Forgotten Town," "Living In Bubble" and "Bitter Pill" followed by the track listing. Get The Jayhawks' XOXO right here.
The Jayhawks – XOXO
1. THIS FORGOTTEN TOWN (Perlman/Louris/O’Reagan)
2. DOGTOWN DAYS (O’Reagan)
3. LIVING IN A BUBBLE (Louris)
4. RUBY (Grotberg)
5. HOMECOMING (Louris)
6. SOCIETY PAGES (O’Reagan)
7. ILLUMINATE (Perlman/Louris/O’Reagan)
8. BITTER PILL (Louris/O’Reagan/Grotberg)
9. ACROSS MY FIELD (Grotberg)
10. LITTLE VICTORIES (Louris/O’Reagan)
11. DOWN TO THE FARM (Perlman)
12. LOOKING UP YOUR NUMBER (O’Reagan)
Bonus tracks:
13. JEWEL OF THE TRIMBELLE (Grotberg)
14. THEN YOU WALKED AWAY (Louris)
15. HYPOCRITE’S LAMENT (Perlman/Louris)
All 15 tracks are on the first pressing CDs. First pressing LPs include a free CD with all 15 tracks. The 3 bonus tracks will only be available with the first pressings of the CD and LP releases.
Here are a few clips of Gary Louris and his iconic Minneapolis alt-country crew The Jayhawks in action over the years... and a little Golden Smog.
The Jayhawks on the road NOV 21 - Horseshoe Tavern - Toronto, Canada w/ Harrow Fair
NOV 22 - Town Ballroom - Buffalo, NY w/ Harrow Fair
NOV 23 - Music Box Supper Club - Cleveland, OH w/ Harrow Fair
NOV 24 - The Magic Bag - Ferndale, MI w/ Harrow Fair
DEC 21 - Palace Theatre - Saint Paul, MN
MAR 5 - Center for the Arts of Homer - Homer, NY
MAR 6 & 7 - Brooklyn Bowl - New York, NY
MAR 8 - Academy Of Music Theatre - Northampton, MA
APR 16 - Englert Theatre - Iowa City, IA
APR 17 - Turner Hall Ballroom - Milwaukee, WI
MAY 6 - Granada Theater - Dallas, TX
MAY 7 - Sam's Burger Joint - San Antonio, TX
MAY 8 & 9 - 3TEN ACL Live - Austin, TX
JUNE 18 - Neptune Theatre - Seattle, WA
JUNE 20 & 21 - The Chapel - San Francisco, CA
Here's the press release...
On April 21st, Ray Davies will release Americana, his first new album in over nine years via Legacy Recordings, a division of Sony Music Entertainment. The 15-track collection of originals serves as a master-crafted return for one of the most acclaimed and iconic songwriters of the past 50 years, and follows Davies’ 2013 memoir of the same name, using the book as both source material and creative catalyst. Davies enlisted The Jayhawks as backing band, and recorded the album in London at Konk, the studio founded by The Kinks in 1973.
Americana was written, conceived, and arranged, by Davies, and co-produced with Guy Massey and John Jackson. The album is an autobiographical work, chronicling the inextricable role America has played in Davies’ life. From his earliest days touring the U.S. with the Kinks and subsequent blacklisting by the American Musicians Union, to his years playing stadiums and eventually settling in New York and New Orleans for a time, America has served as both muse and tempest to Davies.
The songs on Americana dig into the rich American musical tapestry, through the lens of Davies’ own wholly unique American experience. The music swerves from the open-road manifesto of “The Great Highway,” to a delicate duet with The Jayhawks’ Karen Grotberg on “Message From The Road,” to “Poetry,” which offers a vital reminder of Davies’ ability to spin small detail into penetrating truth. The album also features a number of short spoken-word passages from Davies’ memoir. A second volume to Americana will be a released later in 2017.
Listen to the song “Poetry” courtesy of NPR's All Songs Considered...
Americana will be released on CD, LP and digitally and is available for pre-order now right here
Tracklisting:
1. Americana
2. The Deal
3. Poetry
4. Message From The Road
5. A Place In Your Heart
6. The Mystery Room
7. Silent Movie
8. Rock 'N’ Roll Cowboys
9. Change For Change
10. The Man Upstairs
11. I’ve Heard That Beat Before
12. A Long Drive Home To Tarzana
13. The Great Highway
14. The Invaders
15. Wings Of Fantasy
Unlikely as it may seem, the Dead Oceans label has announced that they will be releasing a new studio album from legendary UK singer/songwriter Bill Fay on August 21. There have been a couple of somewhat patchy collections of demos and outtakes over the past decade – notably Wooden Hill's From The Bottom Of An Old Grandfather Clock issued in 2004 and the Jnana Records double disc collection Still Some Light from 2010 – but the new Bill Fay recording Life Is People will be his first proper studio set since his 1971 classic Time Of The Last Persecution for Deram (which Esoteric reissued in 2008).
Fay's first two deep and dark solo album's, his self-titled 1970 debut for Decca's Nova subsidiary and Time Of The Last Persecution are both highly prized artifacts, coveted by a small but ardent community of freak-folk fanatics and a largely uncredited touchstone for the 90s Americana movement. Both Wilco's Jeff Tweedy and the Jayhawks' Gary Louris have drawn inspiration from Fay's early masterworks while Jim O'Rourke, Ben Chasny of Six Organs Of Admittance and David Tibet of Current 93 are also Bill Fay fan club members. So the appearance of album's worth of new Bill Fay material is really good news and it'll be fantastic news if it's actually good. Here's hoping!
Have a look at the Dead Oceans press release:
Bill Fay is one of England’s best kept secrets – a genuine national treasure and we are delighted to release what we believe is his true masterpiece. Titled Life is People, the new record is Fay’s first properly crafted studio album since 1971 and it’s out on August 21.
Back at the dawn of the 1970s, Fay was a one-man song factory, with a piano that spilled liquid gold and a voice every bit the equal of Ray Davies, John Lennon, early Bowie, or Procol Harum’s Gary Brooker. He made two solo albums but quickly disappeared from the music scene, leaving his LPs and his reputation to become cult items, namedropped by the likes of Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and Jim O’Rourke. But he never stopped dreaming, the music kept on coming. Now, in his late sixties, he has produced a record that shows his profoundly humanist vision is as strong as it ever was.
And it’s a stunning return to form. The lush and expansive effect is completed by a cello, string quartet and a gospel choir, electric organs and pianos and a rich weave of acoustic and electric guitars. Ranging from intimate to cosmic, epic but never grandiose, Bill’s deeply committed music reminds you of important, eternal truths, and the lessons to be drawn from the natural world, when the materiality and greed threaten to engulf everything.
PRAISE FOR BILL FAY
“I can’t think of anyone whose records have meant more in my life.” - Jeff Tweedy
“Each one of the records Bill Fay has put out in four decades is different, and each is indispensable. His graceful melodies, elegantly plain lyrics, and mystical tenderness towards all life move me like little else does. He is rock music’s conscience.” - Will Sheff
The show of the week is the unlikely appearance of the classic Jayhawks line-up at the Phoenix on Tuesday (January 18) who have been recording on a new album slated for an early summer release. If their recent reunion gigs are any indication of what's in store, expect the set list to include a number of crowd-pleasers from 1992's Hollywood Town Hall (American) and 1995's Tomorrow The Green GrassAmerican) albums which together encompass the Jayhawks' finest work.
Not entirely coincidentally, both albums are being reissued Tuesday in expanded Legacy Editions with Hollywood Town Hall appended with the UK bonus track Leave No Gold, the Australian EP tracks Keith & Quentin and Up Above My Head in addition to two unreleased songs Warm River and Mother Trust You To Walk To The Store.
However, it's the re-release of Tomorrow The Green Grass that gets the real deluxe treatment with three previously unissued tunes (You and I, Sweet Hobo Self, Sleep While You Can), the B-sides Last Cigarette and the title track Tomorrow The Green Grass and most intriguing of all, a bonus disc entitled "Mystery Demos" containing 18 never-officially released numbers from the peak years of Gary Louris and Mark Olson's productive songwriting collaboration.
Dedicated Jayhawks fans will likely already know about the so-called "Mystery Demos" – some 44 different songs on cassette tapes said to be discovered in a closet by the girlfriend of someone vaguely connected with the band that have been circulating on the down low since 2003. But when exactly they were recorded, where and who played on the sessions has never been pinpointed. Some of the songs – or parts of them – eventually wound up being re-recorded by Golden Smog, The Creekdippers, the Louris-fronted Jayhawks and the Olson/Louris duo project Ready For The Flood but a few will be delightful new discoveries for those who believe the Jayhawks were at their best during the early 90s.
To get you in the right frame of mind for Tuesday's re-releases and Phoenix gig, here are a couple of vintage Jayhawks performances for the Twin Cities program Showcase which originally aired on PBS in 1992 as you could probably guess from the hairstyles. Be sure to watch the Two Angels clip right to the end or you'll miss Mark Olson's revelatory insights on band nutrition and touring economics.
