The Jayhawks

Weird how Uncle Tupelo's No Depression is known as the seminal alt country album when the Jayhawks' Blue Earth predated it. Mark Olson is pretty much responsible for the resurgence of interest in Gram Parsons -- just listen to "Two Angels" and try not to shiver when he sings like the late Grievous Angel.

Anyone who digs the Byrds, Gram Parsons and Goldrush-era Neil Young will find a lot to like
about the Minneapolis country-rock outfit the Jayhawks. Replete with twangy
bluegrass-picking over molasses-slow tempos, gentle and flat Midwestern-male harmonies,
and lyrics that stare hard into the depths of love, the band's second LP, Blue Earth, is, in a
sense, found music. It draws its secondhand purity from the above-named sourc... More >

Gram Parsons comparisons get you nowhere, but I'm not kidding--this is the obliquely songful followup the Burritos never made. Mark Olson is spared Parsons's obsessions and probably his genius. When he sings about death--there are three angels in the first four songs, two grievous though not identified as such--you suspect Gram rather than Thanatos got him thinking on the subject. But his "Commonplace Streets" are his own. (Grade - A-)