The Jayhawks Take Long Road Back to Fresh Start

Patience and perseverance are the great lost virtues of cultural experience, but sometimes they pay off. The Jayhawks know from experience.

The Minneapolis band is back, with its first studio album in eight years ready to be released, and a renewed appreciation of the long road taken. The quintet will perform two concerts this week at the Vic Theatre focusing on two of their finest albums, “Hollywood Town Hall” (1992) and “Tomorrow the Green Grass” (1995), which have been re-released with bonus tracks.

“We did a lot of waiting in the Jayhawks,” singer-guitarist Gary Louris says. “Seven albums in 20 years; compared to what we recorded it’s not much.”

“We were in high volume mode, thinking it was 1966 when you could put out two albums in a year,” Louris’ songwriting partner, Mark Olson, adds, looking back on the band’s first decade. “I found out it’s not like that anymore. These people (record companies) want an album every two or three years. The pace is dictated by the powers that be that had money and studios. But I’ve always had a gonzo aspect about me. I get a head of steam, I’m ready to drive all night out to the desert, dig a trench, write songs all day and night. I enjoy living at high speed.”

Louris and Olson produced a treasure trove of recordings in the early to mid-‘90s, a bunch of which ended up on “Hollywood Town Hall” and “Tomorrow the Green Grass” albums. Those albums sound as good as ever, but the 18 tracks appended to the “Green Grass” reissue tell a deeper story. These represent a portion of “The Mystery Demos” that Louris and Olson recorded during that era, a window into what might have been. Brimming with the duo’s lustrous harmonies and love of melody, these demos affirm the Jayhawks’ place as one of the great American bands of that era — even if they weren’t widely recognized at the time. Louris and Olson can only shrug that some of their best work, as captured on the “Mystery Demos,” remained unreleased until now.

One of the reasons for that oversight is that the band’s story inevitably gets tangled with their modest commercial success. “Green Grass” in particular included a raft of potential hits, including “Blue,” a soaring anthem that melded the band’s love of American roots music with hints of orchestral pop and a melody for the ages. The song never caught on with commercial radio programmers, and subsequent media attention focused on the band’s massive debt to its label at the time, Def American (later American).

“We weren’t different than a lot of other bands in that respect,” Olson says. “I noticed a lot of money around in those days, lots of money spent on bands to make videos that nobody sees today, and bands that nobody cares about today. But we were building a core audience and have continued to tour to that audience ever since. All the gold is not in the hit, but in the building of an audience that really digs you. Any money spent toward our end gave us a chance to play and find that audience.”

The fallout from “Green Grass” discouraged Olson and he walked away from the band. Louris continued on with the remaining members — keyboardist Karen Grotberg, bassist Marc Pearlman and, subsequently, drummer Tim O’Reagan — for a few more years, before dissolving the Jayhawks in 2004.

But Olson and Louris later reconciled, began touring and eventually recording together, and brought the Jayhawks back in 2009. The band has finished a new album, due out in the spring on the Rounder label.

“I can’t think of another band that made their best record after reuniting, but I think we just did,” Louris says of the as-yet-untitled release.

Olson isn’t surprised by his bandmate’s bravado. “I never understood the dropoff with age syndrome,” he says. “If you are playing constantly and working on your singing and songwriting and guitar-playing, you should improve. You have life experiences that you can define in your lyrics. I believe in progress and I believe that as musicians and singers and songwriters we’ve gotten better.”

Louris says the time away gave him a new perspective on the band and what it could do.

“I honestly can say that I didn’t foresee this when the Jayhawks broke up,” the guitarist says. “Mark would probably tell you that when he quit, he should’ve just taken a break. And the same with me: I should have taken a break instead of disbanding the group. But when you’re so deep into it, everything starts to be a grind, and you tend to lose appreciation for what you have.”

Part of the appreciation stems from knowing what not to do. For Olson, it was touring as an opening act at amphitheaters for bands such as Tom Petty and the Black Crowes.

“I still have a slight fear of the huge carnival aspect of modern touring,” he says with a laugh. “Seven trucks, four tour buses — something about that got to me. It got to me. I don’t think of music that way. We don’t have to worry about that now, because we did the hard work. I was in the band during the warm-up years. I love to play, but I didn’t love that 30-minute opening slot. And now here I am, I get to play all I want.”

Prince and Madonna End Decades-Long Feud

Holiday, celebrate!

Fellow music superstars Prince and Madonna appear to have ended their decades-long feud.

The Material Girl, 52, was among the celebrities cheering on Prince's sold-out Tuesday show at NYC's Madison Square Garden. (Other A-listers in attendance: Jimmy Fallon, Donald and Melania Trump and an awestruck Leighton Meester, whom Prince serenaded onstage.)

During the show, an attendee reports that Prince, also 52, made a good-natured joke about the high price of Madonna's concert tickets. "I know I'm expensive!" he joshed, then making a friendly call-out to Madonna by name.

Things were far less friendly between the pair, who briefly dated in 1985 and who dueted on "Love Song," a track from Madonna's 1988 "Like a Prayer" album.

Madonna sniped in an interview that Prince was a "little troll," and quipped in 1994 that he wouldn't eat during a dinner date. "He was just sipping tea, very daintily," Madonna said. "I have this theory about people who don't eat. They annoy me."

For his part, Prince slammed Madonna — and her growing brood of children — during a 2007 concert in London, sniping, "I got so many hits y'all can't handle me. I got more hits than Madonna's got kids."

Long Live the King: Lionel Messi Wins Back-To-Back Ballon D'Ors

In the end, Messi won again.

After winning in 2009, Lionel Messi was once again considered the best player in the world. There's no doubt that, right now, Lionel Messi is the undisputed king of world football. Up until today, the FIFA award had always been given to a World Cup winner, but not this time: who better than one of the most talented players the world has ever seen to put an end to such tradition?

The outcome might be a little unfair to Xavi and Iniesta, who are both absoutely brilliant players and led Spain to the World Cup title after decades of failure. But they were "unlucky" to be playing in the same era and in the same team as Lionel Messi. Even they would admit, as they have several times, that Messi's unbelievable talent puts him in another level. Being number 2 and number 3 is no bad feat, especially if we consider that number 1 is Lionel Messi.

The Argentine had an absolutely magnificent year at Barcelona. In 52 matches, he scored 61 goals, while assisting more than 25. When it seemed impossible, he took his game to another level. His destruction of Arsenal in the Champions League will never be forgotten.

At 23, Messi has already won two Ballon d'Ors and he hasn't even reached his peak yet. With a full decade ahead of him and such a magnificent team around him, there's little doubt that he will beat Platini, Zidane, Ronaldo and Van Basten's record of three Ballon d'Ors. The way things are going this season, only a very unforeseen course of events can take the 2011 Ballon d'Or off from Lionel Messi. In one year, the Argentina will probably be lifting his third in a row.

In his acceptance speech, Lionel Messi thanked his teammates and he had very good reason to do so, The fact that six Barcelona players (Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol, Piqué and David Villa) were in FIFPro's XI of the year just shows how special Pep's Dream Team is. While Messi is the most talented player of this generation, being a member of one of the best club teams of all-time has certainly helped him showcase his talents to the world.

As for Xavi and Iniesta, not only did they help Messi win the award, but they were also recognized as the second and third best player in the world. Besides, they led Spain to the World Cup title, which means that they have every reason to be proud of themselves and the great year they had. They will also go down as legends of the game, even without the Ballon d'Or.

This is essentially a triumph for Barcelona and La Masia; never had the same academy had the three best players in the world, and it will probably never happen again. As if any further proof were required, this Barceona team will go down as one of the best in history.

As for Lionel Messi, at 23 the world is at his feet, as he alone dominates world football. Long live Lionel Messi, the kind of football and the best player of this generation! And long live Xavi and Iniesta, they're winners too.