I mostly missed the whole 90's No Depression.alt.country thing. I like a lot of it, and the cool thing is that I can keep finding new records by bands that were big in this movement to this day. I'm not necessarily sure if The Jayhawks quite fit that genre, because they sound a little like California to me. In fact, I think they often sound like Eagles fans think The Eagles sound. Which is to say that those fans think The Eagles sound great, when in truth they sound like shit and they're completely awful (just ask The Dude). The Jayhawks are just one of the easiest bands to get to like, because they sound great, the songs are cool and Gary Louris and Mark Olson's vocals are the kind of thing that at one time meant instant chart success.
Unfortunately, radio stations didn't play The Jayhawks. Mostly because radio stations have been fucking stupid for decades. I'm not saying all radio stations should be some kind of free form free for all, but they should always be promoting new music by using the older, more familiar songs as the buffer between the unknown and the 32 minutes of commercials they're really interested in playing. This album should have been a hit record, and that's all there is to it. For once I'm not saying this about a record that I absolutely love that no one else seems to "get" in the way I do. I know this because several times I've had people over to visit and I'll toss on Hollywood Town Hall and my friends that have never heard it will get about three songs into it and say, "This is great music! Is it new? What station did you hear it on?"
Which I get to answer with, "No, it's not new. It's twenty years old, it's as fresh sounding as the day it came out and I've never heard any of their songs on the radio."
"How do you find out about this stuff?" they always ask.
"I dunno. I guess I just actually still give a shit about what I listen to, just like I did when I was a kid." I always want to ask them questions like, "Why don't you listen to anything but shitty country radio anymore?" and "How do you stop doing something you absolutely loved at one point in your life?"
But that's kind of argumentative and I know they just have more important things to do, so I just keep quiet and listen to the record. It's a swell record to sit and listen to. I can listen to Nevada, California and Clouds all day and they aren't anywhere near the best songs on the record. There aren't many records half this good that were big sellers and I'm big boy enough to face up to the fact that a lot of the more obscure albums I like just aren't better than surprisingly good to most people. I guess if you're the kind of person that has 100 cd's, then you need to make them count and you probably don't have room to take a chance on The Jayhawks, even if they have songs as good as Crowded in the Wings and Waiting for the Sun on them. So I suppose I understand the thought process, but I don't like it. Everyone should buy more and more music. The world would be a better place.
My record is a reissue from a couple of years ago, on real heavy black vinyl and it even came in it's own plastic bag. I think it was pressed at RTI, so the inner sleeve is a pink plastic thing that seems pretty anti static to me. I'm sure you can still get a new one somewhere, but you can probably get a used one, too. If you don't have it, you really should get this one.
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