New West Records
This reunion of the principal songwriters and voices of the Jayhawks elicited unbridled enthusiasm in some circles — Mojo scribe Andy Fyfe claimed "Small boys throw caps skywards" — but Ready for the Flood tackles such expectations in characteristically understated fashion. Mark Olson and Gary Louris often sound like two pals getting reacquainted over a few beers and guitars although the extra water under the bridge — marriages ended and bands dissolved — only adds to the weight of the world the two have carried on their shoulders as far back as 1992’s Hollywood Town Hall . Their best work mixes nostalgia with a stoic grace more fashionable decades earlier. Tracks like "Kick the Wood" and "Saturday Morning on Sunday Street" recall Gordon Lightfoot and Kris Kristofferson. Producer and Black Crowe Chris Robinson — back after Louris’s masterful yet neglected solo debut Vagabonds — even shades "Turn Your Pretty Name Around" with a Tim Hardin-esque vibraphone. Before its appearance here "Bicycle" could only have existed if Dylan wrote gospel songs for The Beatles. "Chamberlain SD" kicks up the pace and a double-time fade reminds us that before Americana and alt-country there was cowpunk. "Bloody Hands" appropriates the untroubled delivery of ’50s bluegrass duo The Louvin Brothers on the gruesome "Knoxville Girl" while telegraphing the theme of Ready for the Flood — "What the mind forgets the soul retains." On "The Rose Society" Olson and Louris sing "the house of love is still standing" — followed by the kind of wordless harmonizing that requires a lifetime to refine — with the same mixture of reassurance and amazement that this welcome reunion will prompt from listeners.
