Jayhawks principals reconnect with new album

NEW YORK (Billboard) - While the Jayhawks may be no more, the lauded Americana band's formerly estranged principals Gary Louris and Mark Olson have finished a new album together, their first since 1995's "Tomorrow the Green Grass."

Titled "Ready for the Flood," the album was produced by Black Crowes singer Chris Robinson, who also worked on Louris' newly released solo debut, "Vagabonds."

"Ready for the Flood" was recorded over eight days in Los Angeles last January, but Louris and Olson decided to delay its release so that they could focus on their solo work. Olson put out "The Salvation Blues" in June.

"We're hoping it will come out either in the summer or the fall," Louris said of "Ready for the Flood." Distribution plans are up in the air.

Louris said they teamed up with Robinson because they wanted someone who was "a bit of a fan" to guide them through an emotional process. "We trusted him, and we knew he would handle the music with care."

The process went so well that Louris asked Robinson to produce "Vagabonds," which features backup vocals from Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis and Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles. Louris will kick off his first U.S. solo tour March 16 in Seattle.

For the band's first decade, the Jayhawks were defined by the harmonizing and the co-writing of Olson and Louris. But Olson departed after they finished touring for "Tomorrow the Green Grass." Widely considered the band's best album, it features the wistful single "Blue."

The two didn't work together again until October 2001, when they convened at Olson's then-home in Joshua Tree, Calif., to write songs for the 2002 film "The Rookie." While they were never used in the film (one appeared on Olson's 2002 album "December's Child"), that session led to a series of shows over the past few years, and eventually "Ready for the Flood."

"I think it was one of the better experiences in my life," Louris says of those shows with Olson. "By touring, we got to know each other again."

Reuters/Billboard