Sanctuary Park. The Jayhawks

It must have been in 1993 that The Jayhawks entered my life with its most famous album, 'Hollywood Town Hall'. The year I started to discover new artists and bands once again. And here we are, 33 years later with the release of Sanctuary Park. I have to admit to having missed a lot of the band's output since somewhere in the 00s.

The line up hasn't even changed that much since the 90s. Founding members (1986) Gary Louris and Mark Perlman are still on board and Karen Grotberg and Tim O'Reagan since the mid-90s. Louris' voice is ageing, that much is clear from listening to Sanctuary Park. It still has that pleasant ring that made me like it from the beginning and the support from the band, especially Karen Grotberg, makes The Jayhawks sound vocally superb.

I have to say, that I like Sanctuary Park right from the get go. Somehow it has the exact same effect on me that 'Hollywood Town Hall' and later 'Smile' had. I can image you asking me what is the difference?, but I don't have a ready answer. It will be the songs, obviously. Yet, this album is an "alternative country" and country rock album just like The Jayhawks always excel in. This time around the album puts a smile on my face, where many others did not or only partly so.

The album opens with 'Keeping Our Heads Above Water'. It reminded me immediately of a typical The New Pornographers song. That "oh oh" start is a dead giveaway. My attention was gripped because of it and the song led me into Sanctuary Park only to kick me out in the end. The rest of the song is typical The Jayhawks, so the "oh oh" part works a miracle.

The next song may be a little softer, another a little more country, the next a bit harder. There's even a little slow tex-mex there. It makes Sanctuary Park nicely varied and extremely pleasant to listen to. The boat is only mildly rocked, like in 'Kingston Girl', at best, but listen to that guitar solo and the piano part but above all the harmony vocals. I'm sure you'll fall for it just like I did.

Is there no critique? Yes, there is. For a 71 year old singing "We'll steel your daddy's car ... we'll live on what we've got" is not convincing. It would be all nice in songs like "Little Man' and 'Fast Car' but not in this context. The upside is, although more country tinged, once it again has a great piano part, so no problem where the music is concerned.

All told, I'm nicely surprised by Sanctuary Park and expect to play it a lot more often.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght

 

You can listen to and order Sanctuary Park here:

https://thejayhawks.bandcamp.com/album/sanctuary-park