Jayhawks back in state of harmony

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The Jayhawks, circa 1995, the year Mark Olson left the group: Karen Grotberg (from left), Gary Louris, Tim O’Reagan, Marc Perlman and Olson.

Updated: April 23, 2011 4:45AM

When Gary Louris and Mark Olson reunited for a duo tour in 2005, hope began to grow among Jayhawks fans that a full band reunion might be in their future.

Well, the future is now, and the tour is a mini version, which launched in Toronto on Tuesday and ends in Minneapolis on Jan. 30. In between, the group hits New York, Philadelphia and Chicago, where it will play a two-night stand this week at the Vic Theatre.

Part of the reason for the tour is to celebrate the re-release of the Jayhawks’ two masterpieces — “Hollywood Town Hall” and “Tomorrow the Green Grass.” In Chicago, Louris says the band will play one album through each night in addition to other tunes from the band’s songbook. Also expect the debut of new songs penned by the duo for a new Jayhawks album due out in the spring, which will be followed by a more city-inclusive tour.

The Jayhawks’ current lineup features Louris, Olson, keyboardist Karen Grotberg, drummer Tim O’Reagan and bassist Marc Perlman.

It didn’t take long to find that old spark. The reunited Jayhawks played a few dates in Spain in 2009 and last summer a three-night stand at First Avenue in Minneapolis, their home turf. By all accounts, the shows lived up to expectations.

Louris says it took “steps and steps, not one big moment or decision” to bring Olson back to the group. Olson had startled his fellow band members and fans in 1995 when he abruptly left the group, married singer-songwriter Victoria Williams (they’re now divorced) and moved to Joshua Tree in the California desert just as “Tomorrow the Green Grass” was hitting. The band continued on in various forms, putting out three more albums until 2005, when Louris finally called it quits.

What got the old friends together again was a request that they pen a song for the 2002 movie “The Rookie.” The song didn’t make the final cut but it did get them talking.

“We hadn’t talked in six years,” Louris, 55, recalled. “I went to Joshua Tree, and we talked it out. All the things that were bothering us came out, and it solidified our friendship again.”

For his part, Olson has no apologies for leaving the band.

“It was the best thing for me at the time,” he said. “They went on to make some great music and I looked into crazy folk music. But now it feels good to be back.”

At first after the initial reconciliation, Louris and Olson did a best-of tour featuring Jayhawks songs. Then they decided they wanted to write some new songs, which led to the 2008 release of “Ready for the Flood” produced by Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes. From there, it just seemed the next step was getting the old band back together, according to Louris.

“At every show we played, fans would say they loved the album and in the next breath would ask about the future of the Jayhawks,” Louris recalled. “The shows last summer at First Avenue made us realize we really have something special and that as a band we had unfinished business to take care of.”

Today, the Jayhawks are considered one of the early cornerstones, along with the Jeff Tweedy/Jay Farrar-led Uncle Tupelo, of the alt-country/Americana movement. But back in the mid-’80s, Louris and Olson, who met in the Minneapolis music scene, were creating a song style that really had no category. They were working in a city with a diverse musical atmosphere that included Prince, Husker Du and the Replacements. They didn’t fit in, but in a way they did because of an audience that embraced a wide range of music.

“Every band had its moments,” Louris said. “We were accepted as something new and different.”

As songwriters, Louris and Olson knew they were creating something they hadn’t heard before. They were listening to Bob Dylan, the Band, Nick Drake, Buffalo Springfield, Gram Parsons and Neil Young, as well as drawing from the vast pool of classic country. Yet there always was a rock ’n’ roll heart beneath the twang.

“Maybe we were being more scholarly by listening to all this old music and following the lines back to the Everly Brothers and the Louvin Brothers,” Olson, 49, said. “But we were just trying to do our own thing, looking for a way to break through musically.”

Songs such as “Blue,” “Waiting for the Sun” and “I’d Run Away” featured a rustic blend of rock and country. But it was the duo’s extraordinary harmonies that pushed the songs to another level.

“We never sat around for hours trying to figure out the harmonies,” Louris said. “It was natural and came together quickly. It’s really an amazing thing when you find somebody that you can sing with and create this third voice.”

Through the long convoluted history of the Jayhawks, the songs have endured through new generations of listeners.

“Back in the ’80s, we had this great drive to write songs that would last,” Olson said. “And now, two decades later, people listen to the songs and still like them. That’s exactly what we hoped for.”