Gary Louris: Vagabond (Ryko/Elite)

 |   |  <1 min read

Gary Louris: She Only Calls Me On Sundays
Gary Louris: Vagabond (Ryko/Elite)

Louris was a founder of the cornerstone alt.country band the Jayhawks whose career in the 90s saw them weave their way from country-rock to post-grunge rock and sometimes pure pop

They were hard to get a bead on but that was the great pleasure of their career.

With the Jayhawks seemingly on hold Louris steps out for a debut album under his own name, but manages to get plenty of help from the likes of former Black Crowes singer Chris Robinson who here co-produces and appears in "the Laurel Canyon Family Choir" alongside Jenny Watson, Susanna Hoffs and others.

Given the breadth of the Jayhawks' reach it is no surprise that Louris here embraces everything from quiet acoustic-framed balladry (To Die A Happy Man which has a hand-clap faux-gospel coda) to straight ahead country-rock and some lachrymose pedal steel guitar ballads (She Only Calls Me On Sundays which briefly leans on a John Denver melody). There's also a countryfied Lennonesque quality in places (the Abbey Road widescreen of We'll Get By, Double Fantasy-ballad style on the echoed Black Grass), a whisper of psychedelia (I Wanna Get High) and some defeated political sensibilities (the lovely DC Blues).

Despite that seeming diversity, Vagabond is held together by the sheer ease with which Louris accomplishes this.

As with his bandmate in the occasional side-project Golden Smog -- Jeff Tweedy of Wilco -- Louris sounds at an uneasy peace with himself right now.

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Music at Elsewhere articles index

Po' Girl: Home To You (Shock)

Po' Girl: Home To You (Shock)

The previously posted Po' Girl album Vagabond Lullabies was actually a few years old and only given belated release in this country. But it was too good to ignore, and allowed me to set you up for... > Read more

Lila Downs, Shake Away (EMI)

Lila Downs, Shake Away (EMI)

The new album by the US-Hispanic singer should get a good reception here given her popularity at the last Womad (see tag for interview) -- but this one sees her embracing a more centrist rock... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

Darren Watson: Saint Hilda's Faithless Boy (Red Rocks)

Darren Watson: Saint Hilda's Faithless Boy (Red Rocks)

It's been far too long between albums for Wellington blues-rocker Watson -- frontman-guitarist for Chicago Smokeshop, later simply Smokeshop -- because his excellent South Pacific Soul album (under... > Read more

Imarhan: Aboogi (City Slang/digital outlets)

Imarhan: Aboogi (City Slang/digital outlets)

Part of the new (third?) generation of Sahara blues/desert blues artists out of the sub-Sahara region, Imarhan might here just be the most immediately appealing of the many bands which have emerged... > Read more