Here is a nice preview and interview about the upcoming Gary Louris/Mark Olson show at the Ark on Tuesday from The Ann Arbor News…
Jayhawks songwriters reunite
by Kevin Ransom | News Special Writer
Friday January 30, 2009, 11:03 AM
Gary Louris and Mark Olson are back together, on the road, with a new album under their belts. So, fans of “achingly beautiful” country-folk-rock are understandably over the moon.
“Achingly beautiful” is quoted here because it was the phrase that critics most often used to describe the yearning, plaintive harmonies that Louris and Olson constructed as the singers and main songwriters for the Jayhawks. From the late 1980s until 1995, when Olson left the band, the pair crafted some of the most heartbreakingly seductive vocal harmonies on the alt-country-rock scene – and maybe in all of pop music.
But it wasn’t all sweetness. Louris counterpointed the swooning harmonies with a scarred and bleeding guitar style that evoked Neil Young’s ragged but eloquent primitivism. Olson and Louris hooked up again in 2005, the same year Louris split up the Jayhawks – a breakup that also broke many hearts in alt-country-land. The pair hit the road for a duo tour that year, and went out again in 2006. They return to The Ark on Tuesday.
Be sure to read the rest HERE
