aaamusic | On 29, Aug 2011

It took 16 years for Gary Louris and Mike Olson to step in a studio together under the name Jayhawks, and 8 to see another album released.

 

After Olson said bye to enjoy his newly wed Victoria Williams in 1995, Jayhawks released three more albums, and only after 2001 he and Mike started collaborating again.

 

Finally the long-awaited Mockingbird Time sees the light and projects us back to the fields of gold of Young-ian memory.

 

After being led astray to the streets of liverpool by the opening Hide Your Colors, let the gentle piano of Closer To Your Side accompany you to California before Tiny Arrows will finally let you rest by the river flow, under the same trees where Tom Joad was dreaming a better world.

 

Seems to listen to Sound Of Lies here and there, with the uplifting She Walks In So Many Ways and the melancholic piano of Mockingbird Time.

Said that, the whole album proves cohesion and a never lost mastery of a genre never appreciated enough in UK.

 

“Where are you going all alone?”, asks Gary in Stand Out In The Rain. Well, I’m sure that after this album his question won’t be un-answered. Welcome back!

 

Author: Lorenzo Coretti