It's New to Me: Tomorrow the Green Grass by the Jayhawks (1995)

Illustration by Đorđe Milanović from Dušan Radović's Dear Children, 1954

As much as I like the Jayhawks' Hollywood Town Hall album from 1992, I've always been hesitant to join the large crowd declaring it the band's definitive work for two reasons. First, I'd never bought a copy of Tomorrow the Green Grass, the band's other peak-period record (from when Mark Olson and Gary Louris were both in the band). Also, I just found something about the sound of Hollywood Town Hall to be kind of boring - it lacks an element of dynamism in its sound, relying wholly on Louris and Olson's harmonies and acoustic arrangements to carry the songs. With the recent release of the LEGACY EDITION of Tomorrow's the Green Grass, I had a good opportunity to fill this gap in my Jayhawks collection, and I've come to the conclusion that, for me, it's the best Jayhawks record.

A lot of it comes down to how much better Tomorrow's the Green Grass sounds. The writing is just as strong as on their previous LP and features some of Louris and Olson's best songs - you could make a case for "Blue" and "I'd Run Away" being their best pop singles - but they augmented their sound on this record nicely as well. The rocking songs rock harder, and the ballads are more delicate - Karen Grotberg and Victoria Williams provide some sweet backing vocals, Benmont Tench plays organ on some tracks, and a string section gives a boost to the songs that need a little extra oomph (particularly the two previously mentioned tracks). The flawless first half of the album ends with a lovely cover of Grand Funk Railroad's "Bad Time", the best surprise for me on the record, but I'll admit that the more eclectic second half has its share of flaws. "Ann Jane" is a folk ballad marred by a weird repeated line about "beans and Jell-O", "Nothing Left to Borrow" has a great power-pop sound that is undercut by an annoying intro riff, and a couple of the other tracks are just a little too vanilla. It's hard to argue with the album's booming closer, the triumphant "Ten Little Kids", though.

Overall, Tomorrow's the Green Grass is everything I'd hoped it would be, and the LEGACY EDITION of the album has some great additional treats. The first disc appends some nice b-sides and outtakes, including the album's bouncy title track, which is fast becoming a favorite of mine. The second disc, titled "The Mystery Demos", is composed of two long-forgotten sessions done by Louris and Olson in 1992, just prior to the release of Hollywood Town Hall. The liner notes tell that, of the 44 tracks on the Mystery Demos tapes, 33 were never released by the Jayhawks. Oddly, though, only 18 songs are included here, and a half-dozen of those are songs that ended up on Tomorrow's the Green Grass. This makes sense thematically, I guess, but I'd really like to hear the full-length version of the Mystery Demos. These recordings just sound really good, with Louris and Olson singing over spare acoustic strumming (with occasional violin and harmonica), and this mostly forgotten material is surprisingly strong. The big sound of Tomorrow's the Green Grass and the spare sound of the Mystery Demos are like superior bookends to the lukewarm Hollywood Town Hall - for me, they represent the definitive document of the Jayhawks' excellence.

"Bad Time" by the Jayhawks