In a lot of ways, Ready for the Flood, the new album by Gary Louris and Mark Olson, is old news. It was recorded more than two years ago, prior to solo albums by both—which ended up taking precedence on the release schedule. Of course, as compatriots in alt-country pioneers the Jayhawks, they were familiar with waiting.
"Three years between releases was not uncommon," Louris recalls with a rueful chuckle. "It's fine because I just set the record aside, and now it's brand new to me."
Olson and Louris spent a decade together tilling earthy country-folk in Minneapolis with the Jayhawks back when Uncle Tupelo was just a twinkle in a couple of Illinois kids' eyes. Olson left the band in '95, starting the more stripped-down Original Harmony Ridge Creekdippers with then-wife Victoria Williams while Louris assumed the primary songwriting mantle and steered the 'Hawks into more plush, pop-driven arrangements. The two remained estranged until 2001, when they recorded a couple of songs for the soundtrack to the Dennis Quaid movie The Rookie. Though the songs didn't make the album, the experience rekindled their friendship.
"I suppose I should thank those guys—the supervisor, Dennis Quaid or whoever said, 'I want a new Olson/Louris song'," offers Louris, recalling their initial reunion. "I took a drive out to Joshua Tree, went to his house, and we just spent two hours in real primal therapy, talking about what bugged us from '85 to '95."
After clearing the air, they got back to work, just like old times. Something's always clicked with them. "It just kind of happens. It was never anything we worked at. It just seems natural, he sings low, I sing high, and I go where he ain't. It just works; it's the same writing-wise," Louris says.
They wrote two songs that day and would unite for a couple of tours, promising themselves they'd record some new material before hitting the road again. That happened in the fall of '06, when Olson joined Louris in Minneapolis and they spent a week writing, which they revisited a few months later with the Black Crowes' Chris Robinson behind the boards.
Both Olson and Louris had recently become fascinated by folk fingerpicking, an influence heard on tracks like the jangling elegy "Black Eyes" and the mountain-flecked murder ballad "Bloody Hands."
"There are probably only a few songs that actually have the fingerpicking. But it kind of set a tone," Louris suggests. Indeed, from Dylan-esque harmony-rich opener "The Rose Society" and the ambling folk-blues "Bicycle," to the gently swaying melancholia of album-closer "The Trap's Been Set," the album twists lightly with wistful reflection like a mobile caught in a breeze.
Even tracks such as rollicking highlight "Chamberlain, SD," which echoes the Band while recounting a drowning witnessed by an indifferent crowd, was written on acoustics by Olson and Louris before being fleshed out by a full band. It's their standard procedure, and Louris describes the current tour as "a little peek into the back room of how Mark and I work. We sit in a room together across from each other with guitars and sing."
Louris found the beguiling folk-pop number "Turn Your Pretty Name Around" in some demos recorded during a marathon three-day session from the early '90s. They're home to many lost tracks that may see light with the upcoming re-release of the Jayhawks catalog, which is to be accompanied by a greatest hits album and box set. Along with Olson and Louris' rediscovered comity, the stage is probably set for some U.S. Jayhawks dates. (They're playing Spain in May.)
"I'm cautious about what to say because I don't see us firing the machine up to the level that we had in the '90s," Louris warns. "But playing some high-profile, fun festivals is appealing to all of us."
Email music@nashvillescene.com.
