Long running Minneapolis alt-country rock stalwarts The Jayhawks are set to release their new album – their twelfth since 1986 – at the end of August. The album is titled Sanctuary Park and is due out on 28th August on the Thirty Tigers label.
The album’s release will be prefaced by a lead-off single Keeping Our Heads Above Water. The Jayhawks have already started extensively touring the new album on their initial jaunt of US dates during July and August, but will also be undertaking a sizeable UK and European tour to coincide with its release throughout September before returning for even more US and Canadian dates for the remainder of the year from October until December.
Having formed as far back as the mid 1980s, during the first significant post-punk and ‘alternative’ wave to beset the US music scenes, The Jayhawks have sidestepped all prevailing trends and allowed their signature pigeonhole-evading style of accomplished songcraft and melodic three-way harmonies to set benchmarks for what would later be more commonly recognised as alt-country and – later still – ‘Americana’ genres. Nevertheless, despite the melodic undertow that the band were so renowned for, they were still capable of some hard rocking moments too when the tempos and fretwork cranked themselves up a few notches.
Now momentously marking their 40th year together (save for two brief periods of inactivity between 2005-09 and 2012-14), the band’s long time personnel of guitarist/vocalist Gary Louris, bassist/vocalist Mark Perlman and drummer/vocalist Tim O’Reagan together with keyboardist/backing vocalist Karen Grotberg (fellow original founding member Mark Olson now having bowed out of the band since 2013) are returning with what they hope is their most accomplished collection of recordings to date, refining the sound and approach of all of their previous albums into one succinct eleven song set.
The album reflects changes in the various members’ lives during the six year gap since their last album (2020’s XOXO), particularly that of Gary Louris himself, who relocated from the US to Canada after marrying his Canadian wife Stephanie and thus securing permanent residency as a citizen of that country. Furthermore, this meant that the band ended up reuniting with their former producer, the legendary Bob Ezrin, himself a fabled Canadian (Ezrin worked on their 2000 album Smile) to oversee the recording of their new album in his hometown studio in Toronto, Ontario.
According to The Jayhawks’ latest press release, Bob Ezrin was delighted to welcome the band back: “I love their music. There is gentleness and a sweetness to their sound, and I found myself craving a little bit more of that.”
Their press release goes on further to explain that: “While the album title references an actual location in Dundas, Ontario, Sanctuary Park is also a fictional place where distant memories re-emerge, childhood friends from years prior start speaking again, and teenage lovers start lives that their older selves are determined to renew. In these songs the hands of time tick past regrets and move toward greater possibilities.
“The Jayhawks have played most every major music festival, from Farm Aid to Primavera Sound, Pinkpop to Wilco’s Sky Blue Sky. In the tradition of The Band and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, The Jayhawks have toured with and served as backup band for many of music’s most acclaimed visionaries, including Ray Davies, Roger McGuinn, and Johnny Cash.”
Sanctuary Park tracklist:
1. Keeping Our Heads Above Water
2. Kingston Girl
3. Mr. Lincoln
4. Hands Upon The Wheel
5. Leap Of Faith
6. American Midnight
7. Always And A Day
8. Sanctuary Park
9. Familiar Strangers
10. It’ll Be All Right Tonight
11. Rowing The Boat
The Jayhawks tour dates (European & UK dates in Bold):
3 Jul – Codfish Hollow Barn – Maquoketa, IA
4 Jul – Summerfest – Milwaukee, WI
17 Jul – Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua – Bayfield, WI
18 Jul – Aitkin County Fairgrounds – Aitkin, MN
1 Aug – Appalachian State University: Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts – Boone, NC
6 Aug – Washington’s – Fort Collins, CO
7 Aug – Strings Music Pavilion – Steamboat Springs, CO
8 Aug – Chautauqua Auditorium – Boulder, CO
9 Sep – Nalen – Stockholm, Sweden
10 Sep – Pustervik – Gothenburg, Sweden
11 Sep – Slagthuset – Malmö, Sweden
13 Sep – Rockefeller – Oslo, Norway
15 Sep – Corn Exchange – Brighton, UK
16 Sep – Electric Ballroom – London, UK
17 Sep – Academy 2 – Manchester, UK
18 Sep – Garage – Glasgow, UK
20 Sep – De Casino – Sint-Niklaas, Belgium
21 Sep – Oosterpoort – Groningen, Netherlands
22 Sep – Paradiso – Amsterdam, Netherlands
23 Sep – Doornroosje – Nijmegen, Netherlands
16 Oct – Danforth Music Hall – Toronto, ON
17 Oct – Town Ballroom – Buffalo, NY
18 Oct – Thunderbird Cafe & Music Hall – Pittsburgh, PA
21 Oct – Lincoln Theatre – Washington, DC
22 Oct – Keswick Theatre – Glenside, PA
23 Oct – The Town Hall – New York, NY
24 Oct – Boch Center – Shubert Theatre – Boston, MA
11 Nov – Haw River Ballroom – Saxapahaw, NC
12 Nov – Variety Playhouse – Atlanta, GA
13 Nov – CMA Theater – Nashville, TN
14 Nov – Delmar Hall – St. Louis, MO
17 Nov – Kentucky Theatre – Lexington, KY
18 Nov – The Vogue – Indianapolis, IN
19 Nov – Riviera Theatre – Chicago, IL
20 Nov – Majestic Theatre – Madison, WI
21 Nov – State Theatre – Minneapolis, MN
2 Dec – Hollywood Theatre – Vancouver, BC
4 Dec – Neptune Theatre – Seattle, WA
5 Dec – Revolution Hall – Portland, OR
8 Dec – The Center for the Arts – Grass Valley, CA
9 Dec – The Fillmore – San Francisco, CA
11 Dec – Belly Up Tavern – Solana Beach, CA
12 Dec – The Bellwether – Los Angeles, CA
The new album Sanctuary Park can be pre-ordered here.
An album review of Sanctuary Park will follow in due course.
Check this older review in Louder Than War of their previous album XOXO.
Follow the band:
The Jayhawks Official Social Media page
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