The Jayhawks News

Image via Brian Birzer/Birzer Photo. When festivalgoers look back on the Friday of ACL Fest 2009 , we suspect they'll remember it less for the performances than for the fact that this was undoubtedly the most pleasant day to attend the festival in recent memory.

For nearly 25 years, Minneapolis' The Jayhawks have been the standard bearers of alternative country, releasing seven albums considered by many fans of the "No Depression" movement to be highly ranked amongst the scene's most heralded masterpieces.

While critics give the Jayhawks credit for helping invent alt-country, co-founder Mark Olson is quick to downplay the band's contributions to the rustic blend of rock and country that blossomed in the 1980s and '90s. "If people credit us with it, I think it was more that we happened to be working along the same lines" as other groups, Olson says.

My college roommate was a few years older than me and he had the coolest record collection of anyone I'd ever met, way deeper than my own stack of contemporary country discs.

Deerhuntera s strong quality streak continues with Rainwater Cassette Exchange , a bright little EP that serves as a fine afterthought to the banda s excellent 2008 LP, Microcastle .

What if you made a classic, and no one cared?" As attention-grabbing headlines go, this one from a 1,500-word piece published in The New York Times in 2000 is up there with the best.

British rock hero passes amongst us ... Published on 7/21/2009 Interactive Profile Rick Koster has covered music, books and dining for The Day , and is a regular columnist.

The Jayhawks MUSIC FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY: THE JAYHAWKSANTHOLOGY Formed in 1985, Minneapolis' Jayhawks helped kick off the country-oriented rock sound that came to be known as alt-country and Americana.

What do you do with all six-thousand of those songs, anyway? Published on 7/15/2009 Interactive Profile Rick Koster has covered music, books and dining for The Day , and is a regular columnist.

The album: Music From The North Country: The Jayhawks Anthology The spin: In college, I was introduced to what is often referred to as alt-country - Uncle Tupelo, Wilco, Son Volt and Whiskeytown - but I never listened to the Jayhawks.

The Jayhawks circa 1992 Emerging from "The City of Lakes" in 1985, the Jayhawks showed that Minneapolis could produce a band at the forefront of another genre besides pioneering alt-rock and funk ; namely, the nascent alt-country/"No Depression" movement.

For fans of pioneering alt-country band the Jayhawks, it really doesn't get much better than Friday night's reunion show at the Basilica Block Party.

Gary Louris of the band The Jayhawks performs during the annual Basilica Block Party at the Basilica of St.

Posted on July 11th, 2009 8:56 AM By Chris Riemenschneider A The term "feel-good" usually works better with movies, but it could be perfectly applied toA the Jayhawks reunion last night.

Over the Fourth of July weekend at the Dakota, Rosanne Cash and John Leventhal performed several tunes from Cash's forthcoming "The List" , which Rosanne says she fashioned from a list of 100 essential country songs that her father, Johnny, gave to her when she was a teenager.

HuffPost Video Premiere : Third Eye Blind "Don't Believe A Word," plus The Jayhawks, Genesis, and Peanuts 1960's Collection "I wanted to create a video that actually represented Third Eye Blind," says Stephan Jenkins, lead singer and songwriter for the group .

Submitted by Journal Staff on July 8, 2009 - 10:46am. FHS grad Karen Grotberg has history with alt-country band International Falls native Karen Grotberg has rejoined the band which has been credited for helping to invent alt-country, a rustic blend of rock and country that blossomed in the 1980s and '90s - the Jayhawks.

While critics give the Jayhawks credit for helping invent alt-country, co-founder Mark Olson is quick to downplay the band's contributions to the rustic blend of rock and country that blossomed in the 1980s and '90s. "If people credit us with it, I think it was more that we happened to be working along the same lines" as other groups, Olson says.

Playing the perpetually troubled, pot dealing mom Nancy Botwin on Showtime's hit series, Weeds , Mary-Louise Parker manages to exude icy coolness when faced with any number of lose-lose situations: run-ins with gun-toting drug gangs, psychopathic neighbors on speed, and on-the-take DEA agents.

Please, please ignore singer/guitarist Skip Matheny's twaddle that this set from his now-Nashville-based band was inspired by playwright Tom Stoppard and early-1900s German poet Rainer Maria Rilke.