The Jayhawks are marking four decades as a band on their current tour, and in all those years, they’ve been a reliably consistent Americana mainstay. A headlining theater date in Washington showed not just the verve of their latest album, Sanctuary Park, their 12th, but also how many great songs they’ve recorded since 1996.
Perhaps it was the wide stage of the venue (they usually stop at cozier places like the Birchmere Music Hall when they are in the area), but it’s odd to see the band as a quartet now after so many years as mostly a quintet.
Gary Louris has been the undisputed leader and frontman of the group ever since Mark Olson left in 1995, but usually there has been a second guitarist up there with the rest of the band—bassist Marc Perlman, drummer Tim O’Reagan, and keyboardist Karen Grotberg. Visually, it was a bit odd that Grotberg was off by herself a little farther stage left, apart from the other three. The lights weren’t much to talk about either.
But, oh, the songs. Seven of the 11 tunes on Sanctuary Park were showcased, starting with the opening “Keeping Our Heads Above Water” to the attempted singalong “Rowing the Boat” in the show’s encore. Louris had a lot to do—singing, playing acoustic or electric guitar as required, providing harmonica if needed, and trying to engage in between-song patter. Dedicating several songs to his wife Stephanie, whom he married in 2020, Louris also said she inspired the new songs and their sunnier direction.
That the two live outside of Montreal means that a Canadian resident now leads the Americana band, Canadian place names pop up in new songs, and one of them, “Kingston Girl,” is not about the city in Jamaica (or New York State) but about Ontario. The familiar, rural, easy-rocking Jayhawks sound, then, may have to be re-designated as North Americana.
“It’s our 40th year, we have a lot of songs,” Louris said early on. So the band was generous in supplying songs from eight other albums over the evening (though nothing from their previous XOXO from 2020). Because they were playing the Lincoln Theater, of course they played the new “Mr. Lincoln,” written from the perspective of a witness at Ford’s Theatre less than two miles away.
Perhaps for variety, or to rest Louris’ voice, O’Reagan sang lead a couple of times from the drum set—his own “Tampa to Tulsa” and the early song “Wichita.” He also provided key harmonies backing Louris, maybe more so than Grotberg. And when all three blended voices, it was lovely.
The well-paced show sprinkled in crowd favorites, from “Angelyne” early on to “Smile” and “I’d Run Away” halfway through and “Tailspin” and “Blue” to close the main set. For all the great songs the band has produced, it’s still surprising that they send fans home with a song from Grand Funk in their heads, with their cover of “Bad Time” closing the encore.
Despite Louris’ enthusiasm for the Great North, there was still a strong Minneapolis stamp to the show, since it’s where openers The Cactus Blossoms also emerged. The duo’s Jeremy Hanson mentioned listening to The Jayhawks as they were growing up and forming their brotherly duo. Because of their harmonic approach and gentle guitar interplay, they naturally brought to mind another heartland sibling act, The Everly Brothers.
Without the band that usually backed them, this twanging, back-to-basics approach was effective. Among their own solid songs, they included a cover they had performed at a John Prine 80th-birthday tribute in Chicago two weeks earlier: “Hello in There.”
