Just before The Jayhawks took the stage on Friday night, Canadian sportscaster Dave Hodge came out to give the band a glowing introduction.
He began by reading from a recent No Depression review of the band’s latest, Sanctuary Park. In that review, writer Peter Blackstock, in turn referenced an old Rolling Stone review of Toronto’s own Blue Rodeo, which made the claim that “The best new American band may very well be Canadian.” As Hodge continued to read from the review, he got to the part where Blackstock flipped the script, proposing that, “The best new Canadian band may well be American.”
Now, this might be a bold statement. While Jayhawks frontman Gary Louris may have married a Canadian and moved to Canada, neither he nor the band is technically Canadian, and perhaps more importantly, 40 years into their career, they’re not a new band by any stretch. But with Sanctuary Park, The Jayhawks do make a strong bid for Canadiana status – after all, the album’s title track (itself named after a park in Dundas, Ontario) references both Teenage Head and “smoking darts.” And, hey, if the Americans now get to claim Joni as one of their own, I say, sure, why not draft The Jayhawks over to the Canadian side?
Hodge made another interesting point in his introduction, mentioning how if a new listener were to hear all of The Jayhawks’ albums without seeing the release dates, they might have a hard time putting them in order. It’s true that there is a certain consistency to the band’s sound. And truly, the new stuff sounds better than one might expect from a band 40 years in, with new tunes like “Keeping Our Head Above Water” and “Mr. Lincoln” fitting in seamlessly with the older stuff and even standing out as some of the highlights of the set, thanks to their instantly catchy melodies.
While the new stuff sounded great, though, the most memorable moment likely came via one of the band’s classic tunes: “Blue,” off 1995’s Tomorrow the Green Grass. As the band ran through the classic track near the end of its set, it inspired plenty of singalongs, bringing to mind something opener Julian Taylor said during his own set. After encouraging the crowd to sing along to his song “Seeds,” Taylor commented that singing together is one of the most important things we can do as humans.
“When we sing together, we are one,” he said. “One voice.”
As the crowd sang along to “Blue,” it was easy to understand what he meant.
