The Jayhawks (aka The Bunkhouse Album)

Jayhawks | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 18, 2010)
• Original Release Date: 2010
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Lost Highway
• ASIN: B003ENTMIQ
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #19,688 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

The self-titled debut album from the highly-acclaimed, alt-country pioneers The Jayhawks will be released on May 18th by Lost Highway. The Jayhawks (often referred to by fans as The Bunkhouse album) was originally released in 1986 on Bunkhouse Records, as a limitied vinyl pressing. Fans not fortunate enough to own a copy of The Jayhawks will be happy to know that it will finally be available on CD, MP3 and again on vinyl for the first time in nearly 25 years.

The Jayhawks reissue will include an eight-page booklet with new photos from the recording period and a new essay by Jayhawks co-founder Mark Olson about album producer and then band manager Charlie Pine. The tracks are the original thirteen songs that appeared on the album, including "Falling Star", which recently resurfaced on Music From The North Country: The Jayhawks Anthology in 2009.

The 1986 incarnation of The Jayhawks featured Mark Olson (vocals/guitar), Gary Louris (lead guitar/vocals), Marc Perlman (bass) and Norm Rogers (drums). After listening to The Jayhawks, it is clear why the band became a catalyst in the evolution of what would eventually be coined alt-country. The album has more in common with Gram Parsons and The Flying Burrito Brothers than it does with later Jayhawks classics Tomorrow The Green Grass and Hollywood Town Hall. It's quite evident where those milestone albums grew out of.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Rosetta Stone, May 19, 2010

By 

Jim (santa monica, ca United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Jayhawks (aka The Bunkhouse Album) (Audio CD)

I've been aware of this record's existence for 15 years now and patiently following the corporate label intrigue leading up to its long overdue release. I did manage to cobble together most of these tracks through Limewire back in the day, but what a joy it is to hear them in their full remastered glory. All due nods to the cosmic American music that opened the door and to bands such as Green on Red and the Long Ryders that Gary Louris himself credits as inspirations, but this record gives the truth to the term country rock. I'm waiting for songs such as Sixpack on the Dashboard and Behind Bars to start turning up in primetime TV shows and feature films once some enterprising soundtrack coordinator starts thinking outside the box.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Where it began...This here is the luxury liner!, May 19, 2010

By 

freereign (Ocean of Corn, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Jayhawks (aka The Bunkhouse Album) (Audio CD)

Pumped up with the energy blasting out of punk-era Minneapolis, the Jayhawks loaded their sound with the International Submarine Band and Flying Burrito Brothers; Johnny Cash and George Jones instead of New York Dolls and Iggy Pop. Dazzling with a Clarence White guitar-picker in Gary Louris, Mark Olson's occasional Johnny Cash-like baritone and the two of them in Louvin-like close harmony and you would have thought the team of Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris had never left the building. Elvis probably sighs "Sun Years" from the other side...
The world has caught up with this sound, but the energy contained in this here unit still invigorates and testifies like few others, because it is/was the real deal. One of the first of its kind. It walks in your door, puts cowboy boots up on the furniture, takes them down and asks for a beer-in the same sentence. And like the inspiration of seeing a comet, the first song, "Falling Star", convinces you that the unknown is worth leaving unknown, chances are for taking, and you might just want to take a wild ride down a dusty back road to places where people live like they usta, and perhaps like they oughta. This thing has all the spunk of those old George Jones "White Lightning"-era records, something very few have been able to copy. Thank the powers that be for its re-release. Any day now, you too, shall be released.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The one that got away, June 2, 2010

By 

finalharvest - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Jayhawks (Aka The Bunkhouse Album) (MP3 Download)

So, this is it, the one that started it all -- for the Jayhawks at least! This is what Reckless Country Soul was for Jason and the Scorchers (who were a couple of years ahead). This album is a perfect example of how I describe Cowpunk/Americana/alt.Country to other people: Young rockers/punks playing old time music. It sounds raw, fresh, new, somewhere in between the old and the new, music on the threshold. There's not much Lone Justice, Georgia Satellites or Scorchers but a lot of Green On Red and Long Ryders. Five stars? Heck, if it's only for the long wait!