Customer Reviews

The Jayhawks (aka The Bunkhouse Album)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

The Jayhawks certainly paid their share of dues on their debut LP (now CD!). There's more than a little Gram Parsons (both Byrds and Burrito Bro-style) and Louvin Brothers on display. The album feels like the best classic albums (which it now is) but has the immediacy of something just cut.

This is an album I've heard quite a bit about in the past few years, kind of like the alt-country "Time Fades Away", and it does not disappoint. That's probably the most surprising aspect of the album, it's a debut but it's really freaking good. Easily as good as anything in the Uncle Tupelo or Whiskeytown catalogue.

If you like alt-country/Americana music, this is your disc.

The alt-country pioneers' 1986 debut (known to fans as "The Bunkhouse Album") doesn't sound much like their classic "Hollywood Town Hall." But the ancestors they quote -- Flying Burrito Brothers -- and the foundations they lay here became the cornerstones of their quarter-century career. It's finally on CD, so you can throw away your turntable.

Here it is folks the new release of The Jayhawks Album (aka The Bunkhouse Album) but now you finally get it on cd. They were truly the Pioneer's of Alternative Country.
You can get the download for only $[...] bucks. Or go all out for $[...] bucks and get cd, lp, download, and a limited edition t-shirt. You gotta check it out.

I was there, in '85/'86, when they were playing the Uptown, in Mpls...and only a few people were listening. I didn't know what it was, but I knew they were something special. I followed them all the years, including all the years Mark Olson was not in the band. All great music. I heard them when they reunited, and they sounded as good as ever.

I expected an early recording to be somewhat poor quality with the band not quite in it's stride yet. Wow, was I wrong! This cd is a MUST for any fan of Americana and especially any Jayhawks fans. Love the steel guitar throughout. Makes me wonder why they didn't stay with a good steel player. Anyway, I found it more "Flying Burrito Brothers like" than any of their other recordings. Go ahead, get it and start enjoying a fresh breathe of Minnesota air!

This is a band that truly evolved over its lifespan. This first album is more country-ish than any that followed, with some pedal steel guitar work, lots of twang, and at least one classic song title ("Six Pack on the Dashboard"). The follow-up album, Blue Earth, also has a strong country feel but with a harder edge, and then the later albums, recorded in California rather than Minnesota -- starting with Hollywood Town Hall -- were smoother, slicker, more heavily produced, and with less and less country influence. I think the band's roots and hearts are in this country-fied music, and you can hear it in Mark Olson's earnest vocal work.

This is a decent album, but unspectacular. If you are a Jayhawks fan, though, you will want to have it. It's fun to hear Gary Louris playing the country licks -- given the psychedelic electric guitar work he put on the later (post-Olson) recordings, I'm impressed with the guy's ability to roam through musical genres and always sound at home.

The people that engineered this recordong were bording on genius what a GREAT sound,for a truly awesome band !!! Mark Olson is a wizzard.