The Jayhawks Sanctuary Park
I didn’t have time to write this review. But when I looked on the Americana Highways “to be reviewed” spreadsheet and saw the Jayhawks were releasing Sanctuary Park on Aug. 28, I signed up anyway. I made time. And I’m glad I did. I’ve been blown away with each listen. It’s a hell of a way for the band to celebrate its 40th anniversary – by putting out arguably its best album yet.
At first you think, “what is this…?” It’s so happy. It kind of takes you aback. The first track, “Keeping Our Heads Above Water,” is as joyous as the Jayhawks gets, with happy harmonies and a melody with a skip in its step. It’s the kind of song that lightens you no matter where you are or what you’re doing while it’s on — the story does that on its own, and the arrangements couldn’t be better: the piano, the bass, the build on the pre-chorus, the irresistible chorus: “keeping our heads above water, trying to learn how to swim, saying you’re all I got just to breathe again.”
“Keeping Our Heads Above Water” brings you back to those innocent teen years, and how free and ignorant we were. And the band’s trademark three-part harmonies, plus the musical magic by Karen Grotberg (keys), Tim O’Reagan (drums), Marc Perlman (bass) really put you there.
The Jayhawks are just as chipper on “Kingston Girl,” bringing us a love story that’s not as innocent. We’ve been there — betting everything on someone when the whole world seems set against you, holding on through circumstances trying to pull you apart: “they clipped our wings and without them we learned to fly.”
“Mr Lincoln” is the album’s most poignant and potent moment, and, I believe, one of the best songs of the year. The tune sounds like it was written by Robbie Robertson, and performed by Crosby, Stills and Nash (actually several songs on this album seem to have that influence, with a little Young, too). I stopped what I was doing when I first heard it and started it over. Jayhawk vocalist and guitarist Gary Louris wrote this with Emerson Hart of Tonic, and it may be the best lyrical work either of them have done. It tells the story of our fractured nation, then and now, from a new, unique lens: the perspective of a musician in the orchestra pit of Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. on the night of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.
Producer Bob Ezrin (Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, Alice Cooper, Lou Reed) reunited with the Jayhawks, collaborating with them for the first time since 2000’s “Smile.” He brought the band out to his hometown of Toronto, craving the gentleness and sweetness he’s always loved about their sound. That sweetness is the key ingredient of “Sanctuary Park.”
“Hands Upon the Wheel” is hopeful and haunting, the intro giving you chills as the Jayhawk signature three-part harmony goes a capella. Hearing it again after so many years honestly did bring me back to some magical times, like the first time I heard “Blue” from “Tomorrow the Green Grass.”
“Leap of Faith” is a remarkably cheerful song about facing mortality. It’s a celebration: kind, endearing, even optimistic, with playful harmonica and tasteful melodies. What’s most interesting about it is the lyrics are downright Bukowskian, yet somehow they don’t fill you with despair. There’s a message of perseverance, a message that – even when hitting bottom – you can still get back up. There’s a bit of zydeco here, too, which really gives the listener the impression things are going to be alright.
“American Midnight” is reminiscent of R.E.M. a bit, but is also perhaps the most signature Jayhawks tune on the album, with a riff that’s classic, upbeat Jayhawks. It’s a beautiful contrast, like Motown – only the heartbreak is societal. They’re singing about the state of the world, and are genuinely concerned, but the tune makes you feel like dancing, the tone still warm, harmonies invoking peace, not pain.
The title track has some grit to it, a bluesy sound a little reminiscent of Tim Buckley and “Cortez the Killer” era Neil Young. It’s funky, the bass really gets into your bones. It’s also the closest the record comes to explaining itself: Sanctuary Park is a real spot in Dundas, Ontario, but on this album it becomes something bigger, a stand-in for whatever place memory keeps sacred — first loves, teenage secrets, the people who knew you before you became whoever you are now.
“Always and a Day” is where the band lets loose a little — a chiming 60s rock feel, like the Byrds channeling the Rolling Stones, all momentum and highway and a refusal to let go. “Familiar Strangers” pulls back down to earth, a barroom toast to old friends who feel both close and distant at once, the kind of night where cheap wine in a parking lot means more than the good stuff ever could. It’s mellow but still drives, and you feel like you’re there with them.
“It’ll Be Alright Tonight” is pure reassurance — a guy owning his bad decisions and betting on the relationship anyway, the chorus repeating like he’s convincing himself as much as anyone else. Mike Johnson’s pedal steel is heavy in the mix here, really driving it home, and the whole thing lands as a reminder of the band’s sweetness — quintessential Jayhawks.
To close — after the ghosts and the highways and a nation’s midnight — the record doesn’t try to leave you with a lesson. “Rowing the Boat” strips everything back to something close to a children’s song, simple language, simple melody, no big statement. It just asks you to come along and stay in the boat, to enjoy the experience — the experience of life. Easier said than done, I know, but every day we have that opportunity to take that leap of faith, and “Sanctuary Park” can help get us there.
After 40 years, Gary Louris keeps taking that leap himself — chief songwriter, lead vocalist, the guy anchoring those three-part harmonies since day one, still finding new hope to land on.
“Sanctuary Park” will soon be out in all places you stream music. It was produced and mixed by Bob Ezrin (with Brian Moncarz) at Canterbury Music Company in Toronto and mastered by Robert Vosgien — the same gentleness and sweetness Ezrin chased 25 years ago on “Smile,” now sounding less like nostalgia and more like a lifeline.
Highlights: “Mr. Lincoln,” “Keeping Our Heads Above Water,” “Rowing the Boat.”
For more information (and tour dates), go to https://jayhawksofficial.com/
Enjoy some of our previous coverage here: Show Review: The Jayhawks Bring Warmth to TCAN