Gary Louris currently lives in the mountains of Quebec, Canada just outside of Montreal with his wife, Stephanie. But for most of his adult life the Jayhawks singer/guitarist has called Minneapolis, Minnesota home. So, it’s no surprise that he and his lady love—who he refers to as an avid follower of news and “very political”—have kept close tabs on the recent ICE-fueled chaos in the City of Lakes.
“I look at those news feeds and I say ‘I know that street where Alex Pretti was killed,’ and other places I’ve recognized and recorded at. The rest of the band lives there and friends live there, and it’s just…weird,” he says on the phone.
“When we started touring and said we were from Minneapolis, first it was ‘Oh, that’s where Prince is from.’ Then it became ‘Oh, that’s where the Mall of Americas is.’ And then it was ‘Oh, that’s where George Floyd was killed.’ Back in the day, it was clean, quiet, and flyover country. Now, it’s crazy and scary.”
Consisting of Louris, Tim O’Reagan (drums/vocals), Marc Perlman (bass), and Karen Grotberg (keyboards/vocals), the Jayhawks will fly South for the winter to Houston and the Heights Theater on March 6.
What’s interesting is that this is not part of a larger tour: just three Texas dates in Austin, Houston, and Dallas. And the trek is not tied to a new album as their last (though COVID-aborted) dates for 2020’s XOXO were scheduled. And for which the Houston Press spoke with Grotberg.
“Well, we’re excited to come anywhere that’s warm! We haven’t been to Houston in a while,” Louris says. Indeed, their last H-Town gig was a decade ago for the Paging Mr. Proust tour. “And we haven’t played together in a while as a band. Karen had a knee operation. So, this will be sort of a reunion to start what is going to be a busy year.”
That includes a new Jayhawks record coming out this summer. It will be a reunion with producer Bob Ezrin, who also helmed 2000’s Smile. Ezrin is best known for his work with rock acts like Pink Floyd (The Wall), KISS (Destroyer), Alice Cooper (School’s Out, Billion Dollar Babies), and Lou Reed (Berlin). Recorded in Toronto, Louris anticipates they’ll play two or three cuts from the as-yet untitled release on the Texas dates.
“We stay in touch and I told Bob we were making a new record and he said he’d love to do it. Sort of a ‘Will Work for Food’ kind of thing. We convened last September and are excited,” he says.
The Jayhawks were founded in 1984, with Louris joining the next year. They quickly became poster boys for the then-nascent alt country/No Depression movement with records like Blue Earth (1989), Hollywood Town Hall (1992), and Tomorrow the Green Grass (1995), the last of which yielded their biggest “hit” to date in “Blue.”
And while there have been various lineup changes, hiatuses, and reunions, it’s Louris who has steered the ship for most of their career. A ship that while sailing mostly in those Americana waters, has also ventured into gulfs of rock (Sound of Lies), pop (Smile), and art rock (Paging Mr. Proust). It’s genre slippin’ and slidin’ that Louris says keeps the band fresh and challenged.
“We’ve always fallen in the seams and cracks which makes us harder to market and typecast. But on the other hand, it gives you more freedom. We’ve always been left to our own devices with records. It’s like ‘They’re a cool band, let them do what they want to,’” Louris offers.
Amusingly, many could be forgiven for thinking that the group hailed from the actual “Jayhawk State,” which is Kansas. Louris has spent years explaining that the name was chosen prior to his joining, more as a tribute to the Arkansas-to-Ontario based Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks (whose “Hawks” would later leave their leader to form The Band).
The Jayhawks is also the moniker of the basketball team at the University of Kansas. Louris says he’s at least happy they weren’t saddled with the name of their hometown University of Minnesota Twin Cities hoopsters: The Golden Gophers.
Back to the new record, Louris says will have a sort of “throwback” sound and focus on the vocal harmonies of himself and Grotberg. He adds it was mostly completed in just 10 days, with overdubs done in his home studio.
On XOXO, all four members had writing and lead vocal credits. Will that be the same template for the new release?
“No, that door has closed!” Louris says. “I’m not against it, but I’m still more of a control freak! That came at a particular moment in time when I was also working on my solo record. And it seemed like an interesting thing to do. Now, if people have a great song, the song wins. But in this case, it’s pretty much my songs, with some contributions from people outside the band that I had written with in years past for projects outside of the Jayhawks.”
As for that solo album, 2025’s Dark Country almost exclusively featured just Louris’ voice and acoustic guitar, with a sprinkling of piano, harmonica, and orchestral work. The whole project was a love letter to Stephanie, warm and intimate.
However, Louris says that in his writing process, he doesn’t finish a tune and think “this is for the band” or “this is for another project.” In addition to the Jayhawks and a solo career, Louris also dabbles in other collaborations and an occasional group, Golden Smog.
“Funny enough, there’s one song on Dark Country that has been reinvented for the Jayhawks. ‘Blow ‘Em Away’ has been rewritten as ‘Hands Upon the Wheel.’ There are a couple of songs on there I would have liked to hear with bass and drums,” he says.
“Another one, ‘Until You Came Along’ was written for Sound of Lies but just didn’t come together. The chemistry of the band and song wasn’t right then. But I rarely sit down and know what the songs [are for]. They find their own way.”
As for Houston, Louris says he first played the city with his pre-Jayhawks rockabilly band Safety Last. He recalls they opened for Johnny Reno & the Sax Maniacs in “a cool venue that was like a giant barn.”
Not so fond a memory was an early Jayhawks gig here where “nobody showed up” and the club owner paid them $250 to play one set and leave. Louris recalls they drove “24 hours straight” back to Minneapolis in their travel ambulance vehicle they had christened “Beaulah.”
More memorable was their show on February 6, 1993 at the now-defunct Sam Houston Coliseum. The Jayhawks opened for Def American label mates the Black Crowes on a historical gig that was actually a redo for an earlier Houston Crowes concert that had to be cancelled due to equipment issues.
The show was broadcast live on FM radio across the country and is known in Crowes circles as the “High in Houston.” This writer even ran into and met Louris backstage on the way to a pre-show Crowes press conference. A partial recording was included as a bonus disc on the 2023 The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion reissue/box set.
Fittingly, Louris does recall that trip to town. “I remember that because they had giant barbecues with giant steaks as part of the catering!” he laughs. “That was so Texas!”
He also has enjoyed ribbing Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson about a certain Lone Star State headline. That same week, the Jayhawks had a one-off headlining gig at a Dallas club. Members of the Crowes were in the audience and got up to jam at one point.
“The headline for the review in the paper said ‘Black Crowes Mar Jayhawks Show!” Louris laughs. “I used to give Chris a lot of shit about that!”
The Jayhawks play at 8 p.m. on Friday, March 6, at the Heights Theater, 339 W. 19th. For more information, call 1-214-272-8346 or visit TheHeightsTheater.com. $50.
For more on the Jayhawks, visit JayhawksOfficial.com