There is a difference between one’s favorite band and one’s favorite singers. For example, the late Freddie Mercury of Queen has one of the finest singing voices any rock act has ever produced. Yet for whatever reason, Queen is certainly not my favorite band, nor would they be listed in my top 20 bands, for that matter. That being said, A Day At The Races is one hell of a great album. So yeah, I have a great appreciation for Queen, but in the big picture, a dominating, terrific singing voice doesn’t make the band – and I won’t even go into Mercury’s choice in clothing. Atrocious. Funny, but atrocious. Have you ever seen the video for “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which features Mercury sitting at the piano in one of those grainy ’70s live-concert video-type deals? He’s sitting there, playing this strikingly pretty piano part and singing like he usually does, but he’s wearing a black and yellow leotard or something. Yikes. But enough about Queen. I’ve exhausted my verbosity here today, and then some, about that band.
So let it be said here that there is a band out there where the voice and the band rank extremely high on my list – that band is The Jayhawks and the singer is Gary Louris. It is very rare that a band can produce six straight albums of incredible material, but they did it, encountering all kinds of obstacles along the way – a car accident that nearly cut down Louris, the departure of the great Mark Olsen (who wrote and sang half of the band’s songs before 1995), the merry-go-round of band members – all these are the sum and substance of a band that always seems to be “on the verge.” Yet, beyond all those issues, this band just continues to release inventive, terrific albums, featuring Louris, whom I believe to be one of the best singers on the entire planet. Not to forget a band that is so solid and can be so graceful at one point and so beautifully messy at other points. So I’m pretty excited that their new album, Rainy Day Music, is just a few weeks away from my stereo now. I’m also equally excited that I have tickets to see them in Brooklyn on April 10, with Tim Easton opening – a nice bonus……
Song now playing: The Pretenders – “Middle of the Road”