Although easily pigeonholed under "country rock", the Jayhawks have a few more weapons in their armoury than that. Lurking behind their easy-rolling exterior is a passion for grandiose pop and enormous ballads with weepy, diaphanous choruses. A Break in the Clouds, for instance, is a dead ringer for the Hollies in their Air That I Breathe phase, with its singing guitars and high, soaring harmonies. Confusingly, the song's title bears no relation to its signature line, "It's like cool cool water running down my back". In Better Than Being Alone, the band concoct a perfect pop and country crossover with whipped cream on top.
The Jayhawks' singer, guitarist and chief songwriter, Gary Louris, took the stage in a brilliant white shirt and matching trousers. Combined with his frizzy hair and steel-framed glasses, it made him look like a showbiz preacher from Las Vegas, keen to convert his flock by laying on the healing powers of vintage pop music, perhaps with a perm and manicure on the side. Around him, the band offered sympathetic support, with drummer Tim O'Reagan making occasional forays on lead vocal (notably on a twanged-up version of the venerable Tom Rush tune, Driving Wheel), and Jen Gunderman adding layers of sweeping string-synth or clanging piano as the occasion requires.
Still, while the Jayhawks usually make an agreeable noise, they are prone to lapsing into fallow periods of nondescript off-the-peg rockism. Particularly damaging is their habit of falling back into a lazy pastiche of Crazy Horse while Louris reels off swaths of characterless guitar soloing (there is an unbridgeable gulf between being able to play the guitar and doing something interesting with it). Somehow, the thump-and-plod beat that Crazy Horse have perfected doesn't work for anybody else, probably because they have the incalculable advantages of Neil Young's songs and Neil Young on lead guitar.
So, while the Jayhawks can scintillate intermittently, ultimately they struggle to find a voice they can call their own. "I'm gonna be a big star someday," wailed Louris, as the set charged to its climax. Not just at the moment, I don't think.
***** Unmissable **** Recommended *** Enjoyable
** Mediocre * Terrible
