Jayhawks singer/guitarist Mark Olson performs Jan. 22 in Philadelphia. (Photo by Chris M. Junior)

By Chris M. Junior

In a way, it felt (and sounded) a lot like 1995, when the core Jayhawks lineup was still intact and touring behind “Tomorrow the Green Grass,” the acclaimed follow-up to 1992’s “Hollywood Town Hall.”

But The Jayhawks’ Jan. 22 show at TLA in Philadelphia also was very much in the present and a glimpse into the future, as the band’s new songs from a forthcoming album proved to be a nice complement to its classic material.

The sold-out TLA gig was one of eight scheduled North American dates this month in five major cities celebrating the recently released expanded reissues of “Hollywood Town Hall” and “Tomorrow the Green Grass” (both on American/Legacy). With no fanfare, the country-leaning rock band – original members Gary Louris, Mark Olson and Marc Perlman, plus longtimers Karen Grotberg and Tim O’Reagan – hit the stage around 9 p.m. and launched into “Wichita,” and right away the distinct vocal blend of guitarists Louris and Olson was on the money. As co-lead singers, it’s natural for them to get most of the attention (and praise), but keyboardist Grotberg’s vocal contributions are a big part of the band’s sound, too, and she made her presence felt on the ballad “Red’s Song,” an early highlight.

The band’s great vocal harmonies were on display once again in “She Walks in So Many Ways,” a song from the new Jayhawks studio album (still untitled) that’s expected in the spring or summer on the Rounder label. It sounded like something that would have been a good fit on “Hollywood Town Hall,” and ditto for the song that followed, “Warm River,” one of the bonus tracks on the expanded edition of “Hall.”

The concert also included its share of fan favorites, FM-radio tracks and shoulda-been hits, among them “Waiting for the Sun,” which closed the main set and was distinguished by Louris’ bluesy, Neil Young-ish leads. The snoozy encores didn’t exactly end the evening on a high note, but by then The Jayhawks had already shown they still possess the vocal and instrumental chops to have fans excited about what’s on the horizon.

Mark Olson. Photo by Ingunn Ringvold/Ryko

By Chris M. Junior

Selecting favorite albums can be like eating potato chips: Sometimes it’s hard to stop at a predetermined amount.

When asked for his 10 most essential albums, Jayhawks founder Mark Olson attempted to increase the total and include works by The Band, Nick Drake, The Clash and Joni Mitchell, among others.

A rule’s a rule, so Olson — whose U.S. tour in support of his new solo album, “Many Colored Kite” (Rykodisc), runs through late September — ultimately settled on these 10 life-changing titles.

The Byrds: Sweetheart of the Rodeo
Harmony vocals, Woody Guthrie songs and Clarence White’s guitar all add up to a real treasure. The drumming is really distinctive and sounds better and better when you consider the over-amping of the drum kit during modern times.

Bob Dylan: Desire
I was way too young when I first bought this, and I never get tired of it. [The album had a] crazy-type of [violin] playing that had me always finding a fiddle player for the bands I was in.

Victoria Williams: Happy Come Home
This is an incredible record. Go find it and listen to it. Has anyone written a song as moving as “Main Road” in the last 25 years? This is a stunning work of art.

Lucinda Williams: Sweet Old World
I listened to this album more than any other in the studio days of The Jayhawks. I really like the sound of the band and the direct, heartbreaking lyrics. Her voice is very tender on these songs.

John Martyn: London Conversation
The ultimate folk album. The picking, singing and writing here are due to the fact that he was an extremely gifted player. I like this album best of all of his work because you just hear his voice and guitar.

Fairport Convention: What We Did On Our Holidays
I think this might be the best band sound for folk rock that I have heard. Each song has a different arrangement, and each member brings so much to the total sound of the music.

Uncle Tupelo: Anodyne
All the records on this list I have listened to many, many times at different points in my life. Here was another great folk-rock album — [it’s like] Woody Guthrie meets Husker Du in [certain] places.

Bob Marley and The Wailers: Man to Man
I heard his songs so much when I was young. He is the best. He makes me feel like I want to do something positive with my life.

Jacques Bertin: Trois Bouquets
I found this in a record store in Los Angeles. I have asked most everyone I know in France if they have heard of him, and no one seems to know of him. I listen to this all the time. Not understanding French very well is not a problem, though, because when I finally was given a translation to his song “Trois Bouquets,” I was proven right.

Flying Burrito Brothers: The Gilded Palace of Sin
The lyrics to “Sin City” are my all-time fave alternative outlook statement, and it is basically from the Bible! Chris Hillman and Gram Parsons sang great together. I know every song here, and it always makes me smile when I think about this album.

By Chris M. Junior

Elvis Presley had Colonel Tom Parker, The Beatles had Brian Epstein and The Jayhawks had Charlie Pine.

Even some longtime Jayhawks fans might not know much about Pine, who was the alt-country band’s manager during its early days. Like Parker and Epstein did for Presley and the Fab Four, respectively, Pine played a key role in helping his act build toward a long recording career. For The Jayhawks, the foundation was the Minneapolis band’s Pine-produced, self-titled debut album, released in 1986 on Bunkhouse Records.

Only 2,000 vinyl copies of “The Jayhawks” (a.k.a. The Bunkhouse Album) were originally pressed. But on May 18, Lost Highway will release the album on CD for the first time ever, and the CD version will include a booklet with photos of the band from that era as well as a new essay by Jayhawks founder Mark Olson.

Olson recently checked in from Norway to talk about his memories of Pine, the recording of “The Jayhawks” and the Minneapolis music scene around that time.

In writing the essay for the reissue and revisiting this early period of your music career, what did you rediscover about yourself and the band that maybe you had forgotten about or didn’t realize at the time?
Mark Olson: When they asked me to write something, I really thought about it for a while. And I basically recalled this manager of ours and what a crazy character he was and how we had kind of lost touch with each other. I thought that would be the best thing to write about because it’s hard to write about, “Oh, the guitars sounded this way and the vocals sounded this way, and we rehearsed up in this space.” I thought that the angle of how people form bands and what mechanisms are involved, when you start out with having a manager – that was kind of interesting, and I had not thought about that for a while.

The Minneapolis music scene of the mid-1980s was quite fertile – and diverse, too. Given the country-leaning sound of The Jayhawks, did that make it tougher for the band to get gigs and sell that first album in and around the city?
Olson: Wow, that’s a pretty pertinent question because we were on the outside with that stuff there. I think one of the reasons both [fellow singer/guitarist] Gary [Louris] and I were attracted to country or folk and that kind of music was because the other stuff was pretty well taken up. I mean, I wouldn’t want to try to get up and compete with Husker Du, The Replacements and Soul Asylum in the loud, rocking department. They had it; there wasn’t any room.

So we started down this different avenue, and it didn’t go over so well in the rock clubs to start with because that’s where we started [playing]. There was kind of a blues/folk scene in a place called the West Bank, which was in a different part of town than the rock clubs, and that’s where we were able to get gigs. We started to do three sets a night and work our way up to the weekends over there, and we ended up playing enough that we could keep improving. When things were going very well over there … and we generated enough excitement, our manager decided, “It’s time for us to make a record,” and that’s what we did.

We didn’t really get going in the rock scene until a little later, and in fact, we never really were a top draw until we came back from California, [after] we did the “Hollywood Town Hall” record. To me, that isn’t anything other than we were trying to do something different, and it was a little bit out of time and a little bit not with the time. But I think that serves any group or musician well in the long run versus doing what a lot of other people are doing in the same time and place.

In your essay for the reissue, you write about Charlie Pine as a man of many talents. As the producer of the first Jayhawks album, was Pine hands-on, hands-off or a little bit of both, depending on the particular song?
Olson: He was definitely hands-off in the way that he really liked the band. When we were playing well, that guy was happy. Basically, he got us in the studio and said, “Go.” It’s like everyone’s first record: You go in there, you set up and you play just like you play it live. Obviously, you can hear that in the tempos – it’s like a rocket taking off (laughs). I sat down [recently] to relearn a couple of the songs, and I started to play along with “Falling Star,” and it’s so fast.

So that’s what we did. We were hyped, and we just cranked them out. And I don’t think we did any overdubs. I can’t really remember that; I think it’s basically live. The whole process was a little mystifying to me. [Pine] was in the studio, and he picked the tracks he wanted to use, and we added a couple of things. He wasn’t barking out orders or anything, but he was definitely in charge as far as, “OK, we’re going to use this track.”

Describe Control Sound, the Minneapolis facility where the album was recorded. Was it a legit studio, or was it an ordinary room with equipment in it?
Olson: It was a regular studio, but it was very small. There was a control room and a [tracking] room. We were all in the same room, and they stuck the amps off in various bathrooms. They had isolation booths for Gary and me, so we were playing and singing at the same time.

[Pine] found that studio. I never heard of it before or sense, to tell you the truth. It was in a neighborhood by the Mississippi River that I never spent time in before or since.

The album cover is similar to that of the first Crosby, Stills and Nash album. Talk about the house that’s featured on the cover and what you remember from the photo shoot.
Olson: That’s actually in another strange topographical area in Minneapolis: Nicollet Island. It’s right in downtown Minneapolis. … There are a couple of old buildings that are now restaurants, but there’s also a little hidden neighborhood back there. It was sort of a hippie neighborhood, kind of an alternate lifestyle neighborhood, where everything was rundown and almost spooky. Since then, I think it’s been fixed up a little bit, but back then, we were looking for something that, I guess, said country-rock (laughs).

I just remember it being a fun day. We had hired the best photographer for music in the city, and it was very exciting: We were doing our album.

Was Pine there directing how you guys should look?
Olson: He never directed so much as he encouraged. That was his thing. What I hope I got across in the essay is what went on between us and Charlie, there was a level of personal enthusiasm coming from him that I haven’t really seen since or really expect to see again.

Do you still have any copies of the original vinyl pressing at home?
Olson: I believe I have two copies that have been opened and played at various times. I run into [other] copies in foreign countries. … Every now and then someone will come up with one and ask me to sign it, or if I go to a record collector [show], I’ll find it in the bin, and it’s pretty high-priced.

So, there are no sealed copies anywhere in your basement or attic?
Olson: No (laughs).