I could be going soft with age, but I'm not. I have always rated Gary Louris as a songwriter, ever since I came across Weird Tales by the now defunct Golden Smog. A record of many highs (not least "Please Tell My Brother", which could well be Jeff Tweedy's best song), it featured Gary Louris's magnificent "Until You Came Along". One of those songs you physically cannot resist. But then again... "Waiting For The Sun". "The Man Who Loved Life". "Listen Joe". The man is a great American songwriter, and I still remember that gushing review of Mockingbird Time I once wrote for some Oxford music magazine urging the world to pay attention.
These days, I pretty much stand by what I said back then. Mockingbird Time is an underrated late-period classic that revealed the full range of The Jayhawks' music. Later, the absence of Mark Olson was felt rather acutely on the middling Paging Mr. Proust (having said that, I do not believe that The Jayhawks' world revolves around Olson, and Sound of Lies is one of their finest albums), and so I approached this latest LP with no particular expectations.
Especially since Back Roads and Abandoned Motels is mostly made up of songs Louris had previously composed with other artists (Jakob Dylan, Carrie Rodriguez) and that had previously appeared in films and on records by Dixie Chicks. But Louris has a point when he says it was easy to record these songs since they felt like they belonged to The Jayhawks anyway. And now, whether you hear them sung by drummer Tim O'Reagan or keyboard player Karen Grotberg, they sound fresh.
Me, I still prefer them to be sung by Gary Louris even if I know what he meant in a recent interview where he said Tim is technically a better singer. But I never cared for technicality, and Louris's voice with that subtle vibration at its core, tugs at my heartstrings with such effortless style. Biggest highlights on this LP include the well-known classic "Everybody Knows", the cold, beautiful "Gonna Be A Darkness" (the imagery is as simple as it is hard-hitting) and, most importantly, the two new songs by Louris that round off this album. Both "Carry You To Safety" and "Leaving Detroit" are well-honed ballads that belong on your imaginary Jayhawks compilation.
And all around, it's gorgeous melodies and everything that made 'alt country' such a worthwhile genre in the first place. At this point, Back Roads and Abandoned Motels is also a timely reminder that be it the slightly tighter The Jayhawks or the slightly looser Golden Smog - Gary Louris is a classic songwriter. Even if this album will go very quietly, too quietly, into the night... And speaking of Golden Smog, I've just listened to "Please Tell My Brother" for the first time in years, and all too predictably - it made me cry. Which means that maybe I am going soft with age.
