Gary Louris (Founding Member of The Jayhawks) to Release Solo Debut Album, "Vagabonds," February 19 via Rykodisc

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - December 10, 2007) - On February 19, Rykodisc will debut Gary Louris' first solo effort titled, "Vagabonds." Louris is a founding member of the Minneapolis-based and critically acclaimed band The Jayhawks and a member of Midwest musical collective Golden Smog. Entertainment Weekly proclaims Louris "...aspires to write songs for the ages, not just for this week's pop charts." A national tour will begin in the spring with dates to be announced shortly.

Produced by Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes, "Vagabonds" was recorded at Sage and Sound Studios in Los Angeles and engineered and co-produced by Thom Monahan (J. Mascis, Pernice Brothers, Silver Jews). Louris is accompanied on the album by drummer and Vetiver member Otto Hauser, bassist/multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Wilson, keyboardist Adam MacDougal and pedal steel player Josh Grange. The album also features backup vocals from The Laurel Canyon Family Choir, which includes Susanna Hoffs (The Bangles), Jenny Lewis (Rilo Kiley) and The Chapin Sisters among many others.

"This record's a little different for me," Louris notes. "I've made records in a lot of different ways, and I've learned that what I love the most is the synergy of a group of people playing together and the nuances and mistakes that happen live. That was really exciting for me; you'd finish the take, and what happened at that particular moment is what you hear on the record."

Gary Louris began his recording career in 1989 and led The Jayhawks as the principal songwriter, singer and lead guitarist on three albums: "Sound of Lies" (1997), "Smile" (2000) and "Rainy Day Music" (2003). Louris has been engaged in a number of varied projects that include a collaboration with fellow Jayhawks co-founder Mark Olson, with whom he previously reunited for a low-key -- but rapturously received -- acoustic tour in 2005. Earlier this year, Louris' other project, Golden Smog, which features Jeff Tweedy along with members of The Jayhawks and Soul Asylum, released an album titled "Blood on the Slacks." Louris recently co-produced The Sadies album "New Seasons" and was a co-writer and guitarist on the Dixie Chicks' "Taking the Long Way."

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[bigred]Vagabonds[/bigred]
[lilred]February 19, 2008[/lilred]



Amazon.com
Gary Louris has shown pop-star eager earmarks since 1989, when his endearing "Baltimore Sun" cracked the honky-tonk playlist that was the Jayhawks’ sophomore record, Blue Earth. While Louris dipped his toe in a pop direction after Jayhawks co-founder Mark Olson departed in 1995, he never took the full plunge until now, with his first solo effort. Chiming with guitars and choruses and soaring melodies straight out of 1975, Vagabonds rightfully pens the Minneapolis musician inside a small stable of America’s greatest songwriters--and singers--adding three or four compositions to his career-best list. The 10-song record (produced by Chris Robinson, late of the Black Crowes) polishes the wide-ranging Louris palette with the simplest of instrumentation, including organ and banjo, ethereal pedal steel playing from Josh Grange, and a backing chorale led by Susannah Hoffs and Jenny Lewis. Louris's saccharine falsetto has never sounded better, whether it’s offering Paul Simon-like imagery ("To Die A Happy Man"), channeling John Lennon ("Black Grass") and Nick Drake ("Meandering"), or preaching with the Laurel Canyon choir ("I Wanna Get High"). Jayhawks followers will find comfort in "True Blue"--missing only Olson’s co-vocals--and "D.C. Blues," in which Louris borrows the traditional country line, "Hand me down my walking cane," before declaring, "It’s my game to win / It’s my game to lose." My money is on the former. --Scott Holter

Product Description
Through his two-decade stint as singer, guitarist and principal songwriter of The Jayhawks and as a member of alt-supergroup Golden Smog, Gary Louris has built a deeply compelling body of music whose artistry and integrity has earned him a loyal audience and the respect of critics and his peers. With his solo debut, Vagabonds, Louris steps out to deliver some of his most evocative and personal music yet with the aid of Black Crowes frontman and longtime fan, Chris Robinson, who co-produced the album s organically soulful performances. Louris trademark introspection and uplift is reflected on the standout True Blue, which offers a compelling blend of acoustic and electric textures. The title track acts as the musical and conceptual centerpiece of the record, with bittersweet, vivid imagery and a surging vocal chorus featuring Robinson, Susanna Hoffs and Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley. Natural, resonating collaborations such as these are at the heart of Vagabonds.

1. True Blue
2. Omaha Nights
3. To Die A Happy Man
4. She Only Calls Me On Sundays
5. We'll Get By
6. Black Grass
7. I Wanna Get High
8. Vagabonds
9. D.C. Blues
10. Meandering

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000TLYOI4/?tag=imwan-20

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[bigred]Acoustic Vagabonds[/bigred]
[lilred]October 21, 2008[/lilred]

No cover image or tracklisting yet ...

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001EKNYE4/?tag=imwan-20

Automatic order for me!!!

i hope this is a little more upbeat than mark olsen's album is.

actually, i wish the jayhawks would do another record.

renny

OK...I missed it....did the Jayhawks break up??
I loved their last album.

i don't know if they "offically" broke up, but olsen did a solo album, now louris is doing a solo album. and a big huge deal was made about the 2 of them touring together last year if i recall correectly.

"rainy day music" came out almost 5 years ago, what a great album.

renny

Olsen's was one of the albums of the year for me. I thought it was much better than the albums with The Creekdippers.

total agreement here, those creekdippers albums, to put it in plain words, just were not very good.

but olsen's solo album really moves along so very slowly. he could have been a little more upbeat;

renny

If he was going through the personal problems (marital?) when this was recorded that would explain why it is not that "bouncy and upbeat".

For anyone in the Minneapolis area, Electric Fetus is offering a free 6 song CD titled "Acoustic Vagabonds" with purchase of the new Gary Louris CD. He will also be performing at the store Saturday at 6 PM.

Brian

This is one of the best new albums I have bought in quite some time. I gotta find one of those acoustic EP's.

Brian,

Any chance you can get us a link to the store so we can inquire about buying the acoustic disc?. He is playing in Atlanta next month and I hope he sells the disc at the show but just in case.
BTW the vinyl copy is brillant and sounds 10x better than the cd. And the package is 100x better as well; but of course right.

Thanks for any help here

Rich

From Billboard:

While the Jayhawks may me be no more, the lauded Americana band's formerly estranged principals Gary Louris and Mark Olson have finished a new album together, their first since the 1995 Jayhawks classic "Tomorrow the Green Grass."

Titled "Ready for the Flood," the album was produced by Black Crowes singer Chris Robinson, who also helmed Louris' new solo debut, "Vagabonds," released earlier this week on Ryko.

"Ready for the Flood" was recorded in Los Angeles in January 2007, but Louris and Olson decided to delay its release, to prevent it detracting from their respective new solo releases. Hacktone Records issued Olson's "The Salvation Blues" in June.

"We're hoping it will come out either in the summer or the fall," Louris says of "Ready for the Flood." "It's taken a backseat to his solo record and my solo record. I'm not really sure if we're putting it out ourselves or if we're going to get a label involved. It's great. I love it -- we did it in eight days."

Explaining why Robinson was the right producer for the project, Louris tells Billboard.com, "We needed someone who was a bit of a fan, who could guide us through this kind of an emotional record, and Chris just came to mind. We trusted him, and we knew he would handle the music with care. We knew that he would bring to the project what we needed: confidence, decisiveness and vibey-ness."

The process went so well that Louris asked Robinson to produce "Vagabonds," which features backup vocals from Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis and Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles.

For the band's first decade, the Jayhawks were defined by the harmonizing and the co-writing of Olson and Louris. But Olson departed following the band's tour behind "Tomorrow the Green Grass," widely considered the band's best album.

The two didn't work together again until October 2001, when they convened at Olson's then-home in Joshua Tree, Calif., to write a group of songs for the 2002 film "The Rookie." While they were never used in the film (one appeared on Olson's 2002 album "December's Child"), that session eventually led to a series of live shows over the past few years, and eventually "Ready for the Flood."

"I think it was one of the better experiences in my life," Louris says of those shows with Olson. "Just the fact that you had this close working relationship with somebody that went sour, and you kind of didn't talk for a number of years, and you had pretty much given it up. To then get a second chance here as friends and collaborators is pretty great. By touring, we got to know each other again, and to this day, now, we're just good of friends as we ever were."

Louris begins his inaugural U.S. solo tour March 16 in Seattle.

http://www.electricfetus.com

Brian

The [lilred]Acoustic Vagabonds[/lilred] CD is going into general release on October 21st:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001EKNYE4/?tag=imwan-20

Currently Amazon is showing the same artwork as the regular Vagabonds album, and doesn't show a tracklisting yet, so I don't know if this will have the exact same contents as that promo.