Though Gary Louris recorded Vagabonds in Los Angeles with L.A.–based musicians, his solo debut is a milestone for Minnesota music. As the Jayhawks’ founding guitarist and later the group’s principal singer-songwriter (after the band’s other cofounder, Mark Olson, left in 1995), Louris helped shape two decades of music from one of Minneapolis’s most notable rock bands.
Louris also left his mark on the local and national music-scape as a member of rock supergroup the Golden Smog, which featured members from Soul Asylum, the Jayhawks, Wilco, and other renowned groups.
Recording Vagabonds was “liberating,” he says, because he wasn’t out to prove anything; this was simply the record that came out of him right now, organically. With Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson sharing production credits, it’s no surprise that Vagabonds is a polished and accessible rock disk.
Both the Jayhawks’ early folk-rock roots and later pop-influenced sounds are apparent on this CD. Louris’s oft-husky vocals and alt-country rhythms and instrumentation are strongly reminiscent of southern blues-rock group Widespread Panic. “Black Grass” recalls psychedelic pop, à la the Beatles.
But the main development in Louris’s solo work is the Dylan-esque introduction of abundant acoustic guitar strumming. This lends the record a progressive blues-tinged sound that the Jayhawks never accomplished.
After years mostly out of the limelight, Louris will be touring in 2008 to support the CD release. He also has another album in the works with Olson (with whom he toured briefly in 2005).
Vagabonds hits stores February 19.
