AMG Review of Tomorrow the Green Grass [Legacy Edition]

Mark Deming
All Music Guide

1992's Hollywood Town Hall wasn't a hit, but it received enough rave reviews to considerably raise the Jayhawks' profile, and it certainly heightened expectations for their next album. On 1995's Tomorrow the Green Grass, the Jayhawks found themselves in the tricky situation of trying to match the quality of Hollywood Town Hall without simply repeating themselves, and they came remarkably close to achieving that daunting task. Rather than simply mimic the warm and unaffected sound of Hollywood Town Hall, the Jayhawks reached for a broader and more eclectic approach on Tomorrow the Green Grass; with the presence of new keyboard player Karen Grotberg and the addition of strings on several tracks, the album certainly sounded fuller and more artful, but Marc Olson and Gary Louris' harmonies were still the band's secret weapon, and were as pure and emotionally compelling as ever, while Louris' electric guitar solos gave the songs real rock & roll muscle without disturbing the essentially gentle nature of their music. And the best songs on Tomorrow the Green Grass are every bit as good as anything on Hollywood Town Hall, especially the opening hat trick of "Blue," "I'll Run Away," and "Miss Williams' Guitar" (the latter a joyous love letter to Olson's new bride, Victoria Williams). But while nearly every song on Hollywood Town Hall seemed like a classic in context, the greater stylistic variety of Tomorrow the Green Grass had the consequence of making a few of the songs in the second half of the album seem less than essential, most notably "Ann Jane" and "Pray for Me," though they hardly counted as disappointments, and the album rallies to a rousing finale with "Ten Little Kids." If Hollywood Town Hall is inarguably the Jayhawks' best album, Tomorrow the Green Grass runs a very close second, and though it was to be the group's last album with Marc Olson, the eclectic approach pointed the way to the sound and style of the fine records the Louris-led version of the band would go on to make. [In 2011, American Recordings released a "Legacy Edition" version of Tomorrow the Green Grass that expanded the album to a two-disc set. The new version has been remastered and includes two rare B-sides, three unreleased session outtakes, and intelligent, informative essays from rock writer Bud Scoppa and Jayhawks historian P.D. Larson. But for fans, the real draw of the package will be the 18 "Mystery Demos" on disc two. Recorded in 1992, they're spare acoustic versions of songs that, for the most part, fell through the cracks and were never recorded by the band; the material is strong, evocative, and occasionally brilliant, and Olson and Louris' harmonies rarely sounded more moving than they do here; this is a real lost treasure for anyone who loved the way these two sang together.]