The Minneapolis-based Jayhawks were forerunners of the folk/country/rock blend that was first known as alt-country before Americana became its generally accepted label. Despite critical acclaim they have never sold many records; their 2011 LP “Mockingbird Time,” which marked the return of founding singer/songwriter Mark Olsen, was the only time they cracked Billboard’s top 50 albums, and that was 15 years after the band’s heydey.
Such neglect wasn’t unique to the Jayhawks. The genre has always been more popular with critics than the public. “Blue” was the lead track on the band’s breakthrough album, 1995’s “Tomorrow the Green Grass.” It got a lot of airplay but while it made the charts in Canada, Australia and the UK, it didn’t chart in the US, where even mainstream rock was having trouble charting at the time.
There are dozens of videos of Olsen and co-writer Gary Louris performing the song, which at this point they’ve probably sung together several thousand times. I picked this one as much for the glimpse of that young whippersnapper Jon Stewart pre-“Daily Show.”
The Thorns, the supergroup trio of Matthew Sweet, Shawn Mullins and Pete Droge, covered “Blue” for their one-off 2003 album, fleshing out the tune’s arrangement with three voices and some crack studio backing from Jim Keltner on drums and Roy Bittan on keyboards.
