Seven seconds into the Jayhawks' ninth album – and first since 1995 to feature both founders, Gary Louris and Mark Olson – bear-hug harmonies envelop ringing guitars and strings: a striking echo of Tomorrow the Green Grass' shoulda-beena- hit, "Blue." Mockingbird Time is a cheeky title for a band of inspired borrowers: from the Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo, from CSNY, and from themselves. But the Jayhawks made their mix a signature long ago; though they stretch out with surprising hooks, the tunes are branded like calves – soaring singalongs full of bad weather, emotional and meteorological. They're Minnesotan to the bone.
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