Mockingbird Time by The Jayhawks

Mockingbird Time, the Jayhawks' eighth studio album, arrived on Rounder in September 2011, and the story was who had come home. Mark Olson, the original frontman who walked out in 1995 after Tomorrow the Green Grass, was back beside Gary Louris, and keyboard player Karen Grotberg returned too, putting the band's mid-'90s lineup back on the same stage. It was the Twin Cities outfit's first new studio record since Rainy Day Music in 2003, and it gave them their best Billboard 200 showing ever, entering at No. 38.

The draw is the voices. Louris and Olson braid their harmonies as if the years apart were a long weekend, over Olson's acoustic guitar and harmonica and Grotberg's warm keys, and "She Walks in So Many Ways" shows how easily the old chemistry clicks back into place. The reunion didn't last: Olson left again once the tour wrapped.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.