Rainy Day Music by The Jayhawks

Rainy Day Music, the Jayhawks' seventh album, came out on April 8, 2003 on American Recordings with Rick Rubin producing, and it's the Twin Cities band leaning back into warm, easygoing country rock. Gary Louris was steering by then, alongside longtime hands Marc Perlman on bass and Tim O'Reagan, with newcomer Stephen McCarthy taking over guitar from Kraig Johnson.

The sound is mostly acoustic: strummed guitars, jangling melodies and harmonies stacked high enough to recall Poco and the Burrito Brothers after Gram Parsons, and Uncut reckoned Louris had written some of his most memorable songs here. Bernie Leadon, Jakob Dylan and Matthew Sweet drop by, and "Save It for a Rainy Day" and "Tailspin" roll along like the best kind of lazy afternoon. First pressings came with a bonus disc of six songs, among them Louris alone on stage in Minneapolis in 2002, playing "Waiting for the Sun". It opened at 51 on the Billboard 200.

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