Tomorrow the Green Grass is the fourth studio album by American rock band The Jayhawks, released on February 14, 1995. It peaked at number 92 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Background

Tomorrow the Green Grass was the band's first album to feature keyboardist Karen Grotberg as a group member. "Miss Williams' Guitar" was written as a tribute to Victoria Williams, Olson's wife. He would later leave The Jayhawks and form The Original Harmony Ridge Creekdippers with Williams. The song "Bad Time" is a cover of a Grand Funk Railroad song from All the Girls in the World Beware!!! The album's title track was used in the closing credits of the 1995 film National Lampoon's Senior Trip, but was not included on the original edition of the album itself.

Reception

Tom Sinclair of Entertainment Weekly praised the album as being "everything a country-rock album should be" and stated that "even those who normally can't stand the genre are likely to be seduced by the plaintive vocal harmonies, pristine melodies, and scrappy-but-lyrical guitar solos". Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune wrote that the album's "wider-ranging arrangements and instrumentation (strings, violin, keyboards) make the band seem less one-dimensional and studied than before." The NME stated that Mark Olson and Gary Louris' vocal harmonies "attain that upliftingly sad tinge of gospel that was once the heavenly terrain of Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris", while Q wrote that Olson and Louris "lead their slightly expanded six-piece band through a string of beautifully bracing folk-tinged pop songs stunning in their simplicity". Robert Christgau of The Village Voice gave the album a one-star honorable mention rating, indicating it "a worthy effort consumers attuned to its overriding aesthetic or individual vision may well like", and called the album "always sincere, never wimpy". In a retrospective review for AllMusic, critic Jason Ankeny wrote that "if Hollywood Town Hall is inarguably the Jayhawks' best album, Tomorrow the Green Grass runs a very close second", noting that the album's "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" following Mark Olson's departure. Stephen M. Deusner of Pitchfork stated that the album showcases "a looser, more experimental tack" but runs "one or two tracks too long, a generous gesture that nevertheless lessens its impact, making it an uneven follow-up to Hollywood Town Hall".

Track listing

All songs written by Mark Olson and Gary Louris except as noted.

Bonus disc available on some European 1995 versions

Released in fall 1995. Tracks 1 & 2 recorded for 2 Meter Session (VARA/NPS Holland) Tracks 3 & 4 taken from the "Bad Time" single Tracks 5 & 6 taken from the "Blue" single Tracks 7 & 8 taken from the "Waiting For The Sun" single Track 9 taken from the European release of the Hollywood Town Hall CD

2011 Legacy Edition track listing

All songs written by Mark Olson and Gary Louris except as noted. Disc 1: Disc 2 "The Mystery Demos" (all tracks previously unreleased): 1–10 are from demos, February 6, 1992 11–18 are from acoustic demos with George Drakoulias, 10-92

Personnel