Gary Louris is on a mission to prove that a person in their 70s can still produce some of their best work. That’s indeed rare. But so is keeping a band together for 40 years, being credited as pioneer of Americana music, touring with Johnny Cash … the list goes on for Louris and his iconic Minnesota band, The Jayhawks.

The Local Show’s September Artist of the Month performed three songs in-studio from their 12th album Sanctuary Park. Producer Bob Ezrin (Pink Floyd, Alice Cooper, Peter Gabriel) volunteered to record the LP after Louris called to catch up with the Canadian legend after he renounced his American citizenship, citing his disgruntlement with the country’s extreme political division. Sanctuary Park, named after the location in Dundas, Ontario, comes with Louris’ perspective of being an American now living in Canada. In this interview, we talked with the artist about his unique viewpoint, as well as the love that inspired much of the writing and storytelling in The Jayhawks’ new music.

The Jayhawks will celebrate their 40th anniversary and new album at the State Theatre in Minneapolis on November 21.

Watch and listen to the session above, and find a transcript of the interview with Gary Louris below.

Interview Transcript

Diane Miller: This is Diane, host of The Local Show, sitting across from an American treasure: Gary Louris, the lead vocalist of The Jayhawks. You guys are celebrating your 12th studio album, Sanctuary Park, and also celebrating 40 years of being a band. Welcome back to the studio. Good to have you.

Gary Louris: Nice to be back.

So, the title of the new record comes from a real park in Ontario, and you've also described this place as a fictional place. What does Sanctuary Park represent to you?

Well, it started as — like a lot of the songs — an ode to my wife, Stephanie. She grew up in a place called Dundas, which is outside of Toronto, in the Hamilton area, and it was a place where they all hung out. And I will tell you, she had a much more exciting adolescence than I did. I was the altar boy: Catholic school, Jesuit all-male school. She had a lot more fun. It was where they would hang out, bush parties, you know — drinking, smoking, having a good time and adventures — and it grew from there. When I started writing a song about her, it was about, like I said, her growing up, but it also represented a place for memories, for regrets and for dreams, and all that kind of stuff. It just became a metaphor for somewhat of a safe place. Yeah, so it's really both a real place and a metaphor for something more.

Yeah, I love that this focal point is your relationship with your wife, and how this is an ode to your wife, who you've said is a huge part of everything you do. She was also a focal point of your 2025 solo record, Dark Country. I'd love to hear you talk a bit more about your connection with Steph.

Oh, well, we met at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto in 2019, and it was kind of love at first sight. It really happens. It's like a lightning strike, and it's corny and whatever. But we're unabashedly in love, and we say we make John and Yoko look like they didn't even like each other. We're just always together. She isn't here, unfortunately, because of some family stuff, but we do everything together. And she's really inspired me in this part of my life to write new material. She's Canadian, and I'm an American citizen. But we got married in 2020, and I moved to Canada. My life completely changed. I mean, Minnesota has always been almost like — what would it be? — the 11th province. There's a real connection between the state of Minnesota and the country of Canada. So it wasn't a shock, right? But it definitely has a different overall mindset, where it's a little less about being all about Canada. I mean, I'll always be an American citizen. I'm proud to be from the States, but it's a great place to live.

You mentioned having a unique vision, having grown up in the U.S. and now being a permanent resident of Canada, and seeing the States through Canadian eyes. Tell me what that perspective has been like over the last — how many years?

Well, I think what I get from Canada is that, when they grow up in school, they learn about every capital, every state in the U.S. They know a lot about the States, and typically, most people in the United States don't know anything about Canada. America — and again, huge generalization — tends to be all about the States. Not everyone. And for me, touring for 30-plus years, I pretty much have a perspective that, you know, there are other countries out there that are great, and the U.S. is not the only way all the time. But the States have more of everything, whether it's snacks or cars.

My experience with Canadians dealing with what's going on between the two countries right now is that they tend to be very forgiving and not really particularly angry. If I say I'm from the States, they aren't angry, but they're confused. They don't understand why their friend has now become their enemy, and they don't know why. Well, they kind of do. But I think it's the United States without guns, which is great, you know. The news in Canada, typically — other than what's going on now — is refreshingly tame. And I'm not taking sides, necessarily. I certainly have a side, but I respect people's viewpoints. But the fact that there are such severe divisions between the two sides, and they don't seem to listen to each other, is what's maddening. So that's what makes me sad: the country is so divided. Whatever side you're on is fed by your particular news feed that you listen to, and nobody seems to really meet in the middle. And that's something I see from living up in Canada, and it makes me sad.

Yeah, I literally saw a tweet today with President Trump, in all caps toward Canada, being like, “Now more tariffs because of X, Y and Z,” and then Canada, on the flip side, being like, “We don't want to be part of your country.” So, what you're speaking about feels so real.

Yeah, I think [Canadian Prime Minister] Mark Carney is a really brilliant guy, and he's really smart, and he has to walk a careful line. I don't envy his job. But, you know, the country is filled with all kinds of people, and so many Canadians live in the States, or they have relatives in the States. My family still lives here. I'm here every month. It's home still. It still feels like home. And who knows? Someday we may live here again. But it's a confusing time. And I'll tell you one thing: they're never going to become the 51st state. That's for sure.

I want to bring it to your producer on the record, Bob Ezrin. He also produced your 2000 record, Smile. Twenty-six years later, you're working with him again. This is also somebody who has elevated the careers of Alice Cooper, Lou Reed —

Pink Floyd, yeah. Peter Gabriel — tons of people.

Insane. Tell me about what it's been like working with him on this new record, and what perspective he's brought to The Jayhawks.

Well, when was it — last year, early last year, or whatever — when I was trying to figure out where we were going to make the record and who was going to make the record, Bob was in the news because he had renounced his American citizenship. He loves the States, don't get me wrong, but this was a bit of a statement. And I just called him to see how he was doing, and we got to talking. Well, my wife said, “Why don't you call Bob and check in with him?” And then I started talking about making the record. He said, “I want to do it. I'll work for food.” He said, “I just have a soft spot for The Jayhawks.” We both agreed that it wouldn't be Smile 2.0 because, in 1999, when we made Smile, the world was much different — especially the music world, where there were big budgets and big record labels, and people bought records. So, you could afford to spend two or three months making a record, for better or worse, and it's not that way anymore. People get their music for free, mostly, and you don't tour to support your record. You make a record to support your tour, as Bowie said. But we both agreed this record would be different, and it kind of played into some of our strengths because what we are — The Jayhawks — I think our strengths are songwriting, the way we play together in a room, and the way we sing together.

Both Bob and I noticed, working in the music business, that there seems to be, even for young people, a bit of a hunger for real music made by real people. If you listen to most music — not all, but a lot of music you hear in the mall or whatever — it doesn't sound like real people. It doesn't sound like they're in a room. It sounds like the air has been sucked out of the room, and there's not a single mistake, and everything's perfect. But it doesn't sound human. So, this record's very human — at times, maybe too human. It's not perfect, but we decided we wanted to make a real recording of people in a room together. And Bob is a passionate, passionate man. We've stayed friends all these years. I love when I call Bob. He's like, “Yeah, I love you. It's so great.” He's always excited. And I also have to put in right now — because he told me to say this in every interview — I'm nothing without Bob Ezrin. So now, Bob, I've said that. So, he's tough. He's honest. There's no halfway with Bob.

We only had 10 days to make the record, not two or three months like we did with Smile, and we did it in Toronto. I really wanted it to be a Canadian story. It just felt like a real story. Let's do it in Toronto. That's where Bob is living, so it made sense. So, we did it in 10 days, and we compiled as much as we could in 10 days. Then Bob went to work and, you know, was the mad scientist, and put together the best parts of what we did, and massaged it, and did all his magic. I did some overdubs at home, and then here we have it.

Let's highlight some of the focus tracks. You played “Keeping Our Heads Above Water,” “American Midnight,” ‘Mr. Lincoln.” Big fan of all of those tracks and the entire record. Tell me about some of these songs. They're reflective. There's optimism, and there's, you know, overcoming strife — some of these themes that are coming up in the songs. And also, it's awesome to hear Tim take the lead on “Mr. Lincoln,” as well. He sounds fantastic on that new song.

Oh, yeah. I'm always trying to find some new tune for Tim or Karen to sing. And “Mr. Lincoln” is a song I wrote with Emerson Hart back in — I don't know when it was — 2013. When I went down to Nashville, I used to go down there to co-write, and our publisher, Warner Chappell, at the time, put us together in a room to write for other people. We just found we liked writing together, and we wrote enough songs to make a record, with the plan that maybe we would make a record. We started it, but life got in the way a bit.

So, years later, that song always stuck in my head because Emerson is kind of a history buff. His family is steeped in American history, especially in the Civil War and such. And we were working outside of Nashville, in his house, writing songs. His house is from the Civil War era. It's a farm — a giant farmhouse — and it just inspired something. I had this melody, and we started talking about writing a song about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln from the perspective of a musician in the orchestra pit at Ford's Theatre the night he was shot. This musician is actually not a Unionist; he's on the Confederate side, but he has sympathy for Lincoln. So, it was just kind of an interesting perspective. And I loved how Emerson sang it, but Tim did a great job.

To bring it back to 40 years now as a band, that's obviously a huge feat. You've done what every musician dreams of doing, as far as spanning your career and playing massive stages, playing Letterman —

Touring with Johnny Cash. There's something I can go to my grave feeling pretty proud about: working with Ray Davies.

Being credited as a pioneer of Americana music, too. Tell me about some of your reflections now, as you reach this fourth decade.

Well, we still haven't reached exactly where we want to go. I mean, it took me a while to appreciate what we had. I think I was looking, like, “Why don't we have that? Why aren't we as big as that?” But then I looked at what we did have, which is a loyal audience that we grew over time. And wherever we go, people come, and people still want us to make records. And so, we're very lucky to do what we love for a living for this long. Yeah, we've had a good career, and it's not over. I mean, I think, until the songs dry up or the audience dries up, we'll keep going.

Having seen you perform in multiple forms, solo, with The Jayhawks, with Golden Smog, too —

You know, ever since Hollywood Town Hall, we've always gone over to Europe, and we have a good audience over there. We've done that as much as we do it here, and we're going to Australia next year as a band. That's the first time we've gone to Australia, so we're still trying to expand a bit and keep going.

How do you keep your perspective fresh as you continue to write really amazing music and stay true to your roots, but also still push yourselves too?

Well, I think, for one thing, my wife, Stephanie, has inspired me to write love songs. And I think it's always about the songs. You know, it really is. As long as I feel like — what else am I going to do? You know, as long as the songs are still there and they keep coming … I don't want to be a Jayhawks tribute band. I love our old material. It has stood the test of time. But I like having new material, as long as it's good, and I think I'm on a mission to show that somebody over 70 can still do some of their best work. It's pretty rare in the music business, especially in rock music, for bands to do their best work later in life. It's usually a younger person's game. But I think the type of music we make has never been, like, party-band or dance-band music, so I think we've worked into the aging of the band. Our music has fit that, and we're seeing new people come to the shows — a younger audience. It's definitely a mixture of people: male, female, younger and older. And that's important to me.

Video Segments

00:00:00 Keeping Our Heads Above Water
00:04:08 Mr. Lincoln
00:07:20 American Midnight
00:11:59 Gary Louris interview with The Local Show host Diane

All songs from The Jayhawks’ 2026 album, Sanctuary Park, distributed by Thirty Tigers.

Musicians

Gary Louris – vocals, guitar
Karen Grotberg – piano, vocals
Marc Perlman – bass
Tim O’Reagan – drums, vocals (including lead vocals on “Mr. Lincoln”)

Credits

Guests – The Jayhawks
Host – Diane
Producer – Derrick Stevens
Audio – Cameron Wiley
Video – Evan Clark
Camera Operators – Evan Clark, Isaí Trujillo
Graphics – Natalia Toledo
Digital Producer – Reed Fischer, Luke Taylor

External Link

The Jayhawks – official site