One headline about the Jayhawks at their prime read "What if you made a classic, and no one cared?" The Midwest country rockers have made a few in their 23 years, to less notice than they deserved; those discs are cherry-picked for this note-perfect set. It covers the twangy early years with frontmen Gary Louris and Mark Olson, and the poppier later ones with just Louris. The Jayhawks' exquisite...

The Jayhawks are marvels for a number of reasons, not the least of which is their ability to combine spare country rock with matter-of-fact urgency. But perhaps the band's greatest triumph – even above the fact that it manages to flourish in a Minneapolis music scene that has more to do with dissonance than innocence – is that it proves once and for all that simplicity and grace don't...

With each passing year, the rolling stones' "exile on Main Street" looms ever larger over rock & roll. In the mid-'80s, noise punks Pussy Galore recorded their deconstructed version of the album; in the early '90s, postmodern singer/songwriter Liz Phair claimed her debut album, Exile in Guyville, was a song-by-song response to the 1972 Stones LP. And at the end of last year, country rockers Wilco...

The sound effects and distortion that overtake "Ten Little Kids," the final track on Tomorrow the Green Grass, represent more than sonic dissonance. They express the conflict that arises when you're a band with pretty country-rock songs on a label that has made its name with the likes of Slayer and Danzig. While the avant-garde pose may have felt liberating for these Minnesotans, let's just say...