This reunion of the principal songwriters and voices of the Jayhawks elicited unbridled enthusiasm in some circles — Mojo scribe Andy Fyfe claimed "Small boys throw caps skywards" — but Ready for the Flood tackles such expectations in characteristically understated fashion. Mark Olson and Gary Louris often sound like two pals getting reacquainted over a few beers and guitars, although the extra water under the bridge — marriages ended and bands dissolved — only adds to the weight of the world the two have carried on their shoulders as far back as 1992's Hollywood Town Hall. Their best work mixes nostalgia with a stoic grace more fashionable decades earlier. Tracks like "Kick the Wood" and "Saturday Morning on Sunday Street" recall Gordon Lightfoot and Kris Kristofferson. Producer and Black Crowe Chris Robinson — back after Louris's masterful yet neglected solo debut Vagabonds — even shades "Turn Your Pretty Name Around" with a Tim Hardin-esque vibraphone. Before its appearance here, "Bicycle" could only have existed if Dylan wrote gospel songs for The Beatles. "Chamberlain, SD" kicks up the pace and a double-time fade reminds us that before Americana and alt-country, there was cowpunk. "Bloody Hands" appropriates the untroubled delivery of ’50s bluegrass duo The Louvin Brothers on the gruesome "Knoxville Girl" while telegraphing the theme of Ready for the Flood — "What the mind forgets, the soul retains." On "The Rose Society," Olson and Louris sing "the house of love is still standing" — followed by the kind of wordless harmonizing that requires a lifetime to refine — with the same mixture of reassurance and amazement that this welcome reunion will prompt from listeners.