It must've really seemed like old times this past week for the Jayhawks, who went through several different drummers early in their career and had to recruit a fill-in drummer on the fly during their just-finished European tour.

Best wishes go out to permanent guy Tim O'Reagan, who had to abruptly leave the tour when his mom was hospitalized in Kansas City. With only a day's notice, the rest of the band recruited Alexander Lindback from the Norwegian group Seven Doors Hotel to fill in (Jayhawks co-leader Mark Olson, who has spent a lot of time in Norway in recent years). Hopefully, O'Reagan can make it to the shows in Mankato and St. Cloud next month.

Something the band is doing that's hardly like old times: Look for a free song download every week on its site leading up to the Sept. 20 release of the new album, "Mockingbird Time." The prior weeks' tracks are archived on the band's Facebook page.