![]() While Farrar sang one honoring his hopes for his kids last time out, “Holding Your Own,” this time he offers one to his wife, describing their relationship as “survivors on the long road home,” with “All the hard lessons and no regrets,” in the country-leaning “Diamonds and Cigarettes,” joined on harmony vocals by Laura Cantrell. Back then he sang, “May the wind take your troubles away,” and here in “Reverie,” given the greater challenges we face, “we won’t know where we stand till December,” but still offers that “You can feel the earth and touch the sky/Don’t mind the shade when there’s inner light … (so), Teach the young as keepers of the faith/To love the smell of the written page.” There’s a more accessible musical quality throughout, and even on the quieter ballads, like “Sweet Refrain” and “Diamonds and Cigarettes,” there’s an artful balance between the lyrics and the song’s musicality that feels like a noteworthy improvement.Īs he did on “Windfall,” the opening track of the band’s 1995 debut, Trace, he seeks to offer encouragement to those facing challenging times. I’m not suggesting that Farrar has turned into, I don’t know… George Thorogood, it’s just that there’s a real rock band feel here and there, and it’s worth noticing that Farrar has taken things up a notch melodically. ![]() It’s followed by “The Globe,” which mixes some big crunchy electric guitar chords with an organ that hints at the classic rock moves of The Who, there’s enough of a good band vibe here, that Farrar revisits the grove toward the end of the album with “The Globe_Prelude,” this time sans keyboards.Īnd once you let that rockier spark catch fire in your mind, you start to notice that some of the mid-tempo numbers like the opener “Reverie,” “Someday Is Now,” and the great single “Living In the U.S.A,” have a crisper drum beat, more engaged electric guitars, suggesting a bit more attention focused on giving the tunes a full band work-out. All of this started running through my mind as I settled in with Son Volt’s 10th album, Electro Melodier, and tracks like “Arkey Blue,” which starts off with a gritty guitar riff reminiscent of something by Credence Clearwater before settling into the verse’s slower pace and has the good sense to bring back those hooky guitars toward the end. ![]() As moving as those country-tinged, blues ballads might be, you’d find it a stretch to remember those days when Uncle Tupelo was still a trio and followed a country gospel traditional take on The Louvin Brothers with the punk rock of Iggy Pop’s “I Wanna Be Your Dog” in the sweaty confines of the dark, dusty Cicero’s Basement Bar. Of course, UT produced three indie/rock classics before creating their major label masterwork, Anodyne, and breaking up, Tweedy taking most of the extra players and forming Wilco, Brian Henneman playing lead guitar on that first album before focusing his attention on The Bottle Rockets, and Jay Farrar starting Son Volt.Īs the years have passed, we’ve been more likely to hear Farrar on an acoustic guitar playing politically-focused folk rock like a modern day Woody Guthrie, with his Son Volt bandmates in more supportive roles like we heard on 2019’s Union. If it was a hometown gig at the late, great Mississippi Nights, and Brian Henneman was hanging out, he’d often join them for Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Gimme Three Steps,” or some other monster Southern rock jam, coaxing the serious singer/songwriter Farrar to mix in some rock star moves alongside the bouncing Jeff Tweedy on bass. There was a time back in the day, when Uncle Tupelo, the band often credited with kick-starting the alternative country craze, would close their shows with encore covers of Neil Young rocker “Cortez the Killer” or maybe “Cinnamon Girl,” Jay Farrar playing lead guitar through his worn SG.
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