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son volt _____
as co-founder of the late Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt leader Jay Farrar can be lauded (or blamed, depending on your perspective) for the burgeoning popularity of the "alternative country" movement. Taking their musical and thematic cues from seminal country-rock recordings of the 1960s by Gram Parsons and the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, the Rolling Stones and others, bands like Wilco (the other founding half of Uncle Tupelo), the Scud Mountain Boys and Palace release records that that are warmly received by an urban cult following and a clutch of critics, yet rarely get much airplay or sell more than 50,000 copies nationally. Briefly breaking that tradition, Son Volt's 1995 album "Trace" was a welcome development, one that achieved some commercial success without abandoning Farrar's artistic commitment to country-rock. It was an album full of compelling compositions and lyrical meditations on loneliness, mortality and the search for meaning in modern life. With the presence of Farrar's strangely ageless, sepia-toned voice and the band's potent vocal harmonies on top of innovative instrumentation (imagine a more concise Neil Young, with fiddle, banjo and slide guitar thrown in), this was a collection that both rocked and delivered emotionally. At first listen, Son Volt's new album, "Straightaways," seems to offer more of the same. The songs' textures are so identical to "Trace's" that they could be outtakes from that album's recording sessions; even the riffs are familiar, as are the lyrical concerns. And there's a reason for this -- Farrar & Co. wrote and recorded this album between tours promoting the last album, and "Straightaways" suffers for it. Composing while on tour is a tricky gambit in the '90s -- like R.E.M. on last year's underwhelming "New Adventures in Hi-Fi," artists on tour seem to experiment less, content to employ the instruments, tempos, tones and even chord progressions they play night after night as they run through the latest album's tracks. This would all be beside the point if the tunes and lyrics themselves were consistently strong, but they're not. With the exception of the straight-up rock of the opening "Caryatid Easy," the plaintive country-folk of "Last Minute Shakedown" and the beautiful "Back Into Your World," little on "Straightaways" sticks, even after repeated listens. What's missing here are the hooks and unforgettable, evocative lyrical turns of phrase to match the best moments from "Trace," such as this from "Windfall": "Catchin' an all-night station/Somewhere in Louisiana/It sounds like 1963/But for now, it sounds like heaven" For an artist as musically conservative as Farrar, the road and its rigors may be the artistic kiss of death -- great records come from living life, not from driving by it. Perhaps it would do Son Volt some good to take some time off, head back to the Midwest and take a
much-deserved sabbatical, let Farrar eat
some barbecue, fall in love, maybe even find heaven again. Something -- anything -- to get those songwriting juices flowing.
-- Jay W. Babcock Jay Babcock is a writer living in Los Angeles. |
