#SON VOLT MEMPHIS FREE#

This time around, I was going for a kind of simplicity, even in the structure of the songs. “The Search was more about expanding the scope in terms of song structures and instrumentation. “The approach was to get back to more fundamental themes, both lyrically and musically, to make a more focused record,” Farrar explains. In the classic sense, the new album exhilaratingly carries on the tradition of the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Little Feat circa Sailin’ Shoes, the Rolling Stones of Exile on Main Street and early R.E.M. “The band dynamic is such that everyone is bringing a diverse amount of experience into play and pushing everyone else-usually into the unknown, but that’s a good place to make music.”Īmerican Central Dust, Son Volt’s third album in four years (Rounder, July 7), following ’05’s Okemah and the Melody of Riot and ’07’s The Search, marks the apotheosis of both the Son Volt dynamic and the rigorous aesthetic that distinguishes Farrar’s entire body of work, in which classic and contemporary elements are fashioned into arresting new shapes. “Making solo recordings can be fulfilling, but you quickly become aware of self- capabilities and limitations,” says Farrar.

#SON VOLT MEMPHIS FREE#

Missing the free exchange of ideas and the surprises that inevitably occur when a group of simpatico musicians lock together, Farrar assembled a new lineup of Son Volt in 2004. But when Farrar rails against the 1 percenters on “The 99,” with “The 99 percent have been taken for a ride,” he sounds like he’s reading a grocery shopping list rather than getting really pissed off at income inequality.After spearheading the alt country movement with Uncle Tupelo, Jay Farrar pursued his vision with Son Volt, who recorded three landmark albums in the ’90s before the groundbreaking artist put the band on extended hiatus and cut three solo LPs.

There are some impressive melodies, and playing from the current Son Volt musicians is never less than professional. His deadpan, poker-face vocals, which make Leonard Cohen sound like Robert Plant, don’t help either.

There’s little anger, fury or any other emotion in his detached style, which dulls any ire he’s looking to convey.Īdditionally, the production (by Farrar) lacks crispness or vibrancy, with a reliance on his acoustic strumming conveying sluggishness. Farrar’s typically laconic delivery stays on low-boil, muffling any impact of the frequently cutting lyrics. But the songs that Farrar frames around them are dreary, similar sounding (to each other and much of the rest of Son Volt’s catalog) and generally just bland. Words such as “They’re pissing away what others died to create” (from “While Rome Burns”) and “Lady Liberty’s eyes/ Sees profiteering and pettiness (“From Lady Liberty”) are indicative of Farrar’s frustration with the current political atmosphere. There are some insightful concepts at work in these 13 tracks.

Son volt memphis