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I really hate to do this to Jay Farrar, but I've gotta compare him with Jeff Tweedy. I would have done the same thing to Jeff Tweedy had Farrar been prolific and Tweedy so reclusive because, at least for fans of Uncle Tupelo, they will forever be entwined together. But ever since the good Uncle was chopped in half, Tweedy has reached mythic proportions with a stunning canon of work, and Farrar has just laid back. For about 10 years.
Even as Tweedy has become the infallible bard for a huge segment of fans, there are some high-minded folks who point to Farrar as the better half. Accordingly, his new LP under the Son Volt moniker, Okemah and the Melody of Riot, is hailed as a resurrection.
The original Volts that included Mike Heidorn and Jim and Dave Boquist do not join Farrar here, instantly lumping Son Volt in with countless "projects," as opposed to "bands." Instead, he’s backed by Dave Bryson (drums), Andrew Duplantis (bass, backing vocal), and Brad Rice (guitar). So make no mistake: Son Volt is Jay Farrar, just as Wilco is Jeff Tweedy. But that's really just semantics. And in the end, comparisons only go so far. There’s good reason Uncle Tupelo no longer exists, and Farrar’s got himself a goodie.
Okemah is the finest statement of Farrar's post-Tupelo career. And though there are only two other Volt records, if this is Farrar’s resurrection, then hot damn has he delivered.
It's important not to go into your first Okemah listen hoping for Trace II or even The Son of Wide String Tremolo. There are distinct tinges of those colors and sounds, but Okemah is different - good different, in that it seriously rocks. It's like he took that time off to remember how important "balls-out" rock is and what it can do for you. Given the amount of time in between albums, one would think Okemah is a polished shot at a future masterpiece, but this is more like a blurt, a regurgitation. Whatever he did during his time away helped compress all that Americana, squeeze it into a fuzzbox, distort some riffs, and amp it up to 11.
On "World Waits for You," we get the pedal steel. But the "new" Son Volt also explodes like a perfect mix of Crazy Horse and U2 in the same damn song. You get the wild psychedelic guitar thumped along by a sticky bass and all sorts of stringed instruments, but you miss out on the great vocalist, which is no detractor. Farrar doesn't attempt to hide his voice in harmonies or behind squonks and wiggles. It's earthy and real - a fragile, ragged thing that follows his own guitar lines.
Since Woody Guthrie seemed to play a major influence on Uncle Tupelo and all its fractured manifestations, it's important to note that Okemah is Guthrie's home town. Okemah also takes a number of stabs at politics and the human condition in relation to politics. "Jet Pilot" skewers Dubya while Farrar does his best Jimmy Page with all sorts of reverb and heavy distortion. "6 String Belief" pounds it out riff by gigantic riff until it all twitters with a huge, psychedelic solo.
The roots under Okemah and the Melody of Riot open up a major departure for a guy who spent a lot of time with sound experimentation. This is more blues than it is country, and hopefully, Farrar’s not done. Maybe this is just how he envisioned Son Volt to be - here and there, under the radar, whenever he wants. But he’d be wise not to forget the other fractured half of Tupelo fans, who waited with baited breath for nearly a decade. Hopefully Jay Farrar has a lot more to say and as many ways to say it.
Scott Caffrey
JamBase | New Jersey
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