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By Dennis Cook
Jay Farrar by Jim Newberry |
"You're sort of shaped by your environment in a way," states Son Volt main man Jay Farrar. "I don't know if it affects every songwriter in the same way, but there must be something to it. If you're living in a busy city environment, you're going to write differently than if you're sitting in a Thoreau cabin by a lake somewhere." In Farrar, one hears the whoosh of rubber on the road, Midwestern high skies, and a spirited consonance with tunesmiths like John Martyn, Doug Sahm, and Rolling Thunder period Bob Dylan. If there's any one place Farrar hails from, it may be the lowlands of the soul, but he always finds a refrain to sing until he discovers an upward swing around the bend.
May the wind take your troubles away
Both feet on the floor, two hands on the wheel
May the wind take your troubles away
Beginning in the late '80s with alt-country pioneers Uncle Tupelo, Farrar, along with Jeff Tweedy (Wilco) and drummer Mike Heidorn, mined country and barroom rock to find gold in places others thought was stripped bare. There's an earthy solidity to everything Farrar has crafted from his Tupelo days on through his spare, experimental solo work in recent years, which recalls Richard Thompson and Nick Drake. After Uncle Tupelo disbanded in the mid-90s, he formed a new rock outfit called Son Volt. Their name crackles with lonely electricity, which their rootsy, reflective music bears out. Inactive since 1999, Farrar has recently revived the band, recording a bang-up record, Okemah and the Melody of Riot, and touring hard into the Fall.
Son Volt by Bob Reuter |
He talks about the geography of the title, "Okemah (pause)... home of the strangest grilled cheese sandwich I've ever had, which is one half of an English muffin with a piece of cheese out of a plastic wrapper melted on top. Other than that, it's the birthplace of Woody Guthrie and a place I once took a sort of pilgrimage to with a couple members of the Bottle Rockets. We went there and saw his boyhood home, and then we went to Muscogee after that, hitting all the Oklahoman hot spots."
There are references to Woody Guthrie and Highway 61 in just the first couple songs. It seems like Farrar is growing more comfortable tying himself - albeit unconsciously he claims - into a larger, longer tradition.
Jay Farrar by Meri Simon |
"Woody has always been a reference point for me, as well a source of inspiration along the way. I was brought up around his music at a pretty early age," states Farrar. "The reference in the song relates more to the way my own children have become fans, I guess (laughs). If there was no Highway 61, we may not have had Bob Dylan or Leadbelly."
"There's an immediacy and a starkness that's there. I think a lot of Leadbelly's arrangements and his use of the 12-string guitar were atypical, especially the 12-string, which showed his individuality. I guess he approached it that way because the 12-string was louder. Leadbelly and the punk rock aesthetic - maybe there are some similarities there."
Earlier Son Volt releases possessed a more composed, controlled atmosphere, which showed off Farrar's songwriting chops well, but the new one has a more pervasive sense of urgency, not just lyrically but also musically. There's an immediacy that's palpable. "We were kind of a new configuration, so there's an edge there, a spontaneity that's basically good," comments Farrar. "Maybe we were aware that this was something special that never happened before?"
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