Son Volt Shares ‘The 99’ Video

Americana act Son Volt unveiled the video for their political anthem “The 99.” The song is one of 13 written by frontman Jay Farrar found on the group’s recently released Union studio album.

Son Volt recorded the follow-up to 2017’s Notes Of Blue at the Mother Jones Museum in Mount Olive, Illinois and at the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Farrar is backed on the LP by multi-instrumentalist Mark Spencer, drummer Mark Patterson, bassist Andrew DuPlantis and guitarist Chris Frame. “The 99” video features the band performing in front of old footage of protestors and the downtrodden during the Depression.

“I was raised on folk music, and political content is a common thread in folk music, whether it’s Woody Guthrie or Bob Dylan,” Farrar told The Boot, who premiered the video. “I felt like I had to write these songs, I felt like it was my job in a way. What else can a musician do than to hopefully influence some kind of change? Maybe it’s, in a small part, making someone think twice about what’s going on around them.”

Watch the video for “The 99” below:

Jay Farrar told “Tour Stories” on a recent episode of The JamBase Podcast. Listen to Episode 35 below with Farrar’s segment starting around the 38-minute mark: