Tag: Jay Farrar

New Track from Son Volt: “Devil May Care”

Son Volt Union

Son Volt has released a video and new song, “Devil May Care.” The song appears on the band’s upcoming new album Union.

Reports indicate that Union will largely be a political album. But the song “Devil May Care” seems to be recounting images from a barroom band. So, like the song’s name, it seems to be one of the lighter themed songs on the album.

Son Volt’s Jay Farrar has explained that “Devil May Care” is a respite from some of the heavier themes on the album, such as another song’s take on income inequality. For “Devil May Care,” Farrar noted,
“Wait a minute, music is supposed to make you throw your burdens to the wind,’ so I tried to include that approach as well.” Check out the new song from Son Volt.

Harmonic fidelity boost;
High pass filter on a balanced line;
Or a cigarette on a headstock;
All the same, just make it rhyme.

Transmit Sound/Thirty Tigers will release Son Volt’s ninth studio album Union on March 29, 2019.

  • Son Volt Tries to Give Some Insight Into Our Times With “Union” (CD Review)
  • Son Volt: “Back Against the Wall”
  • Uncle Tupelo’s Last Concert on May 1, 1994
  • Catching an All-Night Station: Son Volt Re-Issuing “Trace”
  • Son Volt Goes to Bakersfield on “Honky Tonk”
  • Anniversary of Uncle Tupelo’s “March 16-20, 1992”
    • ( Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    Son Volt: “Back Against the Wall”

    Notes of Blue
    Son Volt will be releasing a new album, Notes of Blue on February 17, 2017. From the sound of one of the tracks, “Back Against the Wall,” it could be another classic album from the band led by singer-songwriter Jay Farrar.

    The sound of the new album is reportedly influenced by the work of Mississippi Fred McDowell, Skip James and Nick Drake.

    Son Volt has already released the song “Back Against the Wall” from the upcoming album. Check it out.



    What do you think of the new Son Volt music? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • New Track from Son Volt: “Devil May Care”
  • Uncle Tupelo’s Last Concert on May 1, 1994
  • Catching an All-Night Station: Son Volt Re-Issuing “Trace”
  • Son Volt Goes to Bakersfield on “Honky Tonk”
  • Anniversary of Uncle Tupelo’s “March 16-20, 1992”
  • Son Volt Tries to Give Some Insight Into Our Times With “Union” (CD Review)

    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    Uncle Tupelo’s Last Concert on May 1, 1994

    Tupelo Final Show The great alt-country band Uncle Tupelo played its last concert on May 1, 1994, at Mississippi Nights in St. Louis, Missouri. Fortunately, the concert is now available on YouTube in high quality video.

    By the time of this show, Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar were already not getting along well. Soon after the performance, they would both go on to create other bands, with Farrar founding Son Volt and Tweedy forming Wilco.

    But on that night in May 1994, there was one last grasp at combined harmony and greatness. In the video below, Tweedy and Farrar trade off on the lead vocals, with drummer Mike Heidorn joining the band on the final song of the set, “Looking for a Way Out,” and also singing on the encore with Brian Henneman and the Bottle Rockets on Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Gimme Three Steps.”

    So, take some time to travel back to 1994 when one of the great bands was still together. The final words of the show: “That’s got to be it.” Check it out.

    From YouTube, the songs at this performance are: “No Depression”/ “Chickamauga”/ “Watch Me Fall”/ “Grindstone”/ “Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down”/ “Fifteen Keys”/ “Long Cut”/ “Anodyne”/ “New Madrid”/ “Slate”/ “Atomic Power”/ “Postcard”/ “Gun”/ “High Water”/ “Acuff-Rose”/ “True to Life”/ “We’ve Been Had”/ “Give Back the Key To My Heart”/ “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere”/ “Whiskey Bottle”/ “Truck Drivin’ Man”/ “Looking for a Way Out” (w/ Mike Heidorn)/ “Gimme Three Steps” (w/ Heidorn and the Bottle Rockets, Brian Henneman vocals).

    What is your favorite Uncle Tupelo song? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • Son Volt Goes to Bakersfield on “Honky Tonk”
  • Anniversary of Uncle Tupelo’s “March 16-20, 1992”
  • New Track from Jeff Tweedy: “I’ll Sing It”
  • New Track from Son Volt: “Devil May Care”
  • Son Volt: “Back Against the Wall”
  • Catching an All-Night Station: Son Volt Re-Issuing “Trace”

    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    Catching an All-Night Station: Son Volt Re-Issuing “Trace”

    Trace Son Volt Remaster In 1995, Jay Farrar — fresh off the dissolution of Uncle Tupelo — released the album Trace with his new band Son Volt. The album was an instant classic, and I still maintain that the album as two of the greatest alt-country songs ever released, “Windfall” and “Tear-Stained Eye.” Now, Son Volt is releasing a twentieth anniversary edition of the album with bonus tracks in a 2-CD set.

    The original album also remains as one of the great modern meditations on themes of alienation and rural living, with lyrics touched by Farrar’s efforts to come to terms with the breakup of Uncle Tupelo. As Richard Byrne wrote at the time of the original release in Riverfront Times (St. Louis): ” Trace is a long love poem to the Mississippi River, with passages of sheer poetic intensity. It’s also an emotional chronicle of the breakup of Farrar’s former band. . . . Much of Trace has a spirit and a substance that many of the great American novels of this century have.”

    Rhino Records and Warner Brothers Records are working together to release the expanded and remastered deluxe edition of Trace, which in addition to the album will include eight demos of album tracks. Also, the second CD will feature a 15-track live set from a February 12, 1996 show at The Bottom Line. There also will be an LP version, downloadable tracks, and an expanded booklet.

    Jay Farrar will also be hitting the road to perform songs from the classic album, billing the tour as “Jay Farrar Performs Songs of Trace.” He will be joined by original pedal steel player, Eric Heywood, along with Gary Hunt, who plays a number of instruments. May the new release and tour take your troubles away, as in this 1996 Austin City Limits performance of “Windfall.”

    The new remastered and deluxe version of Trace hits stores on October 30.

    What is your favorite Son Volt song? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • New Track from Son Volt: “Devil May Care”
  • Son Volt: “Back Against the Wall”
  • Uncle Tupelo’s Last Concert on May 1, 1994
  • Son Volt Goes to Bakersfield on “Honky Tonk”
  • Anniversary of Uncle Tupelo’s “March 16-20, 1992”
  • Son Volt Tries to Give Some Insight Into Our Times With “Union” (CD Review)

    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    Son Volt Goes to Bakersfield on “Honky Tonk”

    Son Volt Honky Tonk

    On Tuesday, March 5, Son Volt releases its seventh album Honky Tonk (2013). The country Bakersfield Sound influences the album, and lead singer Jay Farrar described why the band chose the album’s title: “Honky tonk music is about heartache, heartbreak, the road.” For those like me who have been following Farrar and Son Volt since the band spun off from Uncle Tupelo, the new album captures what was great about the band from the very beginning, even though Farrar’s current version of Son Volt has different band members than when they started. Just listen to the fiddle on the opening track, “Hearts and Minds”:

    Here is Son Volt’s teaser video for the appropriately entitled “Bakersfield” from the album:

    American Songwriter magazine is streaming the album for a limited time, so hop to their website to hear the rest of the tracks. Farrar also has a new memoir Falling Cars and Junkyard Dogs coming out this month about his career, including the breakup of Uncle Tupelo that led Jeff Tweedy to create Wilco. After listening through the tracks, I am excited about the new release. With new and upcoming releases from Son Volt, The Mavericks, Steve Earle, and others, it is already looking like a good year for Americana music.

    What is your favorite Son Volt album? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • Uncle Tupelo’s Last Concert on May 1, 1994
  • Anniversary of Uncle Tupelo’s “March 16-20, 1992”
  • New Track from Jeff Tweedy: “I’ll Sing It”
  • New Track from Son Volt: “Devil May Care”
  • Son Volt: “Back Against the Wall”
  • Merle Haggard: “Kern River”

    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)