son volt - trace

it's not hard to see why a lot of people were putting their money on jay farrar to make it further than jeff tweedy when the former bandmates put an end to uncle tupelo in 1994, especially when farrar's new band, son volt, released trace the following year...i'm not really treading into new territory by saying trace is an incredible album...one of the best of the 90's & one of my favorite alt-country records ever...full of twangy, heartfelt gems that don't overreach or fade from one to the next...& it's practically timeless...unfortunately, farrar has spent the past decade or so trying to match it, with varying degrees of success, both with son volt & as a solo artist...last year's the search was one of his best releases in quite some time, & it actually saw the band straying away from their typical sound a little & exploring new directions...i loved the horns, too...son volt plays the house of blues tonight in chicago along with the felice brothers...here are a couple songs from trace.

download: son volt - windfall
download: son volt - route
download: son volt - loose string

related: speaking of the felice brothers, i've been eating up their tonight in arizona lp over the past couple weeks...comparisons to dylan & the band are pretty inevitable, especially considering they grew up in the shadows of big pink in upstate new york & even showed up at one of levon helm's midnight ramble sessions back in october...but all that aside, they're definitely worth checking out.

download: the felice brothers - roll on arte
download: the felice brothers - your belly in my arms