Jay Farrar Friday (2)

What a week! Who needs a soul cleansing Jay Farrar bender? I do!

For background on Jay Farrar, see Jay Farrar Friday (1).

From Uncle Tupelo's first record, the title coming from the Carter family classic. This album combines rock, punk, and country, and describes the desperateness of growing up broke, bored, and disillusioned in the rural Midwest. This landmark album launched a new chapter in Americana music.

There's nothing left now but broken pieces
Of one man's broken will to care

Uncle Tupelo - Life Worth Livin'.mp3
Buy: No Depression (1990, reissued in 2003)

Son Volt's third album may not be the critical "masterpiece" that many critics labeled Trace, but I find myself going back to this album more than I go back to Trace. Many other Son Volt fans have said the same thing.

The blues have shone and kidnapped your heart
Didn't think it would happen, but now I know you better

Son Volt - Son Volt - Hanging Blue Side.mp3
Buy: Wide Swing Tremolo (1998)

This track is from Farrar's second solo album. It is a coming home song referencing a rural county in southeastern Missouri.

Always kept a common thread
To bind together when apart
You're back in Dent County

Jay Farrar - Dent County.mp3
Buy: Terroir Blues (2003), no longer available on Amazon, but you can find it on iTunes and eMusic.

This track is originally off of The Search (2007), but this acoustic version was offered as an iTunes exclusive bonus track. I hate iTunes exclusives, and I know it something that the record label makes the artist do, but it really stiffs the real fans. Gorgeous background vocals from Shannon McNally.

Still out there with the coffee stains and puttin' miles on shoes
Can't escape the smell of cigarettes, still livin' out these American late-night blues

Son Volt - Highways And Cigarettes (acoustic).mp3 (2007)