Trace remains an album rooted in the past. Son Volt emerged from the debris with a heavier sound grounded in crunchy classic-rock riffs and Farrar’s impressionistic lyrics, and the band even notched a minor hit with their first single, “Drown.” Two decades later, Trace is getting the deluxe reissue treatment, which includes two remasters (one for CD, the other for vinyl), a handful of early demos, and a second disc featuring a live set from a 1996 show at the Bottom Line in New York City. After four influential albums together - including 1993’s Anodyne, both their major label debut and their swan song - the group acrimoniously parted ways, with members Farrar and Jeff Tweedy trading words and punches onstage and off. Hailing from the dying industrial town of Belleville, Illinois, they found inspiration in the Carter Family and the Minutemen alike, writing folk tunes but playing them with punk ferocity. Barely a year before the album’s release, Farrar had been in another band, Uncle Tupelo, who were maybe not the founders of the ’90s alt-country movement, but were certainly its chief fomenters. It’s ideal road-trip music, even if Farrar sounds like he’s driving to outrun his troubles. “Can’t recall the call letters, steel guitar and settle down.” “Switching it over to AM, searching for a truer sound,” Jay Farrar sings on opener “Windfall,” as the fiddle and pedal steel two-step around him. Sturdily constructed from scraps of rusted country and strange, white-line-feverish imagery, these songs conjure long nights behind the wheel, your only company whichever radio station happens to come through clearly. Son Volt’s 1995 debut, Trace, is an album full of highways and backroads, maps and legends.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |