Jay Farrar Sebastopol Artemis

Along with high school friend Jeff Tweedy, Jay Farrar began what would become the alt-country act Uncle Tupelo in the mid-’80s.

The band released the genre-defining album “No Depression,” but Tweedy and Farrar soon split the band. Tweedy went on to form the more experimental Wilco, while Farrar remained closer to the Tupelo formula with his band Son Volt. Still with a devoted following, Son Volt released three albums, the first, “Trace,” being the most successful. In mid-2001, rumors surfaced that Son Volt had taken a leave of absence. True or not, for his first solo-outing Farrar gathered a diverse group of friends and musicians (including members of Superchunk and Flaming Lips) to create his best work in years.

The first noticeable difference from his previous work is that Farrar’s guitar has almost taken a backseat to the horns and keyboards that illustrate “Sebastopol.” The songwriting formula here is not much different than “Wide Swing Tremolo,” Son Volt’s last album. What
“Sebastopol” does, however, is to allow Farrar to do things his own way and thus prevents the same lack-luster monotony of “Tremolo.” He enlists a never-heard, gleeful sense of humor on the country-boozer “Damn Shame.” The layering of acoustic guitar, keyboards, and Farrar’s twang makes songs like “Voodoo Candle” and “Feed Kill Chain” gems to the growing, yet stale, alt-country community. “Sebastopol” is also evidence that Farrar has remained true to his country roots, unlike many of his alt-country contemporaries.

It is nice to see that Farrar has spread his wings, not fully but comfortably, and offered up his best work since “Trace.” “Sebastopol” is well deserved. If Son Volt continues, maybe this solo outing will give the needed freshness to both Farrar’s songwriting and the future direction of the band. If not, Farrar has a promising solo album under his boot.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 2 2001. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry