Album: Trace
Year: 1995
. . .
There was never any doubt in my mind about who was going to win the Uncle Tupelo break-up. After all, Jay Farrar had that great guitar sound and the aching voice that made Future Certain Songs like “Factory Belt,” “Whiskey Bottle” and “Anodyne” utter staples in my life after I’d discovered them a couple years prior.
And sure, Jeff Tweedy, the bass player with the rasp, had inherited the remnants of the final version of Tupelo and made A.M., an album I well and truly loved, but Grant Hart beat Bob Mould to the punch with the immortal “2541,” and we all know how that eventually turned out, don’t we?
That said, in the Summer of 1995 I remember getting a cassette of an advance copy of Son Volt’s Trace from one of my Prodigy friends — Ranjit? Kathy? Scott? — which I think also had Uncle Tupelo’s final show on the other side, and that cassette opened with a rocker that was labeled as “Nothing Lasts.” Anyways, eventually when Trace came out, the “Nothing Lasts” song was titled “Route” (about which more tomorrow), and the CD itself opened with “Windfall,” the best song that either man put out that year.
It also featured absolutely zero electric guitar, which in and of itself wasn’t a shock: the last two Tupelo albums were full of acoustic-based songs, but it was still a bit surprising to hear the gorgeously simple acoustic riff that opened “Windfall,” and the quiet first verse, which is Farrar singing over Eric Heywood’s atmospheric pedal steel and Dave Boquist’s fiddle.
Now and then it keeps you running
It never seems to die
The trail’s spent with fear
Not enough living on the outside
Never seem to get far enoughStaying in between the lines
Hold on to what you can
Waiting for the end
Not knowing when
And as drummer Mike Heidorn — an original Uncle Tupelo member who left prior to the recording of Anodyne — lays in a quiet backbeat, Jay Farrar goes into maybe the most gorgeous chorus he’ll ever write (give or take “Anodyne” of course):
May the wind take your troubles away
May the wind take your troubles away
Both feet on the floor, two hands on the wheel
May the wind take your troubles away
And sure, “Windfall” is a on-the-road song, about driving everywhere and nowhere — Farrar sings about “Trying to make it far enough / To the next time zone” — on a lazy summer night when the gas prices are low and the destination isn’t nearly as important as the journey, and what you might find out on the road is absolutely something you wouldn’t have otherwise.
Switching it over to AM
Searching for a truer sound
Can’t recall the call letters
Steel guitar and settle downCatching an all-night station
Somewhere in Louisiana
It sounds like 1963
But for now it sounds like heaven
Also sounding like heaven: the little catch in Farrar’s voice when he sings that final line. As do bassist Jim Boquist’s harmonies on choruses, as they well and truly are wishing for the wind to take our troubles away. Which happens every single time I hear this song.
“Windfall”
“Windfall” live on Austin City Limits, 1996
“Windfall” l1ve on WFUV, 2017
Windfall live at First Avenue, Minneapolis, 2019
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