Son Volt

Certain Songs #2341: Son Volt – “Living in the U.S.A.”

April 11, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Electro Melodier
Year: 2021

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And so it went: Son Volt would release an album every few years — The Search in 2007; American Central Dust in 2009; Honky Tonk in 2013; Notes of Blue in 2017; Union in 2019 — to an ever-dwindling audience. How dwindling, you might ask? And I can only respond with the fact that, as of this writing, nobody has even made a wikipedia page for their most recent record, 2021’s Electro Melodier, which follows in the footsteps of 2019’s Union by describing and decrying the state of the U.S. during Trump.

Certain Songs #2339: Son Volt – “Blind Hope”

April 9, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Wide Swing Tremelo
Year: 1998

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In 1997 Son Volt followed up their stellar debut, Trace, with the very-much-nonstellar Straightaways. A quarter-century later, I don’t remember why I didn’t like it, I just know that I didn’t.

I might not have been the only one, because Son Volt instantly followed it up in 1998 with the much much better Wide Swing Tremelo, where they rocked things up a bit. So ironically, my favorite song on the record was a slower one, the atmospheric near-ballad “Blind Hope.”

Certain Songs #2338: Son Volt – “Route”

April 8, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Trace
Year: 1995

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The first time I saw Son Volt was when Rox & I saw them at the Fillmore in March of 1996, and they — and the opening band, Blue Mountain — were really good, and the set list was pretty much all of Trace, and a wide sprinkling of Uncle Tupelo songs to boot. Which was kinda cool, since I never got to see Uncle Tupelo.

That said, we were still doing to comparisons to Wilco at the time, and the Wilco show that Rox and I saw a few months prior at Slim’s is still one of the greatest shows I’ve ever seen (as was the second time, at the Great American Music Hall). Obviously, I’ll discuss all of this when we get to Wilco in, let’s say, 2024, but it was clear that Jay Farrar really had no other interest outside of playing his songs for you. Honorable, of course, but maybe less fun in concert, too.

Certain Songs #2337: Son Volt – “Windfall”

April 7, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Trace
Year: 1995

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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?

Son Volt – Trace

December 31, 1995 by Jim Connelly

(Warner Bros.)

Out of the rubble of Uncle Tupelo comes not one, but two great albums. In a way, its kind of like ten years ago, when Hüsker Dü scored two bullseyes with totally different albums that were still completely in their vein. While Son Volt’s Trace feels more moody, more depressed than Wilco’s A.M., Jay Farrar still finds it in him to sing “May the wind take your troubles away,” and rock as hard as ever.

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Written for the 1995 Village Voice Pazz & Jop Poll