DumpJack Wrote:
I still need to hear more of this band. I don't even know why Farrar is supposed to be so good. Someone make the case.
The following obviously only covers his earlier work, but it's a good start. Son Volt's first album
Trace exemplifies everything that I like about UT's sound and is easily my favorite album by Farrar and/or Tweedy (only
Being There comes close). The underline is mine and added for emphasis.
allmusic.com Wrote:
Uncle Tupelo wasn't the first band to merge the soulful twang of country music with the passionate roar of punk rock (that honor would probably go to either the Meat Puppets, Jason & the Scorchers, or X), but in 1989 the Minutemen-meets-Gram Parson clatter of Uncle Tupelo's debut album, No Depression, took what some then called "cowpunk" in a new and decidedly different direction. From the start, Uncle Tupelo's music was smart, muscular, emotionally compelling, and played the punk and country sides of the band's musical personality for all the heartfelt sincerity that marked the best music of both genres -- and refused to make a joke out of either. Making music that people didn't simply enjoy, but believed in, Uncle Tupelo was the sort of band that attracted an unusually devoted fan following, and while it's inaccurate to trace the entire 1990s "alt-country" movement back to the group, one could certainly argue that Uncle Tupelo was as crucial to that scene as Black Flag was to '80s punk. Though a combination of hard work, fine music, and setting a peerless example of honesty and integrity, Uncle Tupelo blazed a trail that dozens of other fine bands would follow... While Jay Farrar's songwriting tended to dominate the group's albums, this compilation strives to give equal time to his then-partner Jeff Tweedy, most likely to make the disc equally appealing to new fans of Son Volt and Wilco, Farrar and Tweedy's post-UT groups... Whether picking quietly on the front porch or bashing their Les Pauls into submission, Uncle Tupelo serves up powerful, timeless, and joyous music on each of these 21 cuts. A splendid trip down memory lane for those who were there and a revelation for the uninitiated, 89/93: An Anthology offers tangible proof that Uncle Tupelo was a group that truly mattered -- and still matters nearly a decade after the bandmembers called it a day.
