Son Volt - Trace

[joshthevegan]

After he parted ways with Uncle Tupelo, Jay Farrar reunited with the former drummer of that band, Mike Heidorn, and together they started work with the Boquist brothers, Dave and Jim, whom Farrar had met on the final Uncle Tupelo tour. Son Volt recorded a few demos and began playing shows around the midwest almost immediately, and it wasn't long until Warner Brothers came knocking.

"A.M." may have beaten "Trace" to the punch in terms of being the first post-Uncle Tupelo release, but the critical reception of "Trace" made it clear that the extra time spent preparing that album was well spent. Between topping many "Top 10" lists for 1995 and garnering a college radio hit out of the first single, "Drown," it hardly seems fair the moderate sales the album saw initially.

A beautiful melding of truly American musical styles, "Trace" drifts from pedal-steel tinged ballads ("Tear Stained Eye,") to honky tonk rockers ("Live Free") with always a tip of the hat to the past and a confident view into the future. While the influences here are obvious (Crazy Horse-style Neil Young, R.E.M., Bob Dylan, "Sticky Fingers"-esque Rolling Stones) Farrar's weathered vocals and the band's superb instrumentalism proclaim individuality. The fact that Farrar can sing lyrics like "let the wind take your troubles away. . ." without coming off like The Youngbloods (due to the inherent melancholy in all of his performances) alone proves that there is no band like Son Volt.

Trace - 9 out of 10

Once again, Warner Brothers is right there to screw me over. I would love to share the fantastic video for "Drown" with you, but instead, I'll give you this live version from 1996. The second video is "Windfall" in a recent performance; man do I love that song.