Farrar Sings the Blues
Jay Farrar will release his second solo album, Terroir
Blues, on May 20th. The record will be Farrar’s first for his
newly minted label, Act/Resist Records.
Terroir Blues should find a middle ground between the
rootsy sound Farrar defined with Son Volt and the more experimental
sounds of his 2001 solo debut, Sebastopol. The collection
of twenty-three tracks will include new original songs, some
instrumental pieces and a few alternate take odds and ends.
Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster makes a guest appearance, along with
Eric Heywood (who played pedal steel guitar for Son Volt), Bottle
Rockets frontman Brian Henneman and Blood Oranges guitarist Mark
Spencer.
Since putting Son Volt on hiatus after 1998’s Wide Swing
Tremolo, Farrar has been prolific in the studio. He enlisted
Flaming Lips keyboardist Steven Drozd and Wurster as he stepped
away from the alt-fringe-country rock on Sebastopol two
years ago. And last year, he released
ThirdShiftGrottoSlack, an EP that featured a remix of
Sebastopol‘s “Damn Shame,” along with four unreleased
tracks. He also wrote the score and coordinated the soundtrack for
the independent film, The Slaughter Rule, which was
released earlier this year.
In other Farrar-related news, the first three albums by his
former outfit, Uncle Tupelo, will be reissued by Columbia/Legacy on
April 15th. No Depression will include six bonus tracks of
unreleased demos and B-sides; Still Feel Gone will be
padded with five demos; and March 16-20, 1992 will include
a cover of the Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your Dog” and the theme to
The Waltons. Rhino recently reissued the band’s final
album, Anondyne, with a handful of previously unreleased
material.