AltCountry: Jay Farrar with Canyon on Stone, Steel & Bright Lights

When I saw Son Volt perform at Mississippi Nights in St. Louis in November 1999, I knew 2 things before going to the show: #1 – AltCountry, #2 – Uncle Tupelo begat Son Volt and Wilco. What I didn’t realize was that Son Volt’s rather intense at times take on AltCountry would be led by the subdued stage presence of Jay Farrar.


You can watch this same minimalist approach to the microphone on the DVD Live at Slim’s which accompanies the live CD Stone, Steel & Bright Lights.

The CD opens with Farrar solo on guitar and harmonica for the new song “Doesn’t Have to Be This Way.” Recorded at a soundcheck, this track introduces that quiet, reflective, yet explosive feel found on this album. Farrar continues solo on the CD with “Greenwich Time” and the other new song “6 String Belief.” (The DVD opens similarly with “Greenwich Time,” “California,” and “6 String Belief”). There’s a mournful quality in Farrar’s tight-lipped delivery, but his strumming patterns and harmonica are like bottled energy—glowing inside, not released yet, ready to spill. It’s like you get lulled into the drowsy, end of the night feeling only to find your heart racing with the pure excitement of realizing just how much there is to this world.

The five-piece band Canyon then joins Farrar, like a bottle opener, drenching the listener/watcher in that bottled light. The CD and DVD first bring them first on stage for “Feel Free,” which begins with the band basically mimicking Farrar’s strumming pattern but gradually letting an aural light unleash that bottled energy. Plus, where Farrar has a minimalist stage presence, the members of Canyon are quite expressive—like a visual representation of everything Farrar’s put into his songs. I especially enjoy watching Brandon Butler (guitar/lap steel/maracas) being a perfect catalyst for the songlines, urging the waves of sound to come crashing out of Farrar and the band.

Butler’s lap steel introduction on “Damn Shame” cements the song as one of the finest AltCountry tunes. A dirty blues song in the guise of a country rocker, Butler pushes the blues to the surface. Then Farrar lays down a mean harmonica solo. When they come back to the chorus, backed only by the rhythm section, you know this is one damn fine blues song.

Farrar is a ghost of a troubador, haunting barrooms, auto repair shops, back alley BBQs, and old men’s chess games in the park. His voice invokes grease, gutters, eerie streetlights, musty basements, and underpasses. Yet, he also speaks peace into the violent scenes, love and beauty into darkness, and hope into trouble. He is an observer on the corner—recognizing the good which may get obscured by the passing trains, calling on the good to enter a disparate place.

Canyon stops those passing trains. The band creates swirling patterns, accenting the song with keyboards and guitars. Farrar’s bottled light is further illuminated as Canyon pulls back the curtains. The rhythm section takes Farrar’s strumming pattern as the drive train, becoming like a Quad 4, quadrupling the engine’s efforts.

The main set’s closing song is “Clear Day Thunder.” Like thunder coming out of nowhere on a clear day, Farrar lays down a mean lick on electric guitar, letting himself jam with the band. It’s like as show comes to a close, Farrar just a little freer to rock. Which leads right into the encore jam session on Syd Barrett’s “Lucifer Sam” and Neil Young’s “Like a Hurricane.” Farrar swings the doors open wide into the evening, sending us back out into those streets from where these songs came.

Thanks to Jay Farrar, Transmit Sound, Artemis Records, and Canyon for the review CD/DVD.