Jay Farrar

All Music Guide:

As a founding member of Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt, songwriter Jay Farrar helped popularize the alt-country movement of the 1990s. He also launched a solo career during the following decade, making it plain that his musical ambitions stretched far beyond the retro-leaning twang of his contemporaries.

Farrar was born and raised in Belleville, Illinois, a small town not far from the Illinois/Missouri border. He was 12 when he first began leaning to play the guitar, and in high school he made friends with a fellow musically inclined student named Jeff Tweedy. Farrar and Tweedy formed a garage rock band called the Primitives, but after a few years (and the arrival of drummer Mike Heidorn), they began incorporating the influence of the country music they had grown up with, as well as the traditional folk sounds that had struck their fancy. Renaming themselves Uncle Tupelo, they forged a sound that fused the ferocity of punk rock with the melodic structures and lyrical intimacy of country -- and while they weren't the first to combine punk and country, their formula was unusual enough to spawn a whole new musical subgenre, with literally dozens of like-minded bands following in their wake. Uncle Tupelo released four highly acclaimed albums between 1989 and 1993, but Farrar and Tweedy had a falling out while touring in support of their first major-label release, Anodyne, and in the summer of 1994, Farrar announced his resignation from Uncle Tupelo, effectively ending the group.

While Tweedy and several members of Uncle Tupelo's expanded touring lineup went on to form Wilco, Farrar teamed up with drummer Heidorn (who had left Uncle Tupelo in 1992), bassist Jim Boquist, and multi-instrumentalist Dave Boquist to comprise the band Son Volt. Alternating between quiet and contemplative ballads and Neil Young-influenced rockers, Son Volt's 1995 debut album, Trace musically picked up where Uncle Tupelo left off, and the follow-up, Straightaways followed a similar path. With Son Volt's third album, 1998's Wide Swing Tremolo, Farrar began exploring more adventurous musical textures and instrumental avenues, but while the album signaled a new direction for him, it marked at least a temporary conclusion to the Son Volt story; while Farrar never formally folded the group, Son Volt did go on hiatus while he began exploring solo projects.

After a layoff of nearly two years, Farrar returned with his first album under his own name, Sebastopol, in 2001. The disc found him expanding on the sonic innovations of Wide Swing Tremolo while also maintaining clear ties to the melodic tenor of his best work; guest artists included neo-traditionalists Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, as well as Jon Wurster from Superchunk and Matt Pence from Centro-Matic. Farrar raised even more eyebrows in 2002 with a follow-up EP, ThirdShiftGrottoSlack, which included a dance-friendly remix of Sebastopol's "Damn Shame" along with four unreleased songs. In 2003, Farrar tried his hand at film scoring by composing incidental music for the acclaimed independent film The Slaughter Rule (Bloodshot Records released a soundtrack album, featuring Farrar's score as well as source music used in the film), and he launched his own independent record label, Act/Resist, with the release of his second full-length solo set, Terroir Blues. After a German record label, ACT Music, expressed concerns about the similarity of their names, Farrar re-launched Act/Resist as Transmit Sound in time to release Stone, Steel & Bright Lights, a live album recorded during his 2003 tour with the group Canyon.

After taking a seven-year hiatus, Son Volt reconvened and began recording regularly as the decade progressed. In addition to a retrospective hits compilation, the group issued three new studio albums: Okemah and the Melody of Riot, The Search, and American Central Dust. Meanwhile, Farrar continued adding new bands to his résumé by forming Gob Iron with Varnaline's Anders Parker (the duo's sole album, Death Songs for the Living, appeared in 2006) and, three years later, working alongside Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard to create all the music for One Fast Move or I'm Gone, a Jack Kerouac documentary. In 2011, Farrar hooked up with My Morning Jacket's Yim Yames, Centro-Matic's Will Johnson, and Varnaline's Anders Parker to record an album of previously unrecorded Woody Guthrie lyrics. New Multitudes was released in early 2012 by Rounder Records.

Wikipedia:

Jay Farrar (born December 26, 1966 in Belleville, Illinois) is an American songwriter and musician currently based in St. Louis, Missouri. A veteran of two critically acclaimed music groups, Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt, he began his solo music career in 2001. Beyond his established talents as a songwriter, he is a guitarist, harmonicist, and a vocalist.

Recording career [edit]

In 1995, Farrar collaborated with Kelly Willis on the song "Rex's Blues", which appeared on the AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Bothered produced by the Red Hot Organization.

As a solo artist, Farrar has released two full length albums, two EPs, one film score, and various live recordings. His full length albums are Sebastopol (2001) and Terroir Blues (2003), the first released on the independent record label Artemis Records and the second released on his own label, Transmit Sound.

An EP of songs from the Sebastopol sessions, entitled ThirdShiftGrottoSlack was released in 2002. His score for the independent film The Slaughter Rule (2002, directors Alex and Andrew Smith) was released in 2003 on the independent record label Bloodshot Records. Farrar formed his own independent record label in 2003, Transmit Sound (formerly called "Act/Resist Records").

In 2004, Farrar released a six song live acoustic EP entitled Live EP. Also 2004 marked the release of the live CD/DVD Stone, Steel & Bright Lights.

Style [edit]

His musical style ranges from sparse, unaccompanied folk music to full rock and roll band arrangements comparable to Neil Young or Dinosaur Jr.. His solo recordings also often include sound experiments, reminiscent of psychedelia, with a distinctly Eastern bent. One of the hallmarks of his sound is the use of alternate tunings on the guitar. His love for Woody Guthrie inspired a custom guitar made by Creston Lea of Vermont. The guitar was made from artifacts Jay gathered from the site of Guthrie's childhood home. In 2012 the guitar was featured in a painting by modern artist Karl Haglund.

Related artists [edit]

After the dissolution of Uncle Tupelo in 1994, Farrar formed the rock group Son Volt, whose original lineup released three albums in the late 1990s, before undergoing a hiatus in 1999. In 1999, Farrar was invited to participate in the tribute album for Moby Grape co-founder Skip Spence, who was terminally ill with cancer. The album, More Oar: A Tribute to the Skip Spence Album (Birdman, 1999), was an album of cover versions of the songs on Spence's only solo album, Oar (Columbia, 1999).

In 2005, the band re-formed with a different lineup and has since (as of May 2009) released four additional albums.

Farrar worked closely with keyboardist Steven Drozd of The Flaming Lips during the recording of Sebastopol. Eric Heywood, Mark Spencer from the Blood Oranges, and the rock group Canyon have often accompanied Farrar in his solo recordings and performances. Spencer is now a full-time member of Son Volt.

In 2006, Farrar announced the formation of a new band, Gob Iron, with Varnaline's Anders Parker. The songs which would make up their debut album were recorded in autumn 2004, while Farrar was in the process of recording a new Son Volt album.

Farrar collaborated with Ben Gibbard (of the indie rock band Death Cab for Cutie) to create all of the music for the soundtrack for the 2009 documentary film One Fast Move or I'm Gone, about Jack Kerouac's time spent at Big Sur. The soundtrack was released on October 20, 2009.