Son Volt News

So far, 2009 has been the year of Taylor Swift, Beyonce, T-Pain, Lady Gaga and Black Eyed Peas.

Jay Farrar, center, plays Neumos with Son Volt at Neumos on Friday, December 4. Son Volt frontman Jay Farrar has been reading Jack Kerouac since he was a teenager.

OK, here's another storied genre that didn't fare so well in "The Decade From Hell": Alt-country, which rose up and florished in the 1980s and gave us some great tunes from the likes of Wilco and Son Volt in the 1990s.

It's always been a little difficult to get a bead on Son Volt, the alternative country band formed from the ashes of Uncle Tupelo by Jay Farrar in 1994.

Son Volt swings through Greenville for a stop at The Handlebar Nov. 20. Peter Bruntnell opens.

Son Volt served up a handful of early hits, and lots of the new stuff from The Search , Okemah and the Melody of Riot and this summer's release American Central Dust , last night at the Granada Theater.

Alt-country/folk rock group Son Volt made their way back home to St. Louis November 6. Metromix was at the show.

There has been some criticism about the soundtrack to 'One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur.' Kerouac, the legendary beat poet, is synonymous with jazz.

"We're a new band as of a few hours ago," Jay Farrar announced Thursday night from the stage of Largo at the Coronet, and he wasn't kidding: Thursday's show, the first of two in L.A., marked the premiere public performance by the Son Volt frontman with Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie.

Jack Kerouac's 1957 novel, "On The Road" made him a literary rock star, but the fame led to his unraveling.

A half-dozen cool things in music, from two points of view: Boz Scaggs, State Theatre.

Son Volt and founder Jay Farrar found it tough it capitalize on the praise heaped on their mid-'90s debut disc, "Trace." The alt-country band went on a long hiatus starting in 1999, and a planned 2004 reunion fizzled.

It's a pleasant shock that the Arctic Monkeys are still playing clubs like First Avenue.

Not long after Son Volt released its third album, 1998's Wide Swing Tremolo , front man Jay Farrar announced that he was putting the band on ice: as he would later explain in the liner notes of A Retrospective: 1995-2000 , "I wanted to devote more time to my family, and the free-range aspect of doing solo recording and performing was something I ...

The latest incarnation of Son Volt sees founder Jay Farrar joined by a top-shelf crew of players, including pedal-steel player Mark Spencer and drummer Dave Bryson, with material from the band's seventh album of forlorn country-rock, 'American Central Dust.' 7 p.m., Majestic Theatre, 4140 Woodward, Detroit.

I continue to make progress in my recovery from wrist surgery. What I've discovered is that I love physical therapy.

Jay Farrar has a lot to choose from when drawing up a set list for Son Volt these days.

Posted By: Greg Burgett "May your conscience serve you well," Jay Farrar sang last night, his distinctive voice metallic, splitting the difference evenly between shine and rust.

The first incarnation of Son Volt lasted five years and featured the same core lineup of four musicians playing on three albums of Americana and rootsy rock.

Cat's Cradle - Son Volt's Trace remains a monument of alt-country, a true document of a time and place, the former being immediately post-Tupelo, the latter a Middle America filled with everymen and everywomen .