Son Volt Plays Dan’s Silver Leaf Thursday Night

shannon | February 23, 2009

SON VOLT plays Dan’s in Denton, Texas, Thursday night. –Press Release Photo

If you are on the fringes of, or are unfamiliar with the “Alternative Country” movement, it can be traced, in modern form, and in part, back to a band called Uncle Tupelo.

Uncle Tupelo was a band that drew on earlier influences from the likes of The Rolling Stones, Flying Burrito Brothers, Graham Parsons and others. It was a band so loaded with talent it was destined to last only a little longer than an East Texas shooting star. Key components of the band, who stand today as a testament to the staying power of “Alt. Country” are Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy. Now, if you don’t know who Jeff Tweedy is, stop reading now, and move on to your favorite fishing boards and tell everyone how good you are, and leave us here to our modern musical histrionics.

Farrar and Tweedy basically traded duties as frontmen for Uncle Tupelo, and the Tupelo albums are classics – all of them. It was obvious from the beginning that it was only a matter of time before this much power and talent had to go separate ways. Old interviews even weave a document of a band that was at odds, yet together plowing new fields with the old vinyl discs digging deep furrows into untouched ground. The results were amazing, and yielded sacred fruits of creative genius. The Rosetta Stone of the Tupelo experience, produced by REM member Peter Buck, is March 16-20 1992, and is an acoustic album of a purity only rarely captured – like a truly wild Trout.

Once the star that was Uncle Tupelo burned out, Farrar went on to form Son Volt while Tweedy took the faster track with Wilco. What followed was years of tit-for-tat releases that showed the true differences, and sheer talent of the two frontmen. Farrar often has a Zen-like stream of consciousness vocal style, and Tweedy has more of a workman’s way and blue collar sensibility about his lyrics and vocals. Wilco teamed with Billy Bragg to wrestle away some stashed lyrics of Woody Guthrie from the likes of Bob Dylan, and recorded Mermaid Avenue, and Avenue II.

The discography of Wilco and Son Volt reads well, with general star ratings never falling below four, and a fresh willingess to show exactly where they were going while they were trying to get there (witness “Being There”).

So it is with great amazement and anticipation that I announce Son Volt is playing Dan’s Silverleaf here in Denton, Texas, this Thursday night. If you are an already registered member of the TexasFlyCaster nation, find me there and I will buy you two of whatever you are drinking. If you are dissatisfied with the show, I will even take you fishing to some sacred private waters as a repayment for the 16.50 door. What more do you want?2mg Xanax No Membership