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Jay
Farrar - Terroir Blues
Rootsy singer-songwriter Jay Farrar has always made beautiful music – first in Uncle Tupelo, then in Son Volt and more recently as a solo artist. And Terroir Blues, his second full-length solo release, is a truly beautiful thing. It has all of his trademarks, including the simple song structures, lonely, sinuous vocals and the elaborate lyrical wordplay. But it has something else: streaks of experimentation and an almost willful disregard for convention. For example, there are 24 tracks, which include alternate versions of four songs. Mixing it up further, he's tossed in unpredictable bits, such as the series of half-songs called "Space Junk." Weird-pretty synthesized noises, they're more transitions than songs; they add an experimental spontaneity that lightens the whole thing. Mr. Farrar sounds like he's having fun. Maybe shucking major labels has given him a sense of freedom. The disc feels more classic country than anything he's done, thanks to his liberal use of slide guitar. It twangs appealingly in the background of "No Rolling Back" and forms wide-open spaces in "Hard Is the Fall." In "California," that slide even goes a little surf. It's all very direct and straightforward, not self-conscious or ponderous. He pulls from a nice palette of instruments including piano, flute and cello, but he uses them sparingly. His voice is simple and untreated, wafting in and out with a pleasing nasal tone. On "All of Your Might," one of the prettiest examples, his vocals duel with a hauntingly disembodied slide guitar. Lyrics seem more gracefully embedded in the songs and less deliberately obscure than they've been in the past. That said, they're a significant presence in "Cahokian," about an abandoned city (the Cahokia Mounds are a historic site east of St. Louis, Mo.). It begins in an almost amusing manner – "I will wait for you in the green, green spaces, wearing our post-industrial faces" – but it's a crushingly beautiful piece, made so with pathos-filled strings and acoustic guitar. The four alternate song takes at the end are like an afterthought, very "why not?" The disc has a loose, casual feeling, a level of comfort that's contagious. |
