![]() I think this would have been late ’80/ early ’90s when we were coming out of the Reagan/Bush era. There’s definitely an element at times of a cringe factor, perhaps, but in the case of this one I do see some parallels in the political sphere. “Can’t look away / The powers that be might take it all away.” Essentially you are a different person when you’re in your twenties, and now I just turned fifty. I’m glad you asked me about this song because I think we’re adding it to our tour set list - there are some lyrics in there that will work in the current climate. ![]() Yeah, you know there’s some small-town existentialism in there, “Graveyard Shift” is a metaphor for being stranded in a town. Do you remember writing “Graveyard Shift” in your early twenties? You’ve been writing songs for almost thirty years now. This is the first song on the first Uncle Tupelo record. “Graveyard Shift” (from Uncle Tupelo’s 1990 debut, No Depression) With a new Son Volt tour just underway, Farrar spoke about six of his best songs and what they say about a side of America that is often overlooked. Farrar didn’t set out to write an album about the fear permeating contemporary America, but it definitely seeped into his songs. On the album-closing “Threads And Steel,” Farrar writes about an authoritarian figure - “a man going around, taking names” - who scours communities looking for people to evict. (Much of the album’s anti-fascist language doubles as a broadside against the record industry, another haven for no-nothing blowhards.) But still, many of the songs have a queasy resonance. Leavening his usual folk and country influences with amped-up Skip James-style blues riffs, Farrar has created one of the first great anti-Trump albums of 2017, though it’s not entirely intentional. Louis, Farrar has an up-close view of so-called “Trump America,” and he writes with uncommon empathy and insight about how hopelessness has accumulated over decades in countless middle-American communities. ![]() With Son Volt’s latest release, the excellent Notes Of Blue, Farrar’s timeless songwriting about working-class people once again seems more of the moment than ever. It hasn’t always been easy, but Farrar has remained stalwart, and more consistent than he gets credit for. But for the most part, Farrar has cut his own path as a troubadour outside of the pop world. Over the years, Farrar occasionally has brushed shoulders with the mainstream, first as the co-founder (with Jeff Tweedy) of the pioneering alt-country band Uncle Tupelo, and then as the leader of Son Volt, whose 1995 debut Trace is one of the greatest country-rock records ever made. Since the late ’80s, Jay Farrar has been writing beautiful songs about not-so-beautiful topics - dead-end small towns, substance abuse, political malpractice, and the decaying infrastructure of middle America.
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