On March 26th, behind the not so big city bright lights of the Jay Peak Hotel, Jay Farrar and his accompanists, plus a small but devoted audience, conjured up in a cozy living room atmosphere in what otherwise might’ve been the sterile likes of the Foeger Ballroom. The former leader of Uncle Tupelo and frontman of Son Volt enacted a bond not just with multi-instrumentalist Gary Hunt and pedal steel player Eric Haywood—turning the somewhat odd instrumental lineup into a true band—but he connected with the attendees in what’s becoming an increasingly rare occurrence of live music as a genuine shared experience between performer and audience.
And the beauty of the dynamic transcended even the combination recognition/recent celebration of the 20th Anniversary of Son Volt’s album Trace. The forty-five minutes plus devoted to those songs not only set the tone for the evening, but revealed the significance of the record for Farrar: it constitutes a remarkable burst of creativity on the part of its author.
Little wonder Farrar spoke little in the way of introductions and otherwise as the night wore on. Material such as “Tear Stained Eye” and “Loose String” are finely-crafted marriages of words and music for which arrangements are equally nuanced. Along with steel player Haywood, judiciously utilizing effects like fuzz to broaden the warm glowing tones of his instrument; Hunt, on acoustic,electric/steel guitars plus mandolin and fiddle. framed Farrar’s acoustic rhythm in such an economical fashion, they never upstaged him or songs like Ron Wood’s “Mystifies Me.”
Even the pedal steel cage matches, with lines swooping and slicing through the air, kept the focus on Farrar and the songs he was singing. If the author’s vocal range is limited, his phrasing extracts the deeper meaning of phrases like ‘coffin water’ (deceptive topicality related to Flint MI and Bennington Vt water issues) or ‘war is profit and profit is war.” He may talk about traveling to “Barstow” being ‘half-way to hell,” but he’s also singing about getting “Back Into Your World.” He’s not as insular as his somewhat nervous stoicism would suggest.
But he’s not telegraphing his punches either which is why the cacophonous drone of sound around the encore of Bob Dylan’s “Rainy Day Women #’s 12 & 35” was so appropriate. As unsympathetic as Farrar’s declamatory deliver of the lyrics sounded, the famous refrain turned into a lecture of tough love rather than an unctuous ode to stoners. Farrar was forcefully strumming his guitar as he sang, it was as if he was suggesting that to endure those proverbial slings and arrows is to transcend them.The slightly stunned silent attention to which his listeners devoted these words was a tacit sign of agreement—though not so much so as the loud combination of applause and vocal acclamation that rumbled from approximately one hundred people in the conference room of this luxurious hotel.
Setlist
Tear Stained Eye
(Son Volt song)
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Live Free
(Son Volt song)
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Catching On
Play Video
Out of the Picture
Play Video
Loose String
Play Video
Route
(Son Volt song)
Play Video
Catching On
(Son Volt song)
Play Video
Mystifies Me
Play Video
Ten Second News
Play Video
Too Early
Play Video
Windfall
(Son Volt song)
Play Video
Mystifies Me
(Ron Wood cover)
Play Video
Drown
Play Video
Barstow
Play Video
Wild Side
(Son Volt song)
Play Video
Back Into Your World
(Son Volt song)
Play Video
Afterglow 61
(Son Volt song)
Play Video
Rainy Day Women
(Bob Dylan cover)
