I was playing the new Son Volt album Straightaways in my office when a co-worker came in and asked about it. He liked the country-tinged arrangements and easy, worn-leather feel of Jay Farrar's vocals. "Where are they from?" he asked, because where a band calls home speaks to this guy. I said "nowhere in particular: the players come from all over." He seemed hurt.
I mention it because Son Volt, the band that doesn't really have a hometown, has again come up with series of songs from and about the road, that "asphalt prairie" (from "Cemetery Savior") that takes you over two lane highways, through small towns and past the crumbled Americana of the Midwest. It's the thematic, if not the sonic, twin to the band's 1995 debut, Trace.
Son Volt frontman Farrar wrote the songs on Straightaways during short breaks from a two-year touring schedule. He and the band say the songs were less-polished going into the studio than those on Trace, allowing each player to paint the music with whatever brush they found appropriate. The result is a loose, easy-going feel to most of the songs.
If you take the opening song, "Caryatid Easy," off of Straightaways, there's a relative dearth of Farrar's trademark crash-and-stop rockers like Trace's "Drown" and "Route." But the increase in quieter, mid-tempo numbers gives multi-instrumentalist Dave Boquist and frequent Son Volt guest Eric Heywood a chance to shine.
"Left A Slide" features Heywood on a gorgeous pedal steel ramble for the entire song. Dave Boquist's looping fiddle and Mike Heidorn's shuffling percussion give "Creosote" the same warmth and sentimentality of Neil Young's beauty "Harvest Moon."
The album isn't without its rockers, but they don't seem as loud as those on Trace. "Picking Up the Signal" has the album's best electric hook. "Cemetery Savior" is an acoustic-based rocker that includes the classic line "No pain, no reason to blink, you say it's better when you don't think, you like to live on the dark side."
Farrar's voice sounds more worn than it's ever been and that suits the road-ready themes perfectly. Bassist Jim Boquist provides the harmonies and most of the vocal emotion, a nice accent to Farrar's stoicism.
Son Volt released Trace to a legion of loyal fans and critics who were still ga-ga over Farrar's and Heidorn's previous band, the legendary insurgent-country group Uncle Tupelo. For some of them, Straightaways may not be as exciting as Son Volt's debut. It has just two all-electric numbers - Trace has five - and definitely covers familiar themes. But what it lacks in electric flash it makes up for with an inner fire that will still provide heat many listens down the road.
And so what if Son Volt doesn't have a hometown to call its own. The band likes the road.
