Uncle Tupelo - Anodyne

Uncle Tupelo's fourth and final album came out in 1993.  Jay Farrar's country-soaked Slate opens the album, and the prominence of fiddle will tell you what sort of album it is.  At times the country influence is heavy and a bit much (the busy fiddle on Acuff-Rose, the 'honky-tonkiness' of We've Been Had).  Much better is Jeff Tweedy's rocking The Long Cut, a rollicking tune which lurches back and forth in a very pleasing manner.  They get the country just right on Doug Sahm's mid-paced strum Give Back The Key To My Heart, Sahm providing vocals and songwriting.  The countrified REM influence comes through on Tweedy's New Madrid, and soaring steel guitars lift the title track from mediocrity.  Farrar's contributions generally have more of a country feel than Tweedy's, with cry-in-your-beer High Water a prime example.  Whereas when Tweedy does the steel guitar laced No Sense In Lovin', he ups the tempo, taking it out of traditional country territory.

The problem with an album like this is it's more an album to admire, considering its influence, than to truly love.

Uncle Tupelo - March 16-20, 1992

For Uncle Tupelo's third album, released in 1992 at the height of heavy grunge, the band kept largely to acoustic folk.  This collection of originals mixed with traditional American songs sounds almost timeless.  Early on, a grim reading of Coalminers rubs shoulders with Jeff Tweedy's jauntier Wait Up.  Jay Farrar's contributions are generally strong - the brief Criminals is an early highlight, a bitter strum of being "criminals looking for something to do", while Shaky Ground has echoes of REM (not surprising as Peter Buck produced).  Tweedy's no slouch here either, Black Eye lays the groundwork for Richmond Fontaine's more stripped down material.  By contrast, versions of Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down, Moonshiner and Atomic Power are a little too close to folk pastiche for comfort.  Although a whole album of this can get a bit repetitive, the original material here saves the day.  Towards the end, Fatal Wound is a gorgeous, laid back going-nowhere ballad with a fine steel guitar part.  Overall, the country feel to the album might seem off-putting at first but the quality of the songs grows on repeated listening.

Uncle Tupelo - Still Feel Gone

Uncle Tupelo was one of the original 'alt-country' bands, formed in the late eighties at a time when country music was neither 'alternative' nor cool.  Including both Jay Farrar (of Son Volt) and Jeff Tweedy (of Wilco), their hard rocking second album Still Feel Gone came out in 1991.  Listening to it now, it holds up pretty well, opening up with Gun which definitely leans more on the rock than country.  Looking For a Way Out is a slice of a kind of countrified Crazy Horse, while Fall Down Easy's mandolin midway through has echoes of REM.  The sparse, country strum Still Be Around is a fine track, complete with lyrics like "with the bible is a bottle".  On the other the pounding, lurching Postcard displays a fine grasp of guitar dynamics, particularly the 'don't give a f**k' solo midway through.  Although the album tapers off a little towards the end, it ends with the downcast If That's Alright, a perfect doing-nothing-staring-out-of-the-window type song.

Certainly if you like your country a bit on the rough and unpolished side this one is essential.

Album Review: Wilco – Being There

Or rather, Exile on Wilco St. Wilco was formed by Jeff Tweedy from the dying embers of alt-country pioneers Uncle Tupelo. Their first full length, Being There is an ambitious double album, with an ebb and flow feel along the lines of Rolling Stones’ 1972 double album Exile On Main Street.

They throw down a take-nothing-for-granted marker with opening track Misunderstood, a six minute epic which alternates between periods of calm and noise wig-outs with Tweedy roaring at the top of his voice. Not a whit of country to be found here. However they change tack completely with Far, Far Away, a casual Johnny Cash country strum with an easy feel to it.

The album is a real treasure trove of styles, veering from one to another. There are Stones-y rockers (Monday, I Got You), banjo-strums (Forget the Flowers, Someday Soon), downbeat laments (Red Eyed and Blue, Someone Else’s Song), not to forget noisier tracks in the style of the opener (Sunken Treasure), and the whole thing finishes with the Faces-style all over the shop boogie of Dreamer In My Dreams.

The album has a very classic early 70s feel to it. They would never sound quite so straightforward again.