![]() The title of the collection refers to late-night musical sessions in which Farrar would experiment with alternate tunings and oddball song ideas, and the song became a staple opener for Farrar’s solo sets in the last few years. Louis.īest lyric: “Wrecking-ball operator/twenty years, pulling the lever/these windows, shield the cold/from the weather and my soul.”Įasily worthy of a folk Nuggets album someday, this song originally appeared on Thirdshiftgrottoslack, an EP of songs that didn’t make it onto Sebastopol. Low-fi heaven! Bob Ludwig got it sounding good enough to put on the record.”Ī mournful elegy closing Son Volt’s 1997 sophomore album Straightaways, “Way Down Watson” is one of Farrar’s most poignant folk songs about the destruction of the past-in this case, the 1995 demolition of the historic Coral Court Motel on Watson Road in St. “I recorded it with a cassette 4-track, an old 3M reel-to-reel (for the loop) and a cassette Walkman with a vari-speed control. ‘Favorite’ to me is synonymous with ‘instrumental,’ because writing the lyrics is the hard part,” Farrar says. In fact, Farrar’s favorite is one that didn’t make our list: “Chanty,” from Son Volt’s Wide Swing Tremolo. ![]() We asked the man himself to weigh in on our top five read his exclusive comments in American Songwriter (the one with Neil Young on the cover). In his teens and early 20s, Farrar found his muse in the noise and fury of punk rock, while also demonstrating a gift for turning downbeat themes into vivid songs (“Whiskey Bottle,” about hard-living on the road or “Chickamauga,” about the impending dissolution of Uncle Tupelo).Īs an older, more mature writer, he’s tackled broader social and political themes that (often obliquely) reflect his own changing worldview, informed in part by parenthood and a deepening appreciation for certain cultural touchstones of American music and literature, from Woody Guthrie to Jack Kerouac.īelow, you’ll find a list of the top 20 songs Farrar has written, for Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt and as a solo artist. ![]() Not that his canon is devoid of happiness, but most of his best work is his most melancholy. Farrar’s mastercraft comes in the form of stream-of-consciousness lyrics, dark melodies and a trained eye for the downtrodden, world- and road-weary-and the feelings and emotions these subjects evoke. Farrar bears little resemblance to the hitmakers of our time, the Linda Perrys and Max Martins lurking behind the bubblegum ditties littering the pop charts. ![]()
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