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UNCLE TUPELO
No Depression
Still Feel Gone
March 16-20, 1992
(Columbia/Legacy)
THE JAYHAWKS
Blue Earth
(Twin/Tone/Restless/Rykodisc)
Uncle Tupelo is a 90s rock & roll legend. Though the Belleville, Illinois outfit wasn't the first band to do a corporate merger of punk rock and American roots music, it was the first one to target the indie rock audience that was already tiring of heroes like Sonic Youth and Jane's Addiction. The twin virtues of mainstays Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy—excellent songwriting and an unceasing appetite for the road—helped a build a loyal audience for the band's earnest folk/punk/country/rock, inspiring tons of musicians to form their own like-minded outfits and jumpstarting what would be called the Americana movement. Of course, by the time major labels and media outlets began to notice this burgeoning "scene" in the mid-90s, its flagship band had splintered, as Farrar and Tweedy's long partnership (they'd started the garage rock cover band the Primatives while still in high school together) acrimoniously dissolved and Uncle Tupelo gave way to Son Volt and Wilco. The unwitting godfathers of one of the 90s' most significant musical waves weren't able to capitalize on the genre's sudden notoriety. (Though, as sales records show, neither was anyone else.)

It didn't help that the band's records, with the exception of its lone major label offering Anodyne, had fallen out of print. Originally issued on the tiny independent label Rockville, No Depression, Still Feel Gone. and March 16-20, 1992 sold steadily over the course of the last decade, but the label folded and no new copies were forthcoming. Fortunately, Sony Legacy has stepped up to the plate, acquiring the masters and reissuing those landmark recordings, along with generous helpings of bonus tracks.

Originally released in 1990, No Depression is, for many fans, the album that cracked the history of independent rock music in half. Though 80s acts like Jason & the Scorchers and the Gear Daddies had already added more than a dash of punk energy to the country rock of the 60s and 70s, Uncle Tupelo was for a younger generation the first band to put American roots music and punk rock on equal footing. Produced to order by Paul Kolderie and Sean Slade, No Depression is the band's purest statement in that regard. The formula is simple: country rhythms rocked up with thrashing drums and loud guitars, with introspective, blue collar lyrics taking the place of expressions of devotion or screams of rage. This is what Husker Du would have sounded like playing country music. Farrar's molten six-string slabs make you grab that air guitar out of the case, while bassist Tweedy and drummer Mike Heidorn's rhythms waltz between the fury of pure punk and grace of honkytonk country. Farrar and Tweedy's tales of working class schleps looking for redemption, escape or simply an alcoholic haze—anything to take them away from the humdrum existence of a factory town—resonate deeply, especially when joined to the band's roof-raising rock & roll. Farrar's "Graveyard Shift," "Before I Break" and "So Called Friend" and Tweedy's "Train" and "That Year" kick against the pricks mightily, while the guitarist's "Whiskey Bottle" and "Life Worth Livin'" bring legitimacy back to the power ballad. A couple of acoustic tunes, Tweedy's "Screen Door" and a cover the Carter Family's "No Depression," from whence both the album and subsequent musical movement took their names, show that the boys can play it sweet and just as sincere; the rocked-up cover of the traditional tune "John Hardy" hints at an approach the group never fully pursued. Also included is the early rocker "Won't Forget," rescued from the long out-of-print soundtrack to the movie A Matter of Degrees, "Left in the Dark," a Vertebrats cover recorded during the album sessions, a 45 B-side take on the Flying Burrito Brothers' "Sin City," a live acoustic "Whiskey Bottle" and a couple of demos, the title cut and an otherwise unreleased low-fi original called "Blues Die Hard." There's not a bum track on the original recording of No Depression, and the bonus cuts make it even better. Michael Toland [buy it]

1991's Still Feel Gone., again produced by Kolderie and Slade, mostly follows the same path, with a few twists. The rhythms are knottier, relying less on straight country rhythms and more on hard-driving rock and slowed-down anthemry, often within the same song. There are no covers, at least on the original album (the bonus tracks are a different story—see below). And while Farrar dominates No Depression, writing and/or singing three-quarters of the tracks, here he and Tweedy assume equal responsibility, and rightfully so. Thematically the band has subtly altered its blue collar stance; coming off months of solid touring, Farrar and Tweedy have changed their hard luck characters from factory drones to touring musicians. These aren't the usual it's-a-bitch-to-be-on-the-road sob stories, though, but introspective examinations of the internal motives and emotional satisfaction of the working musician. The pair's earnest singing would garner empathy from the hardest heart, and besides, the music itself disperses any lingering taint of self-pity. Rockers like Farrar's "Punch Drunk," Fall Down Easy" and "Postcard" and Tweedy's "Gun," "Nothing" and "D. Boon" (a tribute to a fallen road warrior from an earlier era of indie rock) marry folk winsomeness with voluminous crunch better than nearly any band since, while ballads such as Tweedy's "If That's Alright" and Farrar's "Still Be Around" (still probably the best song he's ever written) break hearts matter-of-factly and soulfully. The guitarist's "Looking For a Way Out" mines the midtempo Crazy Horse groove as well as anything Neil Young ever did, while his "Discarded" and "True to Life" merge country and folk with rock more seamlessly than ever before. The bonus tracks include a couple of single sides, the classic Farrar anthem "Sauget Wind" and a raucous cover of the Soft Boys' "I Wanna Destroy You" (probably the only evidence of a sense of humor in the taciturn Farrar) and a trio of demos, including "Watch Me Fall" and acoustic takes on "If That's Alright" and a surprisingly peppy "Looking For a Way Out." Still Feel Gone. is both a continuation and a progression of Uncle Tupelo's roots-punk aesthetic, and probably its best album. Michael Toland [buy it]

March 16-20, 1992, released in 1992, natch, finds the band in John Keane's Athens, GA studio with R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck and no access to electricity. The band's only all-acoustic album freely mixes new originals with old folk and country songs for an intimate recording that sounds as though the band is playing in your living room. New songs like Tweedy's introspective "Fatal Wound" and folk-flavored "Black Eye" and Farrar's troubled "Shaky Ground" and working man-themed "Grindstone" sound perfectly comfortable next to covers of the Louvin Brothers' "Atomic Power" (which the band had been playing since its earliest days) and traditionals like "Coalminers," "Lilli Schull" (a murder ballad mournfully sung by Farrar) and "Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down." The pair collaborates on their own addition to the folk canon, the resigned, melodic "Moonshiner," and on the lyrical instrumental "Sandusky." The Bottle Rockets' Brian Henneman adds mandolin and bouzouki spice here and there, and engineer Keane throws in some mournful pedal steel. Drummer Heidorn keeps in the background, adding brushes when appropriate and often sitting out entirely. But the focus is strictly on Tweedy and Farrar, their cracking voices and luminescent way with a song. The bonus tracks consist of three acoustic demos from 1991, including "Grindstone," "Atomic Power" and an intriguing folk arrangement (complete with banjo) of the Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog," plus the B-side "Take My Word" and a live version of "Moonshiner." (There's also a hidden bonus track for 70s TV junkies.) March 16-20, 1992 isn't Uncle Tupelo's most immediately striking album, but its gentle touch and heartfelt performances make it many fans' favorite. Michael Toland [buy it]

Mike Heidorn quit the band just after the sessions for March and was replaced by former Clockhammer skin-pounder Ken Coomer (who appears on the live "Moonshiner"). The band made one more record, the major label bow Anodyne, before splintering into its component parts. Farrar continues in the Tupelo vein with his project Son Volt and his solo work, while Tweedy formed the ever-evolving Wilco, one of the most well-respected bands in contemporary rock. But no matter how many fine records either artist has made, it could be argued that the singer/songwriters have never been as strong separately as they were together. These reissues hold the proof.

Before Uncle Tupelo reintroduced country rock to a (relatively) larger audience, there was the Jayhawks. Considered by many to be Tupelo's equal in the 90s roots rock renaissance, the Minneapolis-based 'hawks had actually been in existence since the mid-80s. Formed by rockabilly refugees Mark Olsen, Gary Louris and Marc Perlman, the band issued a self-titled debut in 1986 on a label so tiny many fans aren't even aware of its existence. (And the group seems content to keep it that way.) Late in the Reagan decade, the band was shopping a set of demos that impressed the folks at Twin/Tone (the legendary Minneapolis label that foisted the Replacements onto the world) so much they issued the demos untouched as the album Blue Earth. The record has fallen in and out of print since then, but now it's back, thanks to the folks at Rykodisc and Restless, and with bonus tracks to boot. Listening to it now, it's easy to see why, after hearing it, producer George Drakoulias signed the band to American and singer/songwriter Joe Henry recruited the group to back him on his landmark Short Man's Room.

This is country rock of a very old-fashioned stripe, much more like Gram Parsons and Michael Nesmith's work in the 60s than the antiseptic Eagles/Poco sound of the 70s. Stripped down and soulful, the performances rely strictly on relaxed country/rock rhythms, dry guitar work (Louris' thickly distorted tone is mostly absent here, though his trademark lyricism is intact) and, of course, those infamous Olsen/Louris vocal harmonies. The record possesses a plainspoken, airy aura the band wouldn't reclaim until its recent masterpiece Rainy Day Music. The sonic atmosphere is perfectly suited to one of the 'hawks' most consistent set of songs. Snappy rockers like "Red Firecracker," "Sioux City" and "She's Not Alone Anymore" sound fresh and friendly, slapping you on the shoulder with words of advice and comfort. Stark ballads like "Ain't No End," "Dead End Angel" and "I'm Still Dreaming, Now I'm Yours" come across as intimate, wry confessions from the guy you just met at the end of the bar. "Commonplace Streets" is the anthem, complete with extended guitar solo, but the sparse production keeps it well away from bombast. And, of course, "Two Angels" (probably the brightest gem of the Olsen/Louris era) and "Martin's Song" would reappear in fuller form on the band's major label bow Hollywood Town Hall. Of the three bonus tracks, the country-heavy "Nightshade" is the best; though none of them are bad, it's the only one up to the standards of the album proper. Blue Earth is one of the Jayhawks' best records, holding up quite nicely even 14 years on. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of:
Uncle Tupelo: Neil Young, Jason & the Scorchers, the Gear Daddies
The Jayhawks: the Flying Burrito Brothers, Buffalo Springfield, Wilco's A.M.

Copyright © 2003 High Bias