Play Or Nay

Son Volt - Okemah And The Melody Of Riot (Transmit Sound/Legacy)

"Bandages & Scars" seems an appropriate title as the lead off track of the first Son Volt album in seven years. While the title may suggest the thumps Jay Farrar took from his former bandmates in reforming the band, it is just a small stroke to a larger painting Farrar is presenting.

It might be said that Jay Farrar and Son Volt are one in the same. How listeners distinguish between a solo effort and a band effort is by simply looking at whose name is on the album. That's all well and fine. But for some Son Volt fans, it's been a good wait since 1998's Wide Swing Tremolo. Original members Dave and Jim Boquist and Mike Heidorn, Farrar's drummer since Uncle Tupelo, took a pass on a new Son Volt album. What they have taken a pass on is an excited Farrar on an electric guitar with things to say.

The album's title references Woody Guthrie's hometown of Okemah, Oklahoma. The political consciousness of Guthrie seems to have rubbed off on Farrar; clearly evident in the line, "The words of Woody Guthrie ringing in my head." On "Jet Pilot," President George W. Bush and his father, former President George H. Bush Sr., take the blunt end of Farrar's pen. To say Farrar is soft with his criticism of President George W. Bush and the conflict in Iraq, that would be an understatment. "Endless War" voices the sentiment, "Still trying to understand/How another wrong makes a right." Farrar isn't suddenly stepping into the spotlight of political activist, but he is commenting as an individual, a citizen, a husband, and a father on the world he lives in.

It seems that Son Volt has opened a new chapter for Farrar. Okemah And The Melody Of Riot is the most potent collection of material from Farrar in recent years. "6 String Belief" and "Afterglow 61" capture Farrar's still burning fire for rock and roll and its optimism that it can carry in an age of cynicism. But it's the album's final moments that gives it a graceful conclusion. "World Waits For You" places Farrar at the piano. Its flowing soulfulness receives a boost from his gentle delivery which give it a romantic touch.

It is Farrar's newfound musicality that has brought a breath of fresh air to a band that has been dormant for seven years and a songwriter who hasn't lost sight of the bigger picture.