American Central Dust

The latest release from Son Volt presents Jay Farrar doing much of what he’s been doing since his days in Uncle Tupelo, with the same voice and guitars leading the way. Promo touts the album’s featuring of fiddle, pedal steel, lap steel, and sparkling piano, all of which can be found quite frequently throughout the tracks. No FCCs detected.

*1- (2:50) Excellent track, midtempo dusty sound combining Farrar’s voice with acoustic & electric guitars, and a
*2- (4:20) Sounds a bit similar to some of Joe Strummer’s late downbeat tracks, many different instruments providing a unique, chilled out sound.
3- (3:10) Downtempo, lots of steel guitar, lonely feeling to it.
*4- (4:31) Tribute to Keith Richards and the legend of him cutting cocaine with his father’s ashes; great piano work introduces and carries this piece, also features a serious fiddle. Quiet backing vocals, somber tone.
5- (3:07) Steel guitar heavy, midtempo rhythm, fiddle, sounds same throughout.
*6- (3:21) Crunching guitars open, song trods along with heavy drums and very distorted guitars. Oddly enough, the end of this sounds like a slightly more country version of something by Porcupine Tree during their Lightbulb Sun period.
7- (3:35) More upbeat, mostly guitars with a touch of backing organ
8- (4:25) Slow, quiet, depressing to open. Steel guitar and some harmonizing end carry this track along, pretty repetitive.
9- (4:22) Lots of soaring steel guitar and piano, pretty straightforward Son Volt song.
10- (3:48) Song about a relatively unknown steamboat explosion which killed 1800 people in 1865; piano and fiddle drive song which is moderately repetitive.
11- (3:35) Straightforward alt-country track, midtempo, builds a little.
12- (2:56) Louder, more electric track closes the album. Pretty standard pop song structure.