Jay Farrar, alt.country legend, the leader of Son Volt and sadder half of Uncle Tupelo has released a really sad album in _Terroir Blues_. Jay's voice which is a bit of an acquired taste is sensitive without being wimpy and is in nice form on this album. The music is, for the most part, not-quite-finished sounding '70's singer-songwriter music along with questionably conceived backtracking and overdub experiments. There are some very pretty folk songs on here and Jay is generous enough to offer two takes of the
same songs. Usually one version is folky with acoustic blues-influenced lead guitar and spooky sounding pedal steel. The other version is more conventional electrified alt.country. I find the more electrified takes suit Jay much better. All of the songs are slow and, of course, sad.
For those of you wondering, the tracks called "Space Junk" are just backtracking experiments and have nothing to do with that Devo song.
Play this album with the something by the Sadies or Lowlights for a sad and spooky country set.

standout tracks: 19,3,7,13,15,18

1. spare, mostly just guitar and vocals
2. backtracked instrumental, no Devo reference here
3. weird echoey overlayed vocals, spacious pedal steel
4. bizarre acoustic blues groove and treated vocals
5. backtracking, supershort
6. more conventional sensitive pop song, shimmering, philosophical, a
little bouncey even
7. cello-driven, epic
8. sad pop song, starts acoustic, electric guitar comes in later, maybe
slightly upbeat towards end
9. spare, folky, with flute
10. ominous pedal-steel, then suddenly kinda upbeat with slick sounding
drums
11. More backtracking
12. acoustic, Jay singing about San Francisco & LA,tries to emote, becomes
'70's-songwriteresque
13. sad spacious short folk song
14. backtracking
15. piano-drive ballad, very '70's, but sincere and it works, nice pedal steel parts, give this a listen and make 100% sure that the melody isn't "I'll be right there waiting for
you"
16. acoustic blues-styled instrumental
17. backtracking, more interesting this time
18. revisiting track 6, sounds more upbeat and warmer, electric guitar
19. a normal take on 3
20. instrumental jam
21. alternate take on 8 with some unnerving repetetive piano backing,
treated vocals
22. more appealing than 1, but electric guitar enters and drums pick up
23. backtracking