After searching for a new creative focus during the first half of the new millennium with a handful of disappointing solo albums,
Jay Farrar finally hit a groove again by taking a step backward and reviving his band
Son Volt on the 2005 album
Okemah and the Melody of Riot.
Okemah was
Farrar's strongest music since
Son Volt's 1995 debut, and in 2006 he once again played to his strengths by gesturing toward his musical past with a new project,
Gob Iron.
Gob Iron finds
Farrar collaborating with singer and multi-instrumentalist
Anders Parker of
Varnaline, but in many ways their first album feels like a variation on the themes of
Uncle Tupelo's masterful acoustic album, March 16-20, 1992. Like March 16-20,
Death Songs for the Living is dominated by traditional folk songs, which in this case have been lyrically and musically fashioned into new shapes by
Farrar and
Parker, and while the occasional electric instrument drifts in and out of the picture, the arrangements are purposefully spare and celebrate the simplicity of these songs rather than trying to twist them into more elaborate forms. While
Parker doesn't take as active a role on this album as
Jeff Tweedy did on
Uncle Tupelo's acoustic opus, he does contribute powerful lead vocals on "Hills of Mexico" and "Wayside Tavern," and there's a undertow of post-rock stoicism (attributable to both
Parker and
Farrar) that sets this music apart from the modern-folkie simplicity of March 16-20.
Gob Iron's album isn't as striking or as immediately powerful as
Uncle Tupelo's acoustic effort, if only because
Farrar has walked a similar path before, but the music here is strong, deeply felt, and speaks of a genuine commitment to keeping the folk tradition alive through a willingness to challenge its structures; it also reveals
Parker is one of the best and most effective collaborators
Farrar has brought into the studio since leaving
Uncle Tupelo, and this deserves to be more than a one-off project. ~ Mark Deming