Notes of Blue largely offers what listeners have come to expect from Farrar.

We liked you better before!

Is it possible to discuss Jay Farrar without mentioning Jeff Tweedy and Wilco?

Twenty years ago, I asked a record store clerk what was playing, and I couldn’t understand her mumbled answer. Some Dolt? Sun Bowl? She repeated the name, pointing to the cover. Son Volt’s debut album Trace sounded familiar even if the band was new to me. I had admired singer Jay Farrar before in Uncle Tupelo. After that band fell …

[xrr rating=4.0/5]It’s a bittersweet pleasure to listen to Uncle Tupelo’s debut album No Depression with 24 years of hindsight. You can hear the band discovering themselves and developing their sound. It’s a snapshot from before the rancor set in. Their label, Rockville Records, hadn’t screwed them yet and the power struggle between Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy still lay ahead. …

For many people Uncle Tupelo’s legacy will always be as the group that gave birth to Wilco and Son Volt. It’s easy to forget that at the time of their final album, 1993’s Anodyne, they were often looked to as standard-bearers for alternative rock in and of themselves. After making their name as underground darlings who fused the blistering punk …