Uncle Tupelo: Anodyne ---Ink Blot Magazine

Uncle Tupelo: Anodyne

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Uncle Tupelo,
"Fifteen Keys"

at a glance...

Hometown: Belleville, IL
Year Formed: 1988

Members:
Jay Farrar -vocals, guitar
Jeff Tweedy -guitar, bass, vocals
Ken Coomer - drums
Max Johnston -banjo, fiddle, mandolin, lap steel
John Stirrat -bass, guitar
Lloyd Maines -pedal steel

Bands in the family:
Wilco, Son Volt, Golden Smog, The Jayhawks, The Bottle Rockets

Notes:
Uncle Tupelo (originally The Primitives) grew out of the boyhood friendship between Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy, and their shared obsession with rock 'n' roll. By 1994 the friendship and band had crumbled, sending Tweedy off to form Wilco and Farrar to carry on with Son Volt. In between they reshaped the sound of the American underground, reclaiming traditional music with a punk rock attitude and a killer songwriter's knack. Over the course of four albums and innumerable tours Uncle Tupelo developed a rabid following and even fathered a movement - named after their first album, No Depression - of underground country rock bands.

Uncle Tupelo
Anodyne
Sire, Released 1993

Anodyne sure doesn't sound like the last gasp of a great band. If the competition between Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar helped split the band, it also drove them to some of their greatest achievements on this album.

Farrar's moody side never sounded so tuneful as it does on "Fifteen Keys," or "Slate," both of which you'd call "laments" if you were a pretentious music critic. And you'd be right: Fiddle and lap steel, dragged deep into cliche by 25 years of lousy country music, sound reborn behind the sadness of Farrar's lyrics. So when he lets loose on rockers like "Chickamauga" and Doug Sahm's "Give Back the Key to My Heart," you can really appreciate the release.

Rockers, of course, are Jeff Tweedy's specialty. A fan of the Stones and The Clash as much as Gram Parsons, Tweedy's voice is perfect for crackling, stop and go fun like "The Long Cut" and "We've Been Had." But Tweedy gets the blues too, and the wasted philosophizing of "New Madrid," "No Sense in Lovin'" and "Acuff-Rose" stand up to his partner's weepies.

Which, it seems was the secret. Using each other as inspiration and foil, Tweedy and Farrar were at their best. Too bad it had to end.

If you like Uncle Tupelo, check out:
Uncle Tupelo Still Feel Gone
Wilco Being There
Wilco A.M.
Flying Burrito Brothers Hot Burritos!
The Replacements Hootenanny
Varnaline Sweet Life
The Band Music From Big Pink
Lucinda Williams Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
Pinetop Seven Rigging The Toplights

-- jf

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