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Gob Iron
For a while there, I got the impression that Jay Farrar was coasting a bit. Each album after Son Volt’s debut offered a bit less in new ideas than the previous effort, and the Greatest Hits collection seemed to put a capper on things. Then Farrar revitalized Son Volt with a new line-up, and his creativity once again became readily apparent on “Okemah and the Melody of Riot”.
The side project Gob Iron proves that album was no fluke. Farrar is on fire once again, and “Death Songs for the Living” makes that point quite nicely. Teaming up with Anders Parker of Vernaline, the duo digs deep into the ballads and folk songs of rural America, turning them inside out while maintaining respect for the folk tradition. In that sense, this record is not too unlike Dylan’s latest opus, “Modern Times.”
The American folk idiom can be full of dark tales, especially when it comes to ballads. Greil Marcus called it “old, weird America,” and that is mostly what this consists of; songs of sickness, bad luck, death and disease, all told through the voice of a protagonist that could be almost 200 years old. Remarkably, the collection never sounds morbid. Instead, it compels the listener to a state of sympathy. The pace is laconic, but only to the point that it suits the subject matter. “Nicotine Blues” is a brilliant example, utilizing the melody of “Coo Coo Bird” (see Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music for the ‘original’ recording) to convey what every smoker instinctively fears but intuitively denies. Parker and Farrar use excellent judgment in their song choices, even reaching back as far as Stephen Foster for a mid-eighteenth century song about “Hard Times.” The Stanley Brothers and the Carter Family also provide excellent source material (“Wayside Tavern” and East Virginia Blues,” respectively).
In my opinion, too many folk artists distance themselves from the riches of our past by trying too hard to be contemporary and unique. Farrar and Parker do the exact opposite, and in the process they created an album that is both contemporary and unique.
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