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CANADA'S MUSIC AUTHORITY
Year in Review 2003
BEST FOLK, COUNTRY AND BLUES ALBUM
December 2nd, 2003
by Jason Schneider

1. Jay Farrar - Terroir Blues (ActResist / Artemis)
Jay Farrar’s muse has gone from Uncle Tupelo’s revolutionary take on traditional American music, to Son Volt’s more streamlined country-rock, to now, as a solo artist, an almost abstract expressionism. With Terroir Blues, Farrar’s progression has reached its apogee. It’s an uncompromisingly personal album, full of spontaneous creations and a general "work-in-progress" vibe. But it also remains true to his vision of a disconnected America; one that still holds on dearly to a history built on surviving hard times.

"That’s sort of the way it’s always felt around here," Farrar says from his St. Louis home, near his birthplace of Belleville, Illinois. "This part of the country always seems to be struggling with its past and present. It’s always finding its place and coming to terms with its relevance."

The same could be said of Farrar’s musical approach on this album, as well as his previous solo effort, 2001’s Sebastopol, which was essentially a collaboration with the Flaming Lips’ Steven Drozd. But, Terroir Blues seems more like a true solo effort, and purposefully challenging in its intent.

"Making this record was a satisfying experience, especially coming off Sebastopol, which was more about building the songs in the studio," he says. "This was more an approach of getting some guys together and recording live as much as possible, then adding things later."

The most prominent add-ons were the interwoven "Space Junk" tape loop segments, not to mention the alternate versions of six songs. It suggests Farrar was deconstructing his creative process. "Apart from the backwards tape stuff, which I’ve wanted to do for a long time but always seemed to get sidetracked, the only conscious effort to deconstruct things would have been as a reaction to the last album. This one was much more organic from the start.