New fan here!!

mikewilliamson
Posts: 137
Joined: Fri Jan 23, 2004 11:48 am

Post by mikewilliamson »

Ahh. Feels good to do a little Tweedy bash every now and then! He can take it. He's famous now.

I skip every Tweedy track on the first three albums except for Black Eye. His Anodyne stuff is (finally) enjoyable, though. But he just really blew until that album.


Mike

Trellis
Posts: 981
Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2004 11:49 am
Location: Peterborough, ON

Post by Trellis »

I'm hoping to get there. If I don't make it, I'll be the square one in the Kawarthas.

bigdaddy
Posts: 377
Joined: Mon Jan 26, 2004 4:34 pm
Location: Toronto

Post by bigdaddy »

If everybody else is coming out of the closet, I'll admit that I used to be a Tweedy skipper as well. Jay was my first love (of the Tupelo family) but Jeff eventually grew on me and now I love his stuff. Still love Jay better though.

On a side note, Trellis, I just noticed your location. I recommend taking the 2 1/2 hour drive down to the city for the show on the 17th. I'll be the one with bells on and a shit eating grin from ear to ear.

loosestring
Posts: 489
Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2003 8:38 pm
Location: where ever i'm at
Contact:

Re: New fan here!!

Post by loosestring »

Lawrence Fan wrote:robbed of a ptential titanic musical force in what UT might have become
what they might have become? it seems to me that they have become something. it appears that they have become one of the most influential groups among country/rock/alt. country fans and musicians. they had a tune in guitar world acoustic a couple months ago and now jay has something in gwa this month or next month i believe is what sharon said in the last mailing list post. it's somethin else man. i'm happy to see they are gaining fans and recognition. :D

Hank Snow
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Joined: Tue Sep 23, 2003 6:15 pm
Location: The Buckle of the Bible Belt

Tunes

Post by Hank Snow »

I love the Bottleneck in Lawrence, I saw the Jayhawks there many years ago. Great club, how cool to work so close and just walk to a gig if ya wanted.

I first heard Jay through Son Volt, when Trace first came out. At the time I had heard of Uncle Tupelo, but not heard them. I bought AM when it first came out as well and have been hooked on both since.

I would agree that within the boundaries of Uncle Tupelo, Tweedy's songs are sometimes lacking compared to Jay's (although the song Wherever on the remastered Anodyne is awesome and is as good as anything either of them ever did) , but once Wilco formed he just blossomed into an incredible talent, both in songwriting and voice. I think Wilco has done and continues to do (with Ghost) some of the most fantastic music out there.

I think both of them, Jay and Jeff, just continue to get better and better as they get older and continue to develop as artists. People always want to be sad about Tupelo breaking up, but imagine all this fantastic music we would have missed if they hadn't.

I hope to catch them both several more times this year. I need to get down south for Jay and hope to Catch Wilco up in Ontario in August.

What would we do without great music? Frank Zappa once said "Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production
deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid." I agree.

tedious
Posts: 119
Joined: Thu Nov 13, 2003 9:58 am
Location: Prahran, Melbourne, Australia

Post by tedious »

I have to agree with Cowboy and the new guy but with one glorious exception. Someone on the list recently said that Barstow was the greatest song that Gram Parsons never wrote...well I think New Madrid comes a close second. But, yes, skipping Tweedy songs is something I have done more than once.

cowboydown
Posts: 442
Joined: Fri Oct 17, 2003 11:43 am
Location: Potland

Head-Smashed-In

Post by cowboydown »

Trellis wrote:...cause for some reason I don't really like Tweedy's voice. Weird, cause I usually have colossal patience for rock voices. Anyway, I found I was always skipping certain songs on UT albums, and then realized that I consistently listened to the ones by Jay...
Hee hee. Classic. So I'm not the only one who skipped/skips over jeff's songs when listening to UT records. Hell, I don't even include his stuff in my UT mix tapes.

Trellis
Posts: 981
Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2004 11:49 am
Location: Peterborough, ON

Post by Trellis »

I'm new to the list, too, and feel inspired by Lawrence fan to introduce myself. Unlike a lot of Farrar fans, I came to know Jay's stuff via Son Volt. I first heard of Farrar and UT at a Son Volt concert in Montreal in 1997. Still my favorite concert ever. They were playing stuff from Straightaways, which is still my favorite Jay/UT/Son Volt album. Left a Slide is great.... I quickly got my hands on all the SV/UT albums. I've stuck with Jay but not really Wilco (though I do like the Mermaid Avenue stuff) cause for some reason I don't really like Tweedy's voice. Weird, cause I usually have colossal patience for rock voices. Anyway, I found I was always skipping certain songs on UT albums, and then realized that I consistently listened to the ones by Jay. Since then I've grown to like much of the Tweedy stuff, but I remain more interested in Jay's work. I last saw Jay in Edmonton in 2002. Good show!
Regarding Stone Steel and Bright Lights: I haven't read on this list any mention of what a great name for an album that is. All the UT/SV albums have great names, but I haven't been too pleased with the solo names to date.... Thirdshiftgrottoslack is kinda ugly, and Terroir Blues is kind of pretentious with all its double (triple?) entendres. When I very excitedly bought and listened to the excellent Sebastopol: A Project by Jay Farrar, I was a bit worried by the name. Why was Jay doing a project on a famous battle from the Crimean War? But it turns out it's the name of a West coast town and Jay just liked the sound of it. I hope next time he does this he thinks of my home town (and Joni Mitchell's): Saskatoon: A Project by Jay Farrar. Or perahps he can name it after the park near Medicine Hat, Alberta, called Head-Smashed-In. Anyway, all the other names are great, and SSBL wonderfully captures the feeling of Jay and live music. Awesome dvd too.
Cheers

mcarlton
Posts: 1365
Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2003 7:54 pm
Location: Abbey Road

Post by mcarlton »

Welcome aboard (Again!) You have many more great cd's to buy, I am so jealous. Then again I have no King Richard or Old 97's so I am hoping I have a few good ones in the queue...

Lawrence Fan
Posts: 6677
Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2004 7:36 pm
Location: The corner of Awesome and What The Hell?!?!

New fan here!!

Post by Lawrence Fan »

Well, that's not exactly true. A little background perhaps...

I was fortunate enough to grow up in St. Louis and to have seen Uncle Tupelo in the early years, Back when Blueberry Hill and Cicero's shared the same building and bands like The Bottlerockets and Blue Dixie were playing. For some reason UT slipped off my radar for the next 15 years until about 6 months ago. It turns out my boss booked a local band here in Lawrence, KS to come play in our office for about an hour on a Friday. I forget the name of the band, but they played a cover of No Depression. Well, the floodgates opened and since then I have been absorbing as much UT/Wilco/Volt/Farrar as possible.

I find myself drawn much more to the Farrar side of the UT split, but I like Tweedy's Wilco also. Anyway, I can't name every song on every album like many of you can, but something about Jay and his songwriting just really hits home with me. I love this stuff. Currently all I have from Farrar is Son Volts Trace and the new download-only Live In Seattle 7/24/04.

I've read quite a bit of the web material on UT and their Biographies, Discographies and reviews, and from what I've read I've discovered that I don't really have an opinion on the UT split, other than feeling that music fans have been robbed of a ptential titanic musical force in what UT might have become.

To be perfectly honest UT gets a lot more of my listening time than Farrar or Wilco, but if it's not UT then it's Farrar next. Here's hoping I can soon catch one of the "Tupelo and After" acts soon, either at the Bottleneck here in Lawrence (about 200 feet from my office door), The Bluenote in Columbia, MO (about 165 miles) or even in St. Louis.

How I missed the boat with these guys is beyond me, but count me as being firmly on board the UT/Tweedy/Farrar bandwagon now, and there's no jumping off planned for a long long time.

Personal favorites are Moonshiner, Still Be Around, Tear Stained Eye, Graveyard Shift and Barstow to name a few.

Fabulous stuff this is, simply beautiful!

Peace.

-gk-

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