Jay Farrar

Jay hasn't put out a album, solo or band, that I really liked since Terroir Blues.

Great minds...

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2 ... ign=160405


Tim in the ATL

I do think it's a legitimate concern given how exactly the last album title so closely foretold the content of the album.

Heard about circumstances
Heard about the devil's son-in-law
Heard about the high sheriff from hell
Heard about the great migration
Heard about the barrel house
And ragtime in the parlor room downstairs

Can you hear the hum outside the door?
Can you hear the hum outside the door?
Can you hear the hum outside the door?
Can you hear the hum? Can you hear the hum?

Steady roll and jelly jaw heard about the hoover ville
Heard about the long gone stevedores
Heard about prohibition
Heard about the sukey jump wasn't there to hear
"Come on in my kitchen"

Can you hear the strum outside the door?
Can you hear the strum outside the door?
Can you hear the strum outside the door?
Can you hear the strum? Can you hear the strum?

Heard about a gaslight square
Heard about down deep Morgan
Heard you can't find mill creek anywhere

Heard about circumstances
Heard about the devil's son-in-law
Heard about the high sheriff from hell

Can you hear the drum outside the door?
Can you hear the drum outside the door?
Can you hear the drum outside the door?
Can you hear the drum? Can you hear the drum?

So what did everyone think before the release of Wide Swing Tremolo? Jay doing his best Benny Goodman?

Premonitions of pink? Belleville native Greg Silsby, singer-songwriter of blues, has opened for him. St. Louis has a new National Blues Museum. (Now how did Chuck Berry get in there? And a jug band section? Ah, well, it's interactive and that makes it all worthwhile!)

lets hope he's not sad.

wrecking ball operator wrote:I remember Red House Painters released an album in the 90s called songs for a blue guitar. Then I thought, this has nary a blues song on it. It was a nice mix of acoustic songs and hard rockin' gems. Maybe the guitar was just sad. Let's hope this new SV album follows close to that formula.

But then again Mark K. can play circles around Jay...

An important point here... Though Jay has said that some of his new songs have a blues feel, how do we know what to make of a title like 'Notes of Blue'? For all we know this could just be a really sad (i.e. blue) record. Or it could be a title track, the album simply named after that track.

In any case, I can't friggin wait to hear it.

Tim in the ATL

Love Jackson wrote:Alright, I'm going to say it...

The title of this new album scares me. Honky Tonk has some moments of triumph (I'll put Angel of the Blues on any Jay best of list), but most of it sounds cliche to me. Like an artist going out of his way to make a record that sounds like other country artists/classic country. It sounds like a nostalgia act and that's why Honky Tonk does not stand the test of time for me. I don't think I'll ever listen to it in its entirety again.

Now, this new title Notes of Blue makes me scared I might be getting a Jay Farrar plays the blues record... I'm going to get a bunch of songs with classic blues timing and instrumentation. I know it's against the rules around here to criticize Jay's work, so I figured I'd do it before it ever came out.

Anybody else feeling this way?

Yes, alas, I feel the same way about Honky Tonk and hope this isn't a similar exercise. As others have said, though, who knows what to make of the name - a whole album of songs as good as Hanging Blue Side would be awesome; Notes of the Blue could be a reference to jazz as much as the blues, so maybe Jay finally picks up the sax and wails crazy!

I remember Red House Painters released an album in the 90s called songs for a blue guitar. Then I thought, this has nary a blues song on it. It was a nice mix of acoustic songs and hard rockin' gems. Maybe the guitar was just sad. Let's hope this new SV album follows close to that formula.

But then again Mark K. can play circles around Jay...

Hanging Blue Side ranks in my top five or so SV songs , so I'm hoping...

St Louis Blues y'all....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Louis_blues_(music)

Even IF he did go this route, I'd hope he'd put his own twist to it.

Piano based blues with some electric guitar, shit I don't know what the lyrical content would come of it, but I'm not ruling anything out.

Love Jackson wrote:Alright, I'm going to say it...

The title of this new album scares me. Honky Tonk has some moments of triumph (I'll put Angel of the Blues on any Jay best of list), but most of it sounds cliche to me. Like an artist going out of his way to make a record that sounds like other country artists/classic country. It sounds like a nostalgia act and that's why Honky Tonk does not stand the test of time for me. I don't think I'll ever listen to it in its entirety again.

Now, this new title Notes of Blue makes me scared I might be getting a Jay Farrar plays the blues record... I'm going to get a bunch of songs with classic blues timing and instrumentation. I know it's against the rules around here to criticize Jay's work, so I figured I'd do it before it ever came out.

Anybody else feeling this way?

I'd be lying if I said that this very thought hadn't occurred to me as well. Where I'd disagree, however, is that I think Honky Tonk has many more moments of triumph than just Angel of the Blues. Barricades, Seawall, Livin' On, Down the Highway. And Shine On is the best song on the record. Most of the others though, I agree... Don't think they are among his best work.

But I have high hopes for Notes of Blue. I highly doubt that this is a blues concept album. My thinking is that the blues is much more natural to Jay's sound generally than is honky tonk. I know Jay enjoys listening to honky tonk music, but his own music has really sounded nothing like honky tonk with the exception of the record by the same name. The blues, on the other hand, organically infuses a ton of his best work to date. The blues is all over Sebastopol, One Fast Move or I'm Gone, New Multitudes, Terroir Blues, and Gob Iron. It's just a much more natural fit.

And anytime Jay is holding an electric guitar, magic is in the works.

Tim in the ATL

Alright, I'm going to say it...

The title of this new album scares me. Honky Tonk has some moments of triumph (I'll put Angel of the Blues on any Jay best of list), but most of it sounds cliche to me. Like an artist going out of his way to make a record that sounds like other country artists/classic country. It sounds like a nostalgia act and that's why Honky Tonk does not stand the test of time for me. I don't think I'll ever listen to it in its entirety again.

Now, this new title Notes of Blue makes me scared I might be getting a Jay Farrar plays the blues record... I'm going to get a bunch of songs with classic blues timing and instrumentation. I know it's against the rules around here to criticize Jay's work, so I figured I'd do it before it ever came out.

Anybody else feeling this way?

I'm sure I'm not alone in the constant search for any breaking news
on Notes of Blue. Found this article from American Songwriter that
has no mention of the new work but instigates the joy of collecting
fresh Farrar classics in 2016.
http://americansongwriter.com/2010/12/t ... rar-songs/