Son Volt LIVE 6 String Belief [DVD]

Description

Product Description 1. Who 2. Bandages & Scars 3. 6 String Belief 4. Atmosphere 5. Gramaphone 6. Back into Your World 7. Joe Citizen Blues 8. Medicine Hat 9. Ipecac 10. Damn Shame 11. Feel Free 12. Barstow 13. Loose String 14. Choas Streams 15. Live Free 16. Clear Day Thunder 17. Picking Up The Signal 18. Jet pilot 19. Endless War 20. Route 21. Straightface 22. Caryatid Easy 23. Driving The View 24. Medication 25. Drown 26. Afterglow 61 27. World Waits for You 28. Tear Stained Eye 29. Windfall 30. Armagideon Time 31. Chickamauga .com Recorded in Asheville, North Carolina in 2005, Six String Belief celebrates Jay Farrar's entire career, making it the undisputed motherlode for the singer-songwriter's fans. Featuring a more than generous 31 songs, the two-hour concert obviously focuses on his current band, Son Volt (including every tune from the 2005 CD Okemah and the Melody of Riot, their first release since the late '90s), but Farrar's previous group, Uncle Tupelo, and his solo work are represented as well. Some call it alt-country, others prefer Americana; any way you slice it, Farrar and his spirited band are in good form here, evoking such influences as Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, R.E.M., and the Sweetheart of the Rodeo-era Byrds. Yet despite the career overview aspect, there simply isn't a lot of variety. Farrar does all the singing, with occasional harmony contributions from bass player Andrew Duplantis, and while what one critic described as his "perfectly ramshackle" voice is distinctive in a Michael Stipe kind of way, it's limited in range and monotonous (not to mention fairly often out of tune). Same goes for the band's driving, chordal rock sound; one welcomes the acoustic interludes, especially the trio of "World Waits for You," "Tear Stained Eye," and "Windfall" that comes near the end. It would also have been nice if Farrar had uttered more than a word or two between songs (bonus material includes an OK-but-hardly-scintillating interview). Of course, these complaints will sound churlish to the faithful, who have every reason to rejoice over this good-sounding, fine-looking, bargain-priced release. --Sam Graham