Son Volt: Honky Tonk

"MR: Your new Son Volt album, Honky Tonk, is the band's musical follow up to American Central Dust, right? JF: Yes, absolutely. It's a continuation of a lot of the sound and instrumentation of American Central Dust, but also it's a continuum going back to the first song off the very first record--'Windfall,' off Trace. Basically, it's getting back to a fiddle and steel guitar aesthetic that was very prominent on that first song on the first record. MR: These last couple albums feel like they have a little more of a mission. I know you're not mimicking him and you don't 'sound' like him, but Gram Parsons comes to mind when I hear your music lately. JF: There's definitely an element of wanting to acknowledge and pay homage to country music from the '50s and early '60s. That's the type of music that I was finding inspirational. I've been learning to play the pedal steel guitar, and I've been playing it out in St. Louis in a local band. So I really became immersed in that kind of music, and I've really followed the pedal steel guitar playing of Ralph Mooney in particular. I just really got caught up in it and sort of found myself in that mindset when it came time to write songs for this record" (Mike Ragogna, "Honky Tonk: Chatting with Son Volt's Jay Farrar," Huffington Post, 4/5/13).

View catalog record here!