Jay Farrar Quotes (11 Quotes)

After doing the solo records, I was playing a lot of acoustic shows and just began missing the band dynamic. So getting back to Son Volt was, for me, finishing unfinished business.

You're sort of shaped by your environment in a way. I don't know if it affects every songwriter in the same way, but there must be something to it. If you're living in a busy city environment, you're going to write differently than if you're sitting in a Thoreau cabin by a lake somewhere.

Whenever I get a chance, I still find a song I can still relate to. I was in my early 20s when (the Uncle Tupelo) songs were written. As the years go by, it gets a little harder to relate to songs that were written so long ago.

Having gone through a period of making solo records and performing with just one other guy, Mark Spencer, I really missed the idea of playing in a group dynamic. We're doing a set that is focused on the new album, but we'll be doing other Son Volt material as well -- and we could be going back to Uncle Tupelo, too.

I'm glad we were able to do that tribute for Alejandro. That's sort of a last positive effort that we all contributed to. I think it was just a good way to go out.

It was a hugely devastating situation for me. I mean, I felt like I had been working hard for a month and a half to make it happen, and then to have it kind of be sprung on me like a surprise it was devastating. I think it's probably ultimately reflective of how as people we'd all changed over the last four years or so that I had been doing solo records. I guess the whole dynamic of the band had changed and people had developed different priorities, I think.

Woody has always been a reference point for me, as well a source of inspiration along the way. I was brought up around his music at a pretty early age, ... The reference in the song relates more to the way my own children have become fans, I guess (laughs). If there was no Highway 61, we may not have had Bob Dylan or Leadbelly .

I think I just sort of felt like with the original incarnation of Son Volt we'd hit a wall, ... I didn't want to necessarily be the person who had to crack the whip to try to push people in a certain direction that they didn't want to go.

My son loves Guthrie's 'Deportee,' ... and he's going through a lot of those old songs. I was exposed to his music early on as a kid through my folks, and now I'm coming back to it full circle with my kids reading his books and listening to his CDs. He's got all that kid-oriented material.

I felt like I just wanted to get back to Son Volt, after having done the solo records. I just began to miss the group dynamic. (Son Volt) has always kind of represented a vehicle for putting out a certain type of songs and songwriting.

serves as a sort of inspirational character or a point of reference when thinking about topical issues. He had a willingness to take social injustice head-on and write about it.