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Alt-Country Pioneer To Perform At Stuart’s
By: Bryan Gibson
Posted on:
Jay Farrar
Stuart’s Opera House will welcome Jay Farrar, founder of alt-country pioneers Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt, on Friday, May 2 at 8 p.m. U.K. singer-songwriter Peter Bruntnell will open the show.
Currently based in St. Louis, Farrar formed Uncle Tupelo with then-bandmate Jeff Tweedy in 1987 in their hometown of Belleville, Illinois. Over the course of four albums, the group became a critics' favorite, and are often credited as being founders of the "alt-country" genre, which gained momentum in the early 1990s.
Two bands emerged from Uncle Tupelo's breakup in 1994: Son Volt, fronted by Farrar; and Wilco, which continues to be led by Tweedy. Son Volt's first album, Trace, topped several critics' lists in 1995, and the group continues to be well-regarded by fans and music journalists to this day.
Farrar's recent projects include One Fast Move Or I’m Gone: Music From Kerouac’s Big Sur (2009), a collaboration with Benjamin Gibbard of Death Cab For Cutie, and Son Volt's Hony Tonk (2013), which drew comparisons to the '60s Bakersfield sounds of Buck Owens and Merle Haggard.
Britain's New Musical Express once claimed that "Peter Bruntnell's records should be taught in schools." Although Bruntnell's albums are still absent from most schools' cirricula, Stuart's ticketholders can brush up on his material by listening to Retrospective, a recent collection of songs taken from his previous nine releases.
For more information or to purchase tickets, call (740) 753-1924 or visit www.stuartsoperahouse.org.
Peter Bruntnell