son volt union

​Son Volt (from the album Union available on Transmit Sound)
 
The ninth studio album, Union, from Son Volt finds songwriter, band-mainstay and leader, Jay Farrar, in political critique. He is calling it like he sees it and what Son Volt sees as the state of things on Union is that things aren’t right. Union is Jay Farrar’s protest album, all the way down to laying this recording on hallowed protest ground, splitting studio locations between The Mother Jones Museum in Illinois and The Woody Guthrie Center in Oklahoma. The atmospheric roots music that is the identifiable sound of Son Volt is a constant presence on Union. There is an inescapable dark musical vibe coursing along the tracks, perfectly matched with the lyrical reality in the storylines.
 
From album opener, While Rome Burns”, the tale condemning people idly standing by in an effort to keep America in the past while ‘pissing away what others died to create, we fiddle while Rome burns’ to “The 99” where Jay Farrar sings of those souls ‘with no spot at the table, hopes and dreams have died, the 99-percent have been taken for a ride’, a tone that is set when the ones in power are fine as they keep the masses complacent and powerless. Throughout the album, Jay Farrar is asking his country ‘what happened, and how did we get here’, even asking the harbor figure of Lady Liberty in the song of the same name ‘are you here?’ and hearing her ‘sighing at the words of the highest office’. “Truth to Power Blues” is a Psych-Blues instrumental and “Rebel Girl” speaks of the influence, and need, of strong women when times are tough. “The Symbol” is the last track on Union, its story taking on immigration and deportation in the quiet, respectful closer. Union is a record with beauty within the hush of the music and thought-provoking power in the questions son Volt are asking.
 
Listen and buy the music of Son Volt from AMAZON
http://sonvolt.net/

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