Uncle Tupelo – No Depression (Two Disc Deluxe Reissue)

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uncletupeloAs Jay Farrar, Jeff Tweedy, and Mike Heidorn piloted their battered touring van up the eastern seaboard in the midst of an Arctic-like winter to Boston’s Fort Apache Sound, it’s doubtful they envisioned themselves as heartland saviors or inventors of newfangled musical genres. Sure, they were driven and motivated to make good on the investment of Rockville Records, who had seen fit to snap up one of CMJ’s “Best Unsigned Bands”, but a few years of touring had hardened an honesty and unflinching authenticity into Uncle Tupelo’s music that left them skeptical and oblivious to flowery praise and music executive branding exercises.

Though the results of these sessions would spawn a chronically imprecise movement called alt-country, lend its’ name to the creation of a heralded music publication, and like The Replacements and Husker Du before them, inspire countless others to pick up guitars, in 1990, No Depression served simply as a national launching pad for a band that appeared poised for greatness, but would instead soon outgrow its’ modest limitations.

As part of a Legacy Edition reissue,  No Depression gets the deluxe treatment here, with a two-disc set comprised of the original 13 tracks plus five “odds and ends”, and a second set featuring the long bootlegged, but never officially released demo tapes that set the word spreading. These recordings hearken back to a simpler time in both Farrar’s and Tweedy’s universe, a time when they were both in their early 20’s trading songs and testing out stylistic explorations with breakneck ferocity. They were hungry to be heard and followed their creative urges down several avenues from punk-rock snarl to shifty time changes and wah-wah power chords to acoustic sing-alongs.

It’s an exciting listen and one whose power reveals itself even greater with the re-mastered and amplified audio provided on this reissue. For three main musicians they certainly made a lot of noise and since a good majority of fans caught up to the band following their all-too-soon breakup not too later, the album seems to serve as a pretty fair replication of an Uncle Tupelo live show. The second disc may not bear many repeated listens amongst newcomers or casual fans, but lots of secrets lie waiting in these demo tapes. The raw versions of the original material, set bare from much of their sonic assault, reveal the forlorn perspective that carries much of the album’s perspective. Life ain’t always easy, and people find ways to cope by whatever means necessary. This is something Farrar and Tweedy seemed to understand well, despite their formative ages, and they incorporate these struggles into their songwriting with an honest and lived-in air.

And, it’s the lyrics, that set Uncle Tupelo apart from some of their contemporaries at the time, and it’s the lyrics that have helped cement their legacy. A blue collar sensibility permeates the mood of nearly every song as Farrar’s and Tweedy’s characters contemplate the narrow perspectives of their small town lifestyle and wonder if things could be different if given the chance to escape. There are no easy answers, so solace is often found in the bottle: “Whiskey bottle over Jesus/Not forever, just for now”, sings Farrar on the slow grinder “Whiskey Bottle”. Later, in “Life Worth Livin;” he howls into the midnight wind over lamenting acoustic strums and gets quasi-philosophical: “Looks like we’re all looking for a life worth livin’/That’s why we drink ourselves to sleep”, while Tweedy chimes in one song later on “Flatness” with cheery resignation: “Beer makes you weary/But you need something to get along”. The characters in these songs know that something better probably awaits, but like many who’ve only known one small town lack the motivation or the wherewithal to act, so they sit and they wait, as Tweedy sums up towards the album’s end:  “Down here we don’t care/we don’t care what happens outside the screen door”.

Of course, nearly a quarter century has passed since these songs were recorded and at the time, much of the country was still reeling from the downside of Reaganomics and the capitalist urges of the fend-for-oneself 1980’s. Farrar, Tweedy, and Heidorn followed the ideals of Guthrie, Seeger, and Cash, so it makes sense that they chose to cast their lot with the working man. Growing up in rural Belleville, Illinois also lent credibility to their narratives, as they wrote and sang from a lot of first-hand observation while weaving in elements of the folk tradition to augment their more rock-oriented musical perspectives. Rather than use alcohol, provincialism, and rustic sensibilities as an Everyman motif like mainstream country artists did then and do now, Uncle Tupelo embraced these elements and saw them as a way of life for many Americans. Likewise, and in opposition to the burgeoning grunge movement of the time frame, they refused to distance themselves or put on a fake persona. They embraced who they were and incorporated unfashionable elements (steel guitar, fiddle, two-part harmonies) that other bands would run from. They were uncompromising with their ethos and the end results sound like a band satisfied with the direction and focus of their sound.

However, like with most things in life that satisfaction wore out. Farrar, Tweedy, and Heidorn made four masterpiece albums in four years before tensions and disagreements drove them apart. The rest is well-documented: Farrar and Heidorn formed Son Volt, while Tweedy formed Wilco. Uncle Tupelo fans moaned and pined for a reunion before consoling themselves with the fact that there are now two bands to love, albeit with vastly different sized venues in which to see them play live. And it remains difficult to listen to Uncle Tupelo without allowing the “movement” left in their wake and past 20 years of their members’ ensuing work to influence perspective. This No Depression reissue, though, can serve as a good reminder to ignore all of that and just concentrate on the beautiful noise they all made together when they were young, hungry, and “looking for a way out”.

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