Photograph: J.Wagner & S.Waugh
Jay Farrar's list of accomplishments seems altogether too long for someone who has not yet reached 50 years old.
The Belleville, Illinois native was one of the pioneering members of alt-country legends Uncle Tupelo, which split up in 1994. After the split, the band members divided, forming the Farrar lead Son Volt and Wilco, fronted by Jeff Tweedy.
Son Volt released three well-received records before unceremoniously going on hiatus in 1999. Two years later, Farrar began working on solo projects which have ranged from stripped-down solo albums to a collaboration with Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie to set the words of Jack Kerouac to music.
However, it is the Woody Guthrie album Farrar released this year that is one of his most important achievements. The album, entitled New Multitudes, has been in the works for years, timed for release the year of Guthrie's 100th birthday. The album—on which Farrar collaborated with Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Will Johnson of Centro-Matic and Anders Parker—features original tunes written by all of the featured musicians for lyrics Guthrie wrote during the late-'40s and early-'50s.
Farrar has talked extensively about the role Guthrie has played in his own musical development. So, he says, the chance to actually help bring Guthrie's music to life was "inspirational across the board."
"Woody was an icon—an archetype," Farrar continues. "He was the first guy to put forth the idea that music can change the world. It's whether or not people let it."
While many people could be overwhelmed by the task of bringing their idol's unfinished work to life, Farrar relished the challenge.
"In many respects, it's kind of a fresh approach," he says of working with someone else's music. "You step aside from the normal approach and normal mindset that you go into with the recording process. It's a lot less self-analysis, a lot less self-conscious. So I found the process to be kind of a different approach."
In addition to the Guthrie project, the Farrar and Gibbard album based on the writing of Jack Kerouac—One Fast Move Or I'm Gone: Music from Kerouac's Big Sur—gave Farrar another opportunity to work with the work of one of his idols.
Gibbard and Farrar met when they were contacted to write the soundtrack to a Kerouac documentary which shares a title with the album.
"Ben and I went in with a mutual admiration of Jack Kerouac. We had never met each other before but we found out we had a lot in common, as well."
While the project differed slightly as he was working with words that were not originally lyrics "in form and structure" as Guthrie's were, Farrar says he has always felt that Kerouac's writing was "relatively more conducive to putting to music."
"What has always drawn me to the work of Jack Kerouac," he continues. "Is his style, it's more stream of consciousness."
Farrar says it felt like he was "going full circle" by performing Kerouac's words as they have always been a great inspiration to him.
Yet now he has, once again, returned to the band he helmed, saying that an album new Son Volt album is slated for release early next year.
As for the other bands at LouFest: he's collaborated with Flaming Lips' Steve Drozd on one solo project, but "I've never played with [the Flaming Lips] before...not even in a bunny suit."
