Outskirts of Country Blog

Son of American Central Dust

Rick Teverbaugh  |  July 7, 2009

As previously mentioned, I believe Jay Farrar has produced the most consistently pleasing work out of the Uncle Tupelo split. I quickly fell in love with Trace and from a content and presentation standpoint, the new American Central Dust is the closest Son Volt or Farrar as a solo artist has come to recapturing that.

With just over 24 hours spent with the disc it feels solid end-to-end without any unrealized potential from any of the 12 songs.

It doesn't take long for this release to get rolling. Dynamite shows the band's rootsy side as it fuzzes its way through the speakers. Ditto with the next cut, Down to the Wire. Former Blood Oranges' member Mark Spencer is the star of Dust of Daylight with his pedal steel work.

That just covers three of the first five songs. The disc deals with some history, distant and recent. Cocaine and Ashes recalls the bizarre yet somehow touching comments by the Rolling Stones' Keith Richards upon his father's death while Sultana goes back to 1865 for a maritime lesson.

Joe Henry was involved in mixing the disc, which is the first for the group since joining Rounder Records. I believe this disc is only going to grow on me as time goes by. Let me know what you think here