Son Volt frontman Jay Farrar will release his first solo album, Sebastapol, on September 25th. The album is his first batch of new songs since Son Volt's 1998 release, Wide Swing Tremolo.

Rather than recording with his post-Uncle Tupelo unit, Son Volt (which included drummer Mike Heidorn, bassist Jim Boquist and guitarist Dave Boquist) Farrar enlisted a number of friends to lend a hand on Sebastopol. Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster shares time-keeping duty with Matt Pence, while former Bottle Rocket Tom Ray adding bass through most of the album. Gillian Welch and David Rawlings add vocals and lap steel, respectively, to "Barstow," while Kelly Joe Phelps plays slide guitar on "Outside the Door." The Flaming Lips' Steven Drodze plays keyboards on five of the album's tracks, and Farrar's brother Dade, with whom he played prior to his stint with Uncle Tupelo, adds stand up bass to a track.

"Most of these songs were written in a slack key or in alternate tunings that I either looked up or made up," Farrar said of the record. "Using alternate tunings seems to clear one's head and focus one's brain when writing. I also learned to embrace some instrumentation that I had previously eschewed. There is a liberation of sorts in doing that."

Sebastapol's track listing:

Feel Free
Clear Day Thunder
Voodoo Candle
Barstow
Damn Shame
Damaged Son
Prelude (Make It Alright)
Dead Promises
Feed Kill Chain
Drain
Different Eyes
Outside the Door
Direction
Vitamins

ANDREW DANSBY
(August 23, 2001)