New Son Volt Album Expected in August 2005

Son Volt will release their fourth album in August of 2005. If you only know Son Volt as Jay Farrar's band then the fact that he's the only remaining member from the original line-up won't phase you much. If you're going to miss Mike Heidorn and the Boquists, then you'll be interested in Farrar's explanation:

“Times change, and so do people, I guess. While I was looking forward to the reunion aspect of working with those guys, it just wasn’t meant to be. It’ll be liberating to get down to work with a different group of musicians. I had always envisioned Son Volt as a vehicle for my songwriting and expected it to evolve over the years. When I reformed the original band this year to record our track for Por Vida [the Alejandro Escovedo benefit album], it seemed like we might be able to extend that two-day session into two years of recording and touring--but it doesn’t look that way now.”

The new cast of characters includes Brad Rice on guitar (Ryan Adams, Tift Merritt), Andrew Duplantis on bass (Jon Dee Graham, Meat Puppets, Bob Mould), Eric Heywood on pedal steel (Son Volt, Calexico) and Dave Bryson on drums (Canyon). The upcoming album is still nameless, but you can listen to a sample of one of the songs, "Afterglow 61," on NPR's site here.