Album Discussion: Son Volt’s “Day of the Doug”
It was about midway through Day of the Doug when I found myself immersed in the pure bliss and fun of a new album in a way I haven’t in a long time. Bliss and fun aren’t the first two words I’d use to describe the legendary alt country band Son Volt, but on this tribute album to Doug Sahm, the Jay Farrar-led outfit somehow find yet another texture to add to the wonderful mosaic of music they’ve weaved for the past few decades.
Doug Sahm is like a magic name to reference to see who *really* has nerded out on country music history. Sahm was a young steel guitar prodigy who played with Hank Williams and Faron Young before founding the Sir Douglas Quintet in 1964. Sir Douglas Quintet blended Tex Mex, early psychedelic rock, and blues in a pioneering fashion. The band lasted just under a decade with Sahm pursuing a solo career in the 1970s. He signed with Atlantic Records and their progressive country division and released Doug Sahm and Band in 1973, which featured Bob Dylan, Flaco Jimenez, and Dr. John- three artists who quite fittingly sum up Sahm’s sound.
Sahm carved out a nice little spot for himself in Austin over the next several years and in 1989 formed the Texas Tornados with Freddy Fender, Augie Meyers, and Flaco Jimenez. Their self-titled debut album was highly influential, particularily its modernization of Tex Mex. The band released a few more albums in the 90s before Doug Sahm passed away in 1999 at the age of 58.
In the early 2000s, The Bottle Rockets recorded and released the excellent Songs of Sahm, featuring much of Sahm’s best known work. Son Volt’s Day of the Doug takes a much different approach, with Farrar reaching deep into Sahm’s collection to grab lesser-known songs and providing a new twist.
The record is bookended by the recordings of two voicemails Doug left for Jay that Jay found buried away on some old cassettes. Just a really cool touch to get the album started and finished. There’s a breezy, light air to the album, but the band itself is as tight as ever. John Horton, ironically enough a former member of The Bottle Rockets, plays guitar, stepping in for Chris Frame who had left the band in 2021. Farrar’s vocals have an extra little bit of oomph in the delivery. He’s always been one of the better alt country artists at matching his singing tone to the themes of the music, and with many of the lyrics a bit more straight-forward than your typical Son Volt material, Farrar is able to let loose a bit, especially evident on “Dynamite Woman.”
Two songs, “Beautiful Texas Sunshine” and “It’s Gonna Be Easy,” sound tailor-made for Son Volt. “Beautiful Texas Sunshine” features the catchy melody Son Volt’s upbeat material is best known for. The Texas-style steel magnificently plays with Farrar’s breezy vocal, and it’s a blast to hear Farrar singing lines with a wink like, “Your smile has never been brighter, and your body never looked so fine.” “It’s Gonna Be Easy,” meanwhile, is an old Sahm record written by Atwood Allen. It features an acoustic arrangement reminiscent of earlier Son Volt recordings like “Highways and Cigarettes.” The vocal is desperate as the narrator tries to convince himself “it’s gonna be easy” to reconcile with the fact his lover is gone, but “it’s gonna be hard trying to tell myself you didn’t love me.” It’s an immediate favorite on the album.
One of the cooler parts of this album is how, all at once, these songs really find Jay and the band stepping out of their comfort zone on both thematic material and instrumentation and yet really making these songs their own in a respectful manner. Just one of the reasons Son Volt have set the standard for alternative country for near thirty years now.
“Seguin,” a tribute to the Texas town, is a wistful account of life where “barbeque is just a quarter, and beer is thirty-five cents.” Also, would it really be a Son Volt record without a reference to a railroad?
“Huggin’ Thin Air” is just a down-the-line 1970s, Bob Wills-inspired, honky-tonk heartbreaker perfect for two-stepping. Originally included on Doug Sahm’s posthumously released and last studio album The Return of Wayne Douglas, the chorus is as country as you can get. It’s cliche in the best possible way in the sense that we don’t really hear this type of music anymore, even in the Texas scene. It’s a country music world, especially in the Americana scene, in which artists are forcing themselves to use twenty words when four or five can do. It’s refreshing to hear straight-forward simplicity in country music.
My favorite song off the album is “Yesterday Got in the Way.” It features that standard Son Volt mid-tempo with a slight uptick in the chorus. And it’s got an immediately catchy and recognizable guitar riff. Exactly what I want in the best Son Volt material. There’s a clear path of musical evolution here as well. Let’s lay it out. Son Volt is covering and paying tribute to Doug Sahm on this song. Doug’s original version, found on the only true *country* album he recorded, sounds inspired by Dwight Yoakam. And obviously, Dwight was heavily inspired by Buck Owens. That’s the coolest thing about alternative country. The lineage to the past while moving forward. The best alternative country features modernity with respect to the country, blues, and rock ’n’ roll that paved the way. Jay Farrar set out to do that when he formed Son Volt after Uncle Tupelo became no more. He’s continued on the ride for a damn long time now. With no sign of slowing down.
