“When the Bible is a bottle
and a hardwood floor is home
When morning comes twice a day
or not at all…”
– Still Be Around
Still Feel Gone is the second album by Uncle Tupelo. It was released 17 September 1991 on Rockville Records and re-released in 2003 by Sony Legacy. It was my first Uncle Tupelo album (I bought No Depression the next day).
Uncle Tupelo was an alt. country music group from Belleville, Illinois, they were active between 1987 and 1994. Jay Farrar, Jeff Tweedy, and Mike Heidorn formed the band after the lead singer of their earlier band, The Primitives, left to attend college. The trio recorded three albums for Rockville Records.
Uncle Tupelo broke up before it achieved commercial success, but the band is renowned for its impact on the alternative country music scene. The group’s first album, No Depression, became a byword for the genre and was widely influential. Uncle Tupelo’s sound was unlike popular country music of the time, drawing inspiration from styles as diverse as the hardcore punk of The Minutemen and the country instrumentation and harmony of the Carter Family and Hank Williams.
Uncle Tupelo is a very important band in the development of Alt.country/Americana.
“With the release of their 1990 debut LP, No Depression, the Belleville, IL, trio Uncle Tupelo launched more than simply their own career—by fusing the simplicity and honesty of country music with the bracing fury of punk, they kick-started a revolution which reverberated throughout the American underground.”
– Jason Ankeny (allmusic)
Uncle Tupelo – Gun (Bloomington,IN, 1992):
I love the contrasts in Uncle Tupelo, the country vs. punk/rock, Tweedy’s voice vs. Farrar’s voice, the heart aching ballads vs. the working class lament. The slow howls in the songs vs. the attacking guitars. The balance of innocence and rawness gives Still Feel Gone an edge and an emotional dimension seldom found.
To me the album sounds like a stew consisting of, The Clash, Neil Young, Rolling Stones, Husker Du and all the country music influences they surely got from their parents’ records and their radio listening habits. It’s a lovely stew and a contender for best album of 1991.
“The band eschews quaint rootsiness for the time-bomb attack of Jay Ferrar’s aggressive stop-start guitars and some deceptively gentle acoustic ballads that convey an underlying sense of dissatisfaction. The band’s melodic skills don’t always equal their unpretentiousness, but Still Feel Gone remains a vivid snapshot of life in a town that`s colored gray.”
– Chicago Tribune (Feb 1992)
Uncle Tupelo – Punch Drunk (Toad’s Place, New Haven CT, March 2, 1992):
“The characters that populate Still Feel Gone are far from one-dimensional caricatures of rural life. Songwriters Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy write with an insightful eye and ragged beauty that bring their images alive without coming off as rote shrieks of youthful disenchantment. “
– Rolling Stone Magazine (Mar 1992)
Uncle Tupelo – Still Feel Gone on Spotify:
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