The full music lineup recently was announced for the Route 66 Road Fest in Tulsa and Oklahoma City in June, which includes one intriguing act — Son Volt.
St. Louis-based Son Volt was one of essentially three bands born out of the 1993 breakup of a highly influential country-rock band, Uncle Tupelo. (The other two are Bottle Rockets and Wilco.)
Jay Farrar and his bandmates recorded “Trace” as the first album for Son Volt and released it in 1995. “Trace,” with its mix of traditional country and blistering rock, became a major hit on alternative and college radio, and it was made many music writers’ best-of lists for the year. “Trace” remains Son Volt’s top-selling album all these years later.
Much of “Trace” was composed during Farrar’s road trips to Minneapolis, which sparked his memories of the Route 66 corridor that went through the St. Louis area.
One of the most obvious songs referencing Route 66 from that period is “Ten Second News,” which is about the dioxin-poisoned and ultimately evacuated community of Times Beach, Missouri: “Driving down sunny 44 highway / There’s a beach there known for cancer / Waiting to happen.”
A song from Son Volt’s follow-up album, “Way Down Watson,” was inspired by the destruction of Route 66’s fabled Court Court Motel in the St. Louis area:
Farrar released a solo album that contained a song, “Cahokian,” derived from Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site in Collinsville, Illinois, where an early alignment of Route 66 runs. St. Louis for many years also was known as Mound City, where a great many Native American mounds once stood.
Another song from the “Trace” album, “Route,” reputedly takes loose inspiration from the Mother Road.
I have no idea whether Farrar and his band will perform any of these songs during the Route 66 Road Fest, but I felt like attendees need to know about them if it happens. (I’m not a big fan of the band, but having lived near the St. Louis area for many years, you naturally soaked up a lot of feedback about Son Volt during that time.)
Other performers with Son Volt at the two-day Route 66 Road Fest in Tulsa will be The Ventures, Better Than Ezra, Cannons, Jason Boland and the Stragglers, Tulsa Playboys, Red Dirt Rangers, Grady Nichols, Zodiac, Dusty Rusty, Weston Horn, Midlife Crisis and Charlie Redd and the Full Flava Kings.
In Oklahoma City, the music lineup will be Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights, Tulsa Playboys, Mary Cogan, Alaska and Madi, Red Dirt Rangers, Dusty Rusty, Johnny Manchild, Wise Guys and Charlie Redd and Luna Voodoo.
The Route 66 Road Fest also will have a classic-car show and an interactive exhibit of Route 66. Tickets are here.
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Lookin’ forward to the Ventures and Red Dirt Rangers!