Gob Iron Preview

Gob Iron
Park West, Chicago
Sunday, November 5, 2006

The forces behind Son Volt and Varnaline unite behind Gob Iron, a reverential tribute to folk and country masters.

You’d expect as much from Jay Farrar, who as far back as Uncle Tupelo orchestrated covers of The Louvin Brothers and The Carter Family alongside more current nods to The Stooges. Anders Parker would seem to be the wild card because, as both a solo artist and Varnaline, he embraced studio modernity for his aching songs, dragging the reluctant singer-songwriter genre into the digital era.

Neither drags too much baggage into Death Songs For The Living (Transmit Sound/Legacy), which feels as unified as the two loners could possibly have made it. Kicking off with “Death’s Black Train,” penned by ’20s gospel pioneer Rev. J.M. Gates, Farrar and Parker take a tour through some of pop music’s oldest ruminations on mortality. Most of the hard work done by such masters as A.P. Carter, Bill Monroe, The Stanley Brothers, and all the way back to Stephen Foster, for their part Gob Iron play it straight, adding rock flourishes like drums and a dirty slide guitar when they feel them necessary. “Hills Of Mexico” sounds mysteriously like Uncle Tupelo’s reading of “Coalminers,” but it’s par for the course when this solemn duo put their heads down.

— Steve Forstneger

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly