In 1987 the masterminds of Uncle Tupelo Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar came together under the name Uncle Tupelo, and despite a little confusion at their direction (are they punk, pop or country) they basically created a style of music, which I call country-punk.

In 1989 the first Uncle Tupelo album was released, "No Depression" taken from a Carter family song, which was about a dream for a world with "no depression" (literally, it was written in the 30's in the midst of the Great Depression) which was covered on the album. "No Depression" showed a band with many disparaging influences, from Hank Williams to Husker Du, sometimes with the two combined. The record was a wake-up call to many bored with punk's unrelenting violence, or pop's mediocerness, or the fact that country was slowly entering a slump. The album featured two song writers, as all UT would, Jeff Tweedy's pop sense and Jay Farrar's rage and earnestness.

"Still feel Gone" soon followed in 1991, and it struck a ballance between the punkier songs and the more country songs. Also, Tweedy slowly started to take more of the record than before.

After "Still Feel Gone" the members of UT decided they wanted to make an acoustic album, replacing the fire of their live preformances with something different. "March 16-20, 1992" came out of this desire, and was an amazing album full of great timeless cuts.

In 1993 the band signed with Sire and released "Anodyne" which would be their last recording. Many call it their definative statment, a perfect balance of country, rock and punk. But after a tour for the record, the band broke up over creative differences. Peter Buck the producer of "March 16-20, 1992" (and guitarist for R.E.M.) said that he felt the tension during the recording of the record, and indeed it only took another year for the band to break up.

After the break up of the band, Farrar went and formed Son Volt while Tweedy formed Wilco, both presenting the two sides of UT in detail.

Suggested Records:

89/93: An Anthology.

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