Son Volt’s Trace at 30

 

Son Volt’s debut album, Trace. Released September 19th, 1995 on Warner Brothers Records.

“Drown,” the second single from Trace, 

released October 31st, 1995.

Trace, Son Volt’s 1995 debut album recently turned 30 with little to no fanfare. Much is made of the grunge explosion of the 90s, understandably so. However, there was a revolution taking place on the fringes that gave us alt.country. Long a fan of country music that blurred boundaries, it took me a while to get caught up in the undercurrent. I was aware of some of the artists and had seen No Depression magazine in the racks at bookstores but I was hearing very little of the music itself. 

Probably the most notable exception was the Jayhawks, who we played on WSFL (then an AOR station out of New Bern, NC) in the early 90s. I liked what I heard by them well enough but it didn’t really pique my interest to the point of seeking out more of their work or the work of similar artists. Even a promo copy I’d acquired of Uncle Tupelo’s final album Anodyne didn’t move the needle for me, at least right away.

Everything changed in late October of 1995 when I heard “Drown” from Trace on the radio for the first time. It was also on MTV and VH1. So infectious it didn’t take long for it to sink its hooks in me. Though tired from a day at work, one evening I drove into Jacksonville specifically to pick up a copy of Trace from Tracks (formerly Record Bar). This is the album that set me on the path to alt.country.

In 1997 came a couple various artist compilations on Yep Roc Records (Revival Vol. I and II) featuring local and regional artists which led me to pick up albums by the Backsliders, Whiskeytown, and Trailer Bride. A fateful first trip to Austin to visit family for Thanksgiving later that year introduced me to KGSR where I heard Cheri Knight’s “Rose in the Vine” and was reminded that there was life for Steve Earle beyond “Copperhead Road” thanks to ample airplay of “Telephone Road” from the then recently released El Corazón. Least I forget, I’d also seen him in concert for the first time earlier in the year at Merlefest which included a set with Guy Clark in memory of Townes Van Zandt who’d passed on New Year’s Day. During this inaugural visit, among many other purchases were the second Revival comp and Cheri Knight’s The Northeast Kingdom.

In the late summer of 1998 I finally had internet access at home. In November I saw Whiskeytown (my then favorite band) at the Brewery in Raleigh for the first time (subsequent shows were two impromptu reunions at Lakeside Lounge/Slim’s in Raleigh).

In the spring of 1999 I discovered the locally based, twang-centric Guitartown listserv. This is when my love of alt.country truly blossomed. I became part of a community deeply immersed in the subgenre in the heart of a region brimming with many of those artists. Surely, this would have happened sooner or later but most certainly wouldn’t have happened in the same way had it not been for being completely captivated by hearing “Drown,” and then Trace 30 years ago this fall.

Hurricane Ophelia

 

Image courtesy of the National Weather Service 

With his grandfather Norwood Frost's house and business in ruins in Salter Path, N.C., Daniel Frost, 6, who lives next door, helps remove debris from the home, which sustained 4 feet of water damage from Hurricane Ophelia. Norwood Frost, not pictured, who has lived on the property his entire life, said he only had water in the house after Hurricane Floyd and said the damage from Ophelia was the worst.

(Lawrence Journal World September 16, 2005)

It was 20 years ago this month that Hurricane Ophelia changed everything. There have been more severe hurricanes but coming on the heels of the onslaught of storms that started with the double whammy of Hurricanes Bertha and Fran in the summer of 1996, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back as far as my family having to make the difficult decision to part with our cottage on the Intracoastal Waterway which my father had purchased back in the 70s. 

It also happened between Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, both of which had a devastating impact on the Gulf coast. In fact, when I contacted FEMA for help, they laughed and hung up the phone. Those were far more dangerous storms but it didn’t make me any less homeless or in need of assistance.

I moved in with family, and left a job I’d held since 1998. It was also roughly within this time frame that we sold our family home at Sleepy Creek. That was the plan anyway since both my parents had passed but nevertheless it was a time of great upheaval. This was all the beginning of the next chapter of my life. I was 43 at the time.