Jay Farrar - Stone, Steel & Bright Lights (2004)

Recorded throughout September and October of 2003, as Farrar criss-crossed the country with the DC-based 5-piece, Canyon, as his backing band, Stone Steel & Bright Lights offers a diverse collection of Farrars solo career. The album features 2 new originals ("Doesnt Have to Be This Way" and "6 String Belief"), 15 songs from Farrars 3 solo releases, as well as 2 well-chosen covers (Syd Barretts "Lucifer Sam" and Neil Youngs "Like A Hurricane). As a bonus, the album package also features an 11-song DVD with performance footage from Slims in San Francisco. The new originals, "Doesn't Have to Be This Way" and "6 String Belief", prove to be especially timely eventhough they were written and recorded in 2003. According to Farrar, "'Doesn't Have to Be This Way' reflects the headlines in the newspapers during that period," and frames its surging protest against a "new world of shame" with a chiming piano and mournful lap steel. "6 String Belief" touches on an issue that seems equally close to the songwriter's heart - the strength of rock and roll to renew and redeem itself in moments when it becomes jaded, corrupted and bankrupt. The song, says Farrar, "deals with the idea of rebellion against the status quo in a music industry context. When corporate blitzes and payola reach a saturation point at the mainstream level, it spawns a reaction of good music - a grassroots, do-it-yourself level." He calls the song "two-thirds idealism and one third reality."