Scorching and searing, sweet and aching ... this band from Belleville, Illinois was and is my favorite band of all time. Jay Farrar (guitar, vocals, songwriting), Mike Heidorn (drums and percussion, first three records) and Jeff Tweedy (bass, guitar, vocals, songwriting). The band also included Ken Coomer (drums), Max Johnston (banjo, dobro, fiddle and mandolin) and John Stirratt (second guitar) for their final album Anodyne album and the subsequent tour. (Shown left: Coomer, Tweedy, Farrar.)

This band epitomized country/rock, country/punk, insurgent country, whatever you want to call it. They could blast and blaze and blow the roof off of a club, then turn around and be quietly acoustic, having you weep into your beer. They also did some of the best singing and songwriting I've ever heard in my life. The band broke up in mid-1994, but the two bands Wilco and Son Volt carry on the music, both old and new. And now I have two favorite bands. Here are lots of resources for fans of Uncle Tupelo/Wilco/Son Volt's music:

First of all, for the world's most comprehensive site about Uncle Tupelo, featuring band history, live performances, song lyrics, discography, covers list, photos, articles, links and miscellany, visit

f a c t o r y b e l t . n e t  
Now, on to our stuff ...

Articles we've collected, &c.:

Uncle Tupelo on NPR,

Featured on Episode 14 of NPR's "All Songs Considered".

89/93 reviewed, plus another good interview with Mike Heidorn

by Renee Dechert, Pop Matters magazine, May 2002.

"Just Say 'Uncle'", an excellent interview with Mike Heidorn

by John Schacht, Swizzle-Stick, April 2, 2002.

Uncle Tupelo: Fathers of Alternative Country

by the Associated Press, March 20, 2002

Uncle Tupelo 101

by Thomas Crone, STLToday, February 13, 2002. An early review of "Uncle Tupelo 89/93: An Anthology"

"Heart of the Country"

by By Jason Fine, Option Magazine, Nov/Dec 1993

"Are You Ready For The Country?"

by Daniel Durchholz, Request magazine, November 1993

"The Men From Uncle"

by Richard Byrne, Jr., St. Louis Riverfront Times, 1989

 

Mailing lists which may interest you:

"Postcard"

The Uncle Tupelo/Wilco/Son Volt mailing list (or at least, it was when I signed off).

"Postcard 2"

Once known as "Passenger Side", -- the Postcard spinoff list primarily (but not exclusively) about alternative/insurgent country, country/punk and roots country music of interest to Uncle Tupelo (and even Wilco & Son Volt) fans and just about anyone else.

 

Buy the records!

If you don't have an independent record store near you, you can buy all four of Uncle Tupelo's CDs right here, via our links to CDnow.com (now a part of Amazon.com, and amazingly still around, at least in fading name). Buying them here is not only convenient and inexpensive, but it also helps defray the costs of producing and maintaining this friggin' enormous web site. So buy 'em if you don't have 'em already, and buy some for friends and loved ones too!

 

Chord and tab transcriptions

"Down here where we're at
All we do is sit out on the porch
And play our songs, and nothing's wrong.
Sometimes friends come around, they all sing along."

-- from "Screen Door", by Jeff Tweedy

We like to do that with our friends, too.

Several folks from Postcard have done a really great job figuring out chords and/or tablatures for some of the songs. I had been plucking them from the list and archiving them at home, but then Steve Gardner had a lightbulb appear over his head and launched The UT Tab Project, in which various members of Postcard worked to figure out every Uncle Tupelo song for this archive. The archive was completed on August 29, 1996, when Dave Shapiro sent in the tab for "Discarded". Not a bad piece of work, folks.

We're working on the Wilco and Son Volt songs too, and those'll go on their respective pages as they're completed and compiled.

Please remember that the files presented below are the work of the author/contributor, and only represent an interpretation of the work of Uncle Tupelo. You may only use these files for private study, scholarship or research.

So, for your musical enjoyment, here's the Uncle Tupelo Song Archive:

 

Songs from No Depression "Graveyard Shift" "That Year" "Before I Break" "No Depression" "Factory Belt" "Whiskey Bottle" "Outdone" "Train" "Life Worth Livin'" "Flatness" "So Called Friend" "Screen Door" "John Hardy"

 
 

Songs from Still Feel Gone "Gun" "Looking For a Way Out" "Fall Down Easy" "Nothing" "Still Be Around" "Watch Me Fall" "Punch Drunk" "Postcard" "D. Boon" "True to Life" "Cold Shoulder" "Discarded" "If That's Alright"

 
 

Songs from March 16-20, 1992 "Grindstone" "Coalminers" "Wait Up" "Criminals" "Shaky Ground" "Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down" "Black Eye" "Moonshiner" "I Wish My Baby Was Born" "Atomic Power" "Lilli Schull" "Warfare" "Fatal Wound" "Sandusky" "Wipe the Clock"

 
 

Songs from Anodyne "Slate" "Acuff-Rose" "The Long Cut" "Give Back the Key to My Heart" "Chickamauga" "New Madrid" "Anodyne" "We've Been Had" "Fifteen Keys" "High Water" "No Sense In Lovin'" "Steal The Crumbs"

 
 

Songs from Uncle Tupelo 89/93: An Anthology "No Depression" "Screen Door" "Graveyard Shift" "Whiskey Bottle" "Outdone" (1989 demo) "I Got Drunk" "I Wanna Be Your Dog" (The Stooges) "Gun" "Still Be Around" "Looking For a Way Out" "Watch Me Fall" "Sauget Wind" "Black Eye" "Moonshiner" "Fatal Wound" "Grindstone" "Effigy" (John Fogarty) "The Long Cut" "Chickamauga" "New Madrid" "We've Been Had" (live)

 
 

Songs from the Rockville singles, and miscellaneous covers

• "Blue Eyes" (Gram Parsons)
• "I Got Drunk"
• "Sauget Wind"
• "Sin City" (Gram Parsons)
• "Take My Word"
• "There Was A Time" (older version of "Looking For A Way Out")

 

Lyrics

Lyrics to the songs were never printed with the albums, and Postcard Mailing List founder and former owner Jake initially posted a first draft to the list, after spending hours next to the CD player zapping the pause button to get these all written down. They've been corrected and fine-tuned by several list members (especially Michael Pemberton, who spearheaded the lyrics correction/compilation) as best as we know how, and here's what I hope are the final definitive lyrics:

• Lyrics from the singles
• Lyrics from "No Depression"
• Lyrics from "Still Feel Gone"
• Lyrics from "March 16-20, 1992"
• Lyrics from "Anodyne"

 

Evolution

• Wilco (plus their official site)
• Son Volt (plus their record company site)

 

Miscellany

• alt.country ... whatever
  Articles and information about and some songs/chords/tabs by "alternative country/rock" bands of interest to UT/Wilco/Son Volt fans

---

This page reflects lots of work done by people other than myself. Me, I just designed the interface and provide the web space. Hats off to all of 'em. (I hope I'm not forgetting anyone.) Here we go:

A million thanks to Michael Pemberton, former keeper of the Uncle Tupelo FAQ and creator of the amazing Factory Belt site; Eric Labow, who designed Factory Belt; plus Rick Cornell, Barry Kelley, Steve Kelley, Tom Krueger, Tim McGinnis and all the Taters.

Special thanks to all the song transcribers from Postcard and beyond:
John Carroll, Seth Conant, Steve Gardner (Uncle Tupelo Tab Project coordinator), Stephen D. House (who had the first UT homepage amongst the old Postcarders), Oliver Keeble, Jeff Knobbe, Dave Nash, Joe Rinkevich, Caleb Rush, Dave Shapiro, Stan Tangeman, Dan Van Skiver, Weirdo, Marcus Winfree and Sean Winnie.

Thanks also to Jake Roberts for creating the "Postcard" Mailing List; Dave Dewey for maintaining it now, Laura Levy, who maintains the "Passenger Side" list; Mark Janovec for sending some of the articles in; and Jamie Thingelstad for the album cover gifs.

Thanks most of all to Jay, Jeff and Mike; and John, Max and Ken for all the music.

This page is dedicated to the Taters.

 

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Last updated: June 20, 2007

Chuck Taggart   (e-mail chuck)