If you go
› What: Son Volt featuring Johnny Irion› Where: Revelry Room, 41 Station Street› When: 9 tonight, March 16› Admission: $20› Online: revelryroom.co
Sometimes the guitar player leads the guitar and sometimes the guitar takes the lead.
That’s sort of what happened with “Notes of Blue,” the new Son Volt album. Lead singer/songwriter/guitar player Jay Farrar says he started playing around with an electric guitar instead of his usual acoustic axe, and the sounds he was getting took him to Mississippi, figuratively speaking.
The more he played, the more the songs took on a Delta blues sound, so that is the direction he went. He also focused his attention on the songs of blues masters and personal favorites Skip James, Mississippi Fred McDowell and Nick Drake.
He felt compelled to master the way they tuned their guitars and a finger-picking style of playing, and then followed that path.