Jay Farrar & Gary Hunt- Harlow’s, Sacramento Ca. 5/18/18

I don’t know how many people know this, but I was the first “deadhead-like” guy who followed Uncle Tupelo around and recorded their concerts back in 1992. I did a week in the midwest, then a week in california in early 1993, then their last shows in 1994.
So, I realized that I had NEVER seen Jay solo before. I saw Son Volt a ton of times, but never Jay.. so I ventured out to the show. It was exactly what I expected. A polished performance, but not too dynamic. 🙂
I got shut down about an hour into the set. This was the second time I was shut down by their tour manager. I guess being the first guy to film doesn’t buy me anything now. Meh. I tried to ask permission…

 

Recorded by: Shayne Stacy

Equipment Used: Canon HFG40 & Rode Video Pro Stereo Mic

Live Concert Video

Jay Farrar- Mississippi Nights, St. Louis Mo 11/13/04 f/master DV tape-DVD Uncle Tupelo Son Volt

Today’s On This Date in History comes from an old friend who passed away over 11 years ago now. Chris Constance was a friend of Uncle Tupelo and helped to contribute quite a few early videos of the band, and at least 1 of the pre-Uncle Tupelo band, then Primatives.

He was able to video Jay Farrar and Son Volt a few times in the mid-2000’s, and this is one of those shows. A full set of Jat and (thee) Mark Spencer at Mississippi Nights. This show happened right at the time that it was announced that Son Volt was reforming and releasing a new album (which became Okemah and the Melody of Riot).

Recorded by: Chris Constance
Extract from DVD & prep for upload by Shayne

Live Concert Video

Coffee Creek- Cicero’s, St. Louis Mo. 7/30/93 Audio Soundboard xfer from Band Archive

First and foremost- this is a MUST LISTEN if you are an Uncle Tupelo, WIlco, Son Volt, or classic country fan. Coffee Creek are Tweedy/Farrar/Heidorn(Uncle Tupelo), Brian Henneman(Bottle Rockets) doing classic country/rock covers! So great.

Back in the early 90s, I was friends with Tony Margherita & Bob Andrews who managed Uncle Tupelo, The Bottle Rockets and many more. I had followed UT around and filmed/audio recorded over 10 shows in the span of a couple of years, including the 2 final shows in St. Louis. Since the band was defunct (and Wilco was not the HUGE band they are today), Tony let my good friend Jim stop by and pick up “a few” cassettes in late 1994. Jim goes to the office and calls me:
J(whispering): Dude, there are like 50 tapes here. Do you have Coffee Creek?
Me: No
J: How about X(some other one)
Me: No. Just grab them all and I will sort them out.
So Jim grabs a box and shoves about 50 tapes in, and takes off. Bob and Tony were like :-O. Haha! Thanks guys.
I am shocked that these are not online yet.

Recorded by: Tony Marghertia(?)
Transferred by: Shayne Stacy
Equipment used: 1994 DAT transfer- Playback with consumer Aiwa belt drive deck (big regret)- Sony DTC690 using monster audio cables.
Equipment used: 2019 DAT to WAV transfer: Sony PCM-R500 — Audiophile 2496 card — WAV
Transfer Lineage: Band Archive Tape – My DAT (90 meter DAT in 32khz- big regret) – You

Photo courtesy of Michael Pemberton’s excellent factorybelt dot net site. Check it out!
Man, I wish I took pictures of the tapes.

Audio Live Concert

Dust Bowl Club- KDHX Live Acoustic in Studio, St. Louis Mo 9/14/91 Cassette Master xfer Uncle Tupelo

Here is the first of 3 posts today. Facebook folks get a bonus 4th one as well.
For today’s On This Date in History, let’s dive back into the Uncle Tupelo archives. This was one of the many tapes we got from Tony and Bob back in 1994, but then a better quality version popped up.
Michael from factory belt has the details:

“FM broadcast and pre-FM studio tape, from the late Doug Morris’ KDHX radio show “High Anxiety.” The only known recorded performance of the “The Dust Bowl Club” (Brian Henneman, Jay Farrar, and Tom Parr). A number of songs played are from a demo tape that Brian recorded with members of UT during the recording of Still Feel Gone. For quite some time, the only known tape of this show was recorded off the radio, with all of the between-song conversation edited out. More recently, Doug Morris’ pre-fm cassette of the show surfaced, though unfortunately Doug recorded over the last 30 minutes of his tape, meaning that the last 5 songs only exist from the FM tape.”

So, there are 2 versions. This better quality one and the one from the band’s archive that is more complete. I believe this one has both versions put together.

Recorded by: Doug Morris
Cassette to DAT Transfer by: Michael Pemberton (main part) and Shayne Stacy (last 5 songs)
DAT to wav transfer by: Shayne
DAT to Wav Transfer equipment (shayne): Sony PCM-R500 and M-Audio Audiophile 2496 card

Audio Live Performance

Uncle Tupelo- Cicero’s, St. Louis Mo 10/13/89 xfer from Band’s archive master soundboard audio tape

Uncle Tupelo were from Belleville, Il, so the closest major city was St. Louis. They played many venues around town in the early days, but Cicero’s was their home base. Cicero’s was a legendary basement bar/venue below an italian restaurant. You’ll see a good chunk of classic UT shows coming from here.
Setlist (courtesy of the great factorybelt dot net website:
Otherside/ Sin City/ Graveyard Shift/ D.Boon/ Flatness/ Cocaine Blues/ Outdone/ Screen Door/ So Called Friend/ Baby, Please Don’t Go/ Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door/ Train/ Whiskey Bottle/ Fortunate Son/ Factory Belt/ Mercedes Benz/ No Matter What/ That Year/ Life Worth Livin’/ There Was A Time/ Mannish Boy (sort of)/ A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall/ Gimme, Gimme, Gimme

That’s right. Gimme Gimme Gimme by Black Flag, country style.

Recorded by: Tony Marghertia(?)
Transferred by: Shayne Stacy
Equipment used: 1994 DAT transfer- Playback with consumer Aiwa belt drive deck (big regret)- Sony DTC690 using monster audio cables.
Equipment used: 2019 DAT to WAV transfer: Sony PCM-R500 — Audiophile 2496 card — WAV
Transfer Lineage: Band Archive Tape – My DAT (90 meter DAT in 32khz- big regret) – You

PS: I know that the DAT sleeve says 10/13/87, but the band did not have that many songs in 87, so the cassette must have been labeled with the wrong year.

Audio Live Concert