2020 was not quite what Jay Farrar was expecting for the 25th anniversary of Son Volt, theband he started in 1995 after leaving the seminal group Uncle Tupelo, whoseNo Depressionalbum helped define the alt-country and Americana genre. The group had justfinished anOutlaw Country Cruise when the pandemic hit and sent them into their homes on lockdown.Instead of a triumphant tour marking the illustrious landmark, Farrar was forced indoors bythe pandemic, and his “Reverie” during that time helped defineElectro Melodier,Son Volt’s10th studio album–and third for influential Nashville indie Thirty Tigers. The title, taken fromthe names of two vintage amplifiers from the late ‘40s and early ‘50s, also describes the disc’sunique blend of folk, country, blues, soul and rock–an electric troubadour with melodies thathit and stick. Social protest songs like “Living in the U.S.A.” and “The Globe,” the former aboutthe promises of this nation gone wrong, the latter referencing the street protestsaccompanying the Black Lives Matter movement, exist side by side with odes to long-termrelationships (specifically his 25-year marriage) in “Diamonds and Cigarettes” and “LuckyOnes.”Once again accompanied by the current Son Volt line up–keyboardist/steel guitarist MarkSpencer, bassist Andrew Duplantis, guitarist Chris Frame and drummer Mark Patterson–Farrar takes a slight turn from 2019’s politically pointedUnionto a series of songs that asksquestions rather than demanding answers–think of “Living in the U.S.A.” as Farrar’s versionof Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.,” Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” or PattiSmith’s “People Have the Power,” an anthem to unite the populace.“I had more time to devote to and concentrate on the writing,” says Farrar abouthis enforcedquarantine. “We were fortunate in that we had just releasedUnionand toured the country, sowe were off cycle. It was still a rough year, but as a songwriter, I was able to make the mostof it.”One listen toElectro Melodier, which opens with “Reverie,” describing Farrar’s contemplativestate gazing out his window, enlivened with Mark Spencer’s “Wichita Lineman” guitar riffs andthe lush Big Star melodies, and you wonder why no other rock ‘n’ roll bands orsinger/songwriters are making albumslike this about what we’re all going through.“I wanted to concentrate on the melodies which got me into music in the first place,” saysFarrar. “I wanted politics to take a back seat this time, but it always seems to find a way backin there.”Listen tothe Moog line from The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” channeled in “The Globe,”or the Led Zeppelin homage in “Someday Is Now,” the nod to gut-bucket Mississippi deltablues in the Lightnin’ Hopkins low-tuned guitar stylings of “War on Misery” or Spencer’s