When you think of alternative/country music, who comes to
mind first?  That's right, the boys from Belleville, IL-Uncle Tupelo.
When you think of all-time great albums, you, if you are like most
No Depression music fans, probably place one named 
"Anodyne" in your top 10.
    If Uncle Tupelo had to choose a time to leave the music
scene as a whole, they did a great job with the "grand finale" on
Sire Records "Anodyne."  A much cleaner sounding album is
"Anodyne" than Uncle Tupelo's previous releases.  Not 
overproduced by any means with Brian Paulson doing a
beautiful job with the record.  With the dismissal of drummer Mike
Heidorn, the band picked up a new drummer, Ken Coomer, for
recording and touring of the album.
    The collection of songs on "Anodyne" and the way they flow
with each other, each one with a different sound than the 
previous is mesmerizingly beautiful.  Beginning with the elegant
fiddle and acoustic guitar mix of "Slate," and working its way to
the country tunes of "New Madrid," "Acuff-Rose," and "Give
Back The Key To My Heart," and onto rockers like "The Long
Cut," "Chickamauga," and "We've Been Had," "Anodyne"
shows that it is possible to combine different sounding songs 
onto one record, but to keep the same theme.  The album 
seems to combine everything that made Uncle Tupelo great 
over their years of existance.  It has garage guitar rock in songs
like "Chikamauga" and "The Long Cut."  It has the soft country
twang that we have all grown to love in "New Madrid," "Steal
The Crumbs," and "No Sense In Lovin'."  And possibly what 
made me feel so much love for the band all these years the slow
more "depressing" songs like "Anodyne," "Fifteen Keys," and 
"High Water."
    Not that it is anything out of the ordinary for Uncle Tupelo, but
the recording does not have any "happy" songs on it.  What is
evident though is that the songs have a more sorrowful feel than
ever seen from the band before.  The album title "Anodyne" is
a word that means something that relieves pain.  It is shown very 
clearly on the album, that the band needed their own "anodyne"
to relieve them of these stressful years and the toll it had taken 
on two friends in Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy.  Listening to the 
songs and thinking back to the rough times, it is easy to relate 
the lyrics to the bands situation in '93, the year of the album's 
release, and in '94, the year of "Anodyne's" tour.  It seems as
though Farrar and Tweedy saw the band's end in the near future
and wrote songs about the struggle.  Two great 
singer/songwriters trying to share a band and an album?  Who
would have thought it would have worked.  Farrar puts it
perfectly in the opening tune "Slate" when he sings "What the
hell were we thinking?"  In the same song he sings "Bury the
hatchets we find.  Could carry that heavy load.  I really thought
it would matter."  "I don't ever want to taste these tears again,"
and "No authority can clean up this mess that we're in," Farrar
writes in the fifth song "Chickamauga."  The evidence of the
bad times can be noted in many lines of the album.
    Although Jeff Tweedy was the last member of the band to
walk out, some of his songs on Uncle Tupelo's last recording
show his feelings about the big mix up as well.  It appears, 
however, that Tweedy's outlook is more of an optomistic 
approach than Farrar's.  On the third track, Tweedy sings, 
"Come on let's take the long cut.  I think that's what we need. 
Yeah, we've been in a deep rut and its been killing me.  If you
want to take the long cut, we'll get there eventually."  Jeff 
Tweedy seems to be saying, "Come on.  We'll get through it" 
while Farrar sees the end and feels its impact.
    I had heard it said before 1993 that an album can change a 
person's life, but had never had the experience until this one.  If
ever I am feeling down, feeling pain, and need a boost, I just 
reach for my "Anodyne."  I let the beautiful music that these two
men made over the years together soak into me.  I sure miss 
them.
                                                      --Tim Prizer