Son Volt - Tear Stained Eye

The pedal steel guitar is, of course, commonly associated with country music. It is also (arguably) these days most closely associated with the kind of homogenized, poppy country music that I suspect may have contributed to the rural-to-urban population shift in the United States: there’s a reason that New York City spent decades without a country radio station, people.

But then the 1990s and alt.country rolled around. Hands up every lifelong urbanite who has Uncle Tupelo, Wilco, and/or Son Volt tracks on one of the “oh, wait, I love that” lists that sit in their head. I’ve known people who “hate country music” and yet rave about seeing Uncle Tupelo.

So here we are. From Sun Volt’s first album, a beautiful song and some aching pedal steel work.