2019 release. On Union, Son Volt's present and past mingle into strong confluence. The thirteen songs written by founder Jay Farrar confront our turbulent politics and articulate the clarity and comfort music can offer in the tumult. The country and blues sounds explored by Son Volt on it's last two records (2013's Honky Tonk and 2017's Notes of Blue) linger in the grooves of Union. But this record nods to many other mile markers along the band's 25-year path. Some tunes offer a powerful return to the ringing lyrical clarity of 2005's Okemah and the Melody of Riot and 2007's The Search. Others harken back to the freewheeling poetic melodicism of 1994's Trace and 1997's Straightaways.