Uncle Tupelo 89/93: An Anthology\nUncle Tupelo\nColumbia Legacy\nAs the '80s turned into the '90s, few people were thinking about country-rock. Seattle grunge was about to explode across the country, Guns N' Roses hadn't yet flamed out, and legions of white suburban kids were just beginning to expose their tender ears to the grittier side of hip-hop.\nA dozen or so years ago, the idea of reviving the breathtaking fusion of rock and country pioneered by groups like the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and Big Star was way off the radar screen. Yet Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy did it with Uncle Tupelo, a band that burned with intensity and raw emotion for a handful of years before splintering into Wilco and Son Volt in the mid-1990s.\nRemarkably, Columbia Legacy has managed to capture the essence of Uncle Tupelo, on 89/93: An Anthology, a 21-track collection culled from the band's four albums (the first three were recorded for indie label Rockville, the fourth for Sire/Reprise). \nBeginning with the first cut, "No Depression" -- a cover of a classic Carter Family song -- the anthology proves that Uncle Tupelo deserved much more recognition than it received.\nMuch like "Spoon River Anthology," Edgar Lee Master's brilliant book of poetry about a sleepy but sordid Illinois town, Uncle Tupelo manages to reflect on the big questions of life while remaining firmly planted on the ground and focused on individual stories. As Tweedy sings on the collection's second song, "Down here, we don't care what happens outside the screen door."\nThe band was able to record both elegant ballads ("Sauget Wind," "Moonshiner") and hard-driving rockers ("Graveyard Shift," "I Got Drunk," "The Long Cut") with equal ease. Somber fiddles and sullen harmonicas float throughout the collection, and at times the band displays echoes of John Mellencamp, Neil Young and R.E.M. (whose guitarist, Peter Buck, served as Uncle Tupelo's producer for a time).\nIn fact, at its best, Uncle Tupelo conjures up images of Young's best work with Crazy Horse. On the epic "Effigy," a cover of a John Fogerty song, the trio of Farrar (vocals and guitar), Tweedy (vocals and bass) and drummer Ken Coomer seems as if it is channeling the same spirit that fueled classic Young cuts like "Down by the River" and "Like a Hurricane."\nPerhaps, in hindsight, Uncle Tupelo was either ahead of its time or behind the times. But even if they were, the band cut a wide swath of true Americana through a popular music scene that was, in many ways, so superficial.\n
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