Latest CD releases reviewed.

TERRY ALLEN
The Silent Majority Sugar Hill Records ***

Subtitled Terry Allen's Greatest Missed Hits, this entertaining if speckled collection of "out-takes, in-takes, mis-takes, work tapes, added tos, taken froms, omissions and foreign materials" is a colourful summary of this veteran American iconoclast. Raised in Texas, all his life Allen has been in a lone star state of mind. He never bought the American dream, as the opening Advice to Children makes clear: "Cause this is America/the biggest and best of them all/Yeah, this is America/All strung out on Valium/ In the mall". Ostensibly, he lives among the Americana tribe, a country renegade, but Allen knows no such boundaries, rerecording some of his songs with Indian musicians in Madras, for example. For him it is clearly the message and not the music that counts. Joe Breen

SON VOLT
A Retrospective: 1995-2000 Rhino Records ****

This is a timely retrospective in that this most influential Americana band are poised to enter a new phase of life with the release of their first album since 1998 and a major tour (including their recent much-lauded gig at Kilkenny's Rhythm 'n Roots festival). But they never really went away. It was just that songwriter, singer, guitarist and all-round Mr Volt, Jay Farrar, took a sabbatical to rid himself of the solo itch. This excellent 20-track compilation gathers selected tracks from their three albums plus a number of interesting one-offs, outtakes etc. The music still sounds fresh and vital, his sonorous voice delivering songs full of drama and intensity. Farrar has an intuitive understanding of Americana, deftly exploring the connections from folk-blues to country to rock 'n' roll. In the process Son Volt, the offspring of seminal band Uncle Tupelo (Wilco was the other progeny), made some great music. www.sonvolt.net Joe Breen