89/93: An Anthology

1	No Depression 2:21
2	Screen Door 2:43
3	Graveyard Shift 4:45
4	Whiskey Bottle 4:47
5	Outdone previously unreleased / 1989 Demo 2:58
6	I Got Drunk 2:26
7	I Wanna Be Your Dog previously unreleased 3:04
8	Gun 3:39
9	Still Be Around 2:44
10	Looking for a Way Out Acoustic Version 2:21
11	Watch Me Fall 2:11
12	Sauget Wind 3:31
13	Black Eye 2:19
14	Moonshiner 4:24
15	Fatal Wound 4:09
16	Grindstone 3:18
17	Effigy 5:59
18	The Long Cut 3:19
19	Chickamauga 3:42
20	New Madrid 3:30
21	We've Been Had Live 3:16

Barnes & Noble

"Alternative country is now a term everyone knows, and Uncle Tupelo blazed the trail for it," writes Rolling Stone's Anthony DeCurtis in his essay accompanying this compact history of the legendary underground band. But back in the late '80s and early '90s, the Belleville, Illinois-based group was an anachronism: a scraggly bunch of kids who covered the Carter Family ("No Depression") and the Stooges ("I Wanna Be Your Dog") with equal fervor. Drawing inspiration from folk and country music and mixing it with the perspiration of indie rock, Jay Farrar, Jeff Tweedy, and company recorded four albums that influenced countless groups following in their wake. (Farrar has gone on to a career with Son Volt and as a solo artist, while Tweedy and the remaining band members regrouped as the Grammy-nominated Wilco.) This collection restores to print some of Tupelo's finest moments. Fourteen songs represent the four albums and touch on the band's twin manias for punk (the Meat Puppets-indebted "Graveyard Shift," the aching Paul Westerberg-like "Still Be Around") and folk (the trad ballad "Moonshiner," the twangy "Chickamauga"). Making the set essential for fans and newcomers alike are seven rarities, among them the spunky single "I Got Drunk," a demo of "Outdone," and a live version of "We've Been Had." Your history of today's alt-country scene would be incomplete without a formidable chapter on Uncle Tupelo, and here it is, in one stylish package. Lydia Vanderloo

All Music Guide

Uncle Tupelo wasn't the first band to merge the soulful twang of country music with the passionate roar of punk rock (that honor would probably go to either the Meat Puppets, Jason & the Scorchers, or X), but in 1989 the Minutemen-meets-Gram Parson clatter of Uncle Tupelo's debut album, No Depression, took what some then called "cowpunk" in a new and decidedly different direction. From the start, Uncle Tupelo's music was smart, muscular, emotionally compelling, and played the punk and country sides of the band's musical personality for all the heartfelt sincerity that marked the best music of both genres -- and refused to make a joke out of either. Making music that people didn't simply enjoy, but believed in, Uncle Tupelo was the sort of band that attracted an unusually devoted fan following, and while it's inaccurate to trace the entire 1990s "alt-country" movement back to the group, one could certainly argue that Uncle Tupelo was as crucial to that scene as Black Flag was to '80s punk. Though a combination of hard work, fine music, and setting a peerless example of honesty and integrity, Uncle Tupelo blazed a trail that dozens of other fine bands would follow. It's difficult to sum up a band as important as Uncle Tupelo -- and its four-album recording career -- with one 72-minute CD, and 89/93: An Anthology is hardly the final word on the group or its music, but it is a fine and thoughtfully compiled introduction to the band's work. 89/93: An Anthology features representative cuts from all four Uncle Tupelo albums -- No Depression, Still Feel Gone, March 16-20, 1992, and Anodyne -- as well as a few non-LP single sides, compilation tracks, demos, and live takes from radio broadcasts. The collection often favors the band's quieter, more contemplative side over the louder stuff (though there are plenty of high-octane rockers on hand, with the rare single "I Got Drunk" and a charging cover of the Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog" especially notable), and while Jay Farrar's songwriting tended to dominate the group's albums, this compilation strives to give equal time to his then-partner Jeff Tweedy, most likely to make the disc equally appealing to new fans of Son Volt and Wilco, Farrar and Tweedy's post-UT groups. But while longtime fans are the most likely to quibble about what is or isn't on 89/93: An Anthology, the truth is you could hardly ask for a better beginner's guide to Uncle Tupelo and its music -- the best-known tunes are all here, the sequence gracefully replicates the arc of the band's career, the hard-to-find single tracks and unreleased tunes give even loyal fans something new and interesting, and whether picking quietly on the front porch or bashing their Les Pauls into submission, Uncle Tupelo serves up powerful, timeless, and joyous music on each of these 21 cuts. A splendid trip down memory lane for those who were there and a revelation for the uninitiated, 89/93: An Anthology offers tangible proof that Uncle Tupelo was a group that truly mattered -- and still matters nearly a decade after the bandmembers called it a day. Mark Deming

Blender

Uncle Tupelo virtually invented the bastard genre known as alt-country. David Quantick