  jay farrar (born december 26, 1966 in belleville, illinois) is an american songwriter and musician currently based in st. louis, missouri. a veteran of two critically acclaimed music groups, uncle tupelo and son volt, he began his solo music career in 2001. beyond his established talents as a songwriter, he is a guitarist, pianist, harmonicist, and a vocalist. ==uncle tupelo== farrar formed uncle tupelo with jeff tweedy and mike heidorn in 1987 after the lead singer of their previous band, the primitives, left to attend college. the trio recorded three albums for rockville records, before signing with sire records and expanding to a five-piece. shortly after the release of the band's major label debut album anodyne, farrar announced his decision to leave the band owing to a soured relationship with his co-songwriter tweedy. ==son volt==  after the dissolution of uncle tupelo in 1994, farrar formed the rock group son volt, whose original lineup released three albums in the late 1990s, before undergoing a hiatus in 1999. in 1999, farrar was invited to participate in the tribute album for moby grape co-founder skip spence, who was terminally ill with cancer. the album, more oar: a tribute to the skip spence album  (birdman, 1999), was an album of cover versions of the songs on spence's only solo album, oar (columbia, 1999). in 2005, the band re-formed with a different lineup and has since (as of may 2009) released four additional albums. ==other projects==  in 1995, farrar collaborated with kelly willis on the song "rex's blues", which appeared on the aids benefit album red hot + bothered produced by the red hot organization. as a solo artist, farrar has released two full length albums, two eps, one film score, and various live recordings. his full length albums are sebastopol (2001) and terroir blues (2003), the first released on the independent record label artemis records and the second released on his own label, transmit sound. an ep of songs from the sebastopol sessions, entitled thirdshiftgrottoslack was released in 2002. his score 
1966_births American_country_singers American_male_singers American_rock_guitarists American_rock_singers Living_people People_from_Belleville,_Illinois Songwriters_from_Illinois Uncle_Tupelo_members