By Alan Sculley

For the AJC

Son Volt frontman Jay Farrar proved with his band’s previous CD, “The Search,” that it was capable of stretching beyond the kind of guitar-driven, country-tinged rock that has been his signature sound ever since he co-fronted the groundbreaking band Uncle Tupelo in the late 1980s and early ’90s.

That CD successfully found Son Volt injecting its sound with a large slice of soul, a touch of elegance and the psychedelic effect of backward guitar. But with the new CD, “American Central Dust,” Son Volt has returned to more familiar, earthy territory, putting the emphasis squarely on acoustic guitars and other rootsy instruments such as pedal steel guitar.

“I guess going into the recording, the main approach was just to try to make an overall record that was more focused than the previous one,” Farrar said in a recent phone interview from his home in St. Louis. “With ‘The Search,’ it was more about trying to stretch things out and try out different instrumentation, different song structures. This time around it was perhaps more of a return to a more fundamental, familiar aesthetic.”

Farrar has long been comfortable writing quieter material, and that’s apparent on “American Central Dust.” “Dynamite” is an easygoing track that gets some warmth from its accordionlike leads, while the slightly twangy “Roll On” and the stark piano-based tune “Cocaine and Ashes” (inspired by Rolling Stone Keith Richards’ tall tale that he had marked the death of his father by snorting dear old Dad’s ashes) are introspective ballads. The closest the group gets to rocking out is on “Jukebox of Steel,” a track that generates considerable momentum with a vaguely swinging beat.

But “American Central Dust” is not a rerun of Son Volt’s previous releases. In fact, there are subtle twists that give the new CD a different sheen. Farrar thinks “American Central Dust” as a whole reflects an evolution in the Son Volt lineup that came with the departures of guitarist Brad Rice and keyboardist Derry DeBorja after the release of “The Search.” Keyboardist Mark Spencer and guitarist Chris Masterson joined holdovers Farrar, Dave Bryson (drums) and Andrew Duplantis (guitar) in time to put in about eight months of touring before the recording of “American Central Dust.”

“The current lineup overall, the sound of the band has evolved from ‘The Search’ period,” Farrar said. “Primarily there’s a lot of interplay between Chris Masterson on guitar and Mark Spencer on either pedal steel or keyboards. You can hear that on the record. I think a song like ‘Down To The Wire’ is an example of how you can kind of hear them trading off licks and phrases and sort of feeding off [each other].”

Now Son Volt is taking its show on the road, and Farrar feels the sound of “American Central Dust” is bringing a different flavor to the band’s concerts.

“I’ve been adding more and more acoustic songs,” Farrar said. “Instead of doing the normal vacillating back and forth between electric and acoustic, [I’m] trying to make it more like an acoustic set and a smaller electric set.”

-Last Word Features

Concert preview

Son Volt

8:30 p.m. Friday, $20 in advance, $22.50 day of show. Variety Playhouse, 1099 Euclid Ave., Atlanta. 404-524-7354, www.variety-playhouse.com.