After having experimented with sounds within a full band context, Jay Farrar chooses to make things much more sparse on Terroir Blues . He's made it clear that he has a fascination with sound itself, and is convinced he can present these altered textures within the framework of actual "songs". Well, he can. Very impressively, too. Farrar arms his songs with his acoustic guitar as the foundation, and has but together some of his prettiest melodies in "California" and especially "Hanging On To You". Beyond this, though, he adds these seemingly little things that make the songs...different. The weird echo of his vocal on "Hard Is The Fall", Brian Henneman's odd slide sitar on "Fool King's Crown", the piano and slide that make up the melancholy "Dent Country". Even more obvious examples are the brief snippets labeled"Space Junk" that act as segues between some songs - which are backwards tapes and effects.