For Son Volt leader Jay Farrar, staying the same means continuing to change.

Whether injecting his band's countryish sound with influences from across the musical

board or freely adjusting stylistic pace on its albums, restless forward motion is, for this

quartet, a long-established tradition.

With their third album, Wide Swing Tremolo -- due for release on Oct. 6 -- Son Volt

are continuing along that onward line. The disc's full-bore rock tunes, mixed with

more somber numbers, more potent-than-ever rhythm tracks and a couple of

instrumentals, add up to another Volt-style forward leap.

Helping to make it all possible on Tremolo was an unusually relaxed recording

environment.

As they worked on the album in St. Louis, the four enjoyed the freedom of

recording in their own studio for the first time. That, in turn, allowed them to spend less

time looking over their shoulders at a quickly ticking time clock and more on finding new

ways to construct their down-home sound.

"It allowed me to spend more time picking up various instruments, writing on instruments

that I usually don't write on," singer/guitarist Farrar, 31, said. " 'Dead Man's Clothes' I

started [by] picking out a melody on the dulcimer, and I guess 'Blind Hope' I started out

[by] playing the melody on the electric piano."

Split equally between hook-laden rock tracks such as "Driving the View" and more

plodding, brooding fare such as "Strands," Wide Swing Tremolo is

a continuation of the pace-changing approach that Son Volt began on Trace (1995) with such catchy

rockers as "Route

5" (RealAudio excerpt) juxtaposed against the mournful

HREF=http://www.addict.com/music/Son_Volt/Ten_Second_News.ram>"Ten Second

News" (RealAudio excerpt).

Comprised of Farrar, multi-instrumentalist Dave Boquist, bassist/vocalist Jim Boquist and

drummer Mike Heidorn, Son Volt formed after Farrar left country-punk pioneers Uncle

Tupelo in 1993, in which he shared principal songwriting duties with current Wilco

frontman Jeff Tweedy.

While steadily developing their distinctive sound, which draws equally from Farrar's

somber vocals and music that taps influences as far-flung as bluesman Alvin

Youngblood Hart and post-punk act Guided By Voices, Son Volt have issued two

pre-Tremolo albums, Trace and last year's Straightaways.

"I think rhythmically [Wide Swing Tremolo] is a lot more solid," Boquist

said. "I think Mike has become more of a drummer that leads the band than one that

follows Jay. For example, everyone knows guitar players speed up and slow down. A lot

of times I think Mike used to follow Jay a lot more, and now he leads."

A first for the band on the new album is the inclusion of a pair of brief instrumentals,

"Jodel" and "Chanty," which serve primarily as segues between songs. " 'Jodel' and

'Chanty' are the kinds of fragments of songs and instrumentals that I usually have on

four-track demo tapes at home," Farrar said. "This time I decided to put those on there.

'Jodel' I recorded on harmonica as an instrumental."

Among the fans eagerly awaiting the release of Wide Swing Tremolo is

renowned singer Emmylou Harris, who got her start singing with country rocker Gram

Parsons, one of the fathers of the current alt-country movement.

"I'm dying to get it. I think they're great," Harris said. "It's really

refreshing because I think what they're doing with the country genre is

very different from the prepackaged stuff you hear on country radio.

They're pushing the envelope."

Lyrically, the reticent Farrar remains opaque. The curiously titled song "Medicine Hat"

features the chorus, "Drop of the hat/ and it's already started/ just like that and the deed is

done/ what I'd give for the hat to be medicine."

"I probably came across [the title] on a map, but unfortunately [the song] doesn't have

anything to do with the city in Canada," Farrar said. "It seemed like an interesting name

for a town. It's just the fact that those two words are side by side and I wouldn't normally

think they should be."