Listening to this career retrospective nearly a decade after
Uncle Tupelo split up, it's not immediately clear why they were
such a big deal at the time, and why their myth continues to
occupy the center of the alternative country universe. Well, a
lot of it has to do with the two bands that emerged from Uncle
Tupelo's wreckage: Son Volt and Wilco. Both bands have displayed
moments of near-brilliance: every twist and turn along their
career path adds to the myth of their former band. Witness Son
Volt's incredible debut, Trace, and their equally incredible
decline into mumbling irrelevance, or Wilco's wobbly first steps
before the masterful Being There, and their subsequent
reinvention with Summerteeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Both of
these storylines figure heavily into how Uncle Tupelo is
remembered.  So what makes Uncle Tupelo so special? On a
conceptual level, what they were doing wasn't completely without
precedent. Three kids from southern Illinois, inspired by old-
time country and punk, form a band sou