Uncle Tupelo [ tickets ] alumnus Jay Farrar [ tickets ], who is currently on tour in Europe, will be back on the road in the U.S. in time for the New Year.

Farrar is scheduled to play a New Year's Eve show at Denver's Paramount Theatre, with Yonder Mountain String Band holding down the opening slot. In mid-January, he'll open a two-week string of club dates. Washington, DC-based Americana act Canyon--which released its third set, "Live in NYC," in May--opens during the January shows, and also serves as Farrar's backing band.

Farrar is touring behind his third solo album "Terroir Blues," which features 23 tracks that Farrar wrote in late 2002 and 2003. Many of the songs were inspired by his father's death last summer.

"I started working with the backward sounds as a way to approximate sonically some of the emotions I was feeling," Farrar said in his record-company biography. "It forced me to look at where my parents came from--and where I came from."

Farrar--along with Jeff Tweedy, who now fronts Wilco--first earned notoriety as a member of the influential roots-rock act Uncle Tupelo. After Uncle Tupelo split, Farrar formed the alt-country group Son Volt [ tickets ], which released three albums.