Son Volt: Wide Swing Tremolo (Warner Bros.) ***½

SON VOLT'S Jay Farrar is one of alternative country's big thinkers. Rather than go the easy route and retrace the steps of the Byrds, Gram Parsons and other country-rock forebears who have cast a long shadow over the genre, Farrar has tried to forge an entirely new musical vernacular that ties together neo-traditionalist trappings — rambling tempos, craggy harmonica, clenched vocals, slide guitars — with dense, aphoristic lyrics that are a far cry from country's typical story songs.