March 16-20 1992

March 16-20, 1992 is the third studio album by alternative country band Uncle Tupelo, released on August 3, 1992. The title refers to the five-day span during which the album was recorded. An almost entirely acoustic recording, the album features original songs and covers of traditional folk songs in near equal number, and was produced by R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck. In 1990, R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck attended an Uncle Tupelo concert at the 40 Watt Club in his hometown of Athens, Georgia. Buck was particularly impressed with the band's rendition of the Louvin Brothers' "Great Atomic Power", and contacted the band after the show. Uncle Tupelo singers Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy exchanged their interests in bluegrass music with Buck, and decided to collaborate on an acoustic music project in the future. Uncle Tupelo's frustrations with their record label Rockville Records grew when the label refused to pay the band's royalties for the sales of their first two albums. This resulted in a "nothing-to-lose context" for the recording of a third album. In what was a sharp contrast to the popular music styles at the time, Uncle Tupelo decided to record an album of folk songs. The album's content reflected folk themes juxtaposed with new material from Tweedy and Farrar. Several of the songs have Christian themes but were placed on the album to reflect the "madness and fear that would drive men to wish for such redemption". Jeff Tweedy's lyrics were strongly influenced by Nick Drake's 1972 album Pink Moon. Farrar's "Criminals" paraphrases a George H. W. Bush campaign speech and was considered by music journalist Greg Kot to be one of the band's "angriest songs".