Wilco news: ‘Born Alone’ video, Chicago show in December, Tweedy covers Black Eyed Peas
Check out Wilco’s new video for Born Alone, a song off the upcoming album The Whole Love. The album is set for release September 27 and you can pre-order here. A new Wilco album is cause to rejoice and Chicago fans have another reason to celebrate: A homecoming show at Civic Opera House December 16.
Jeff Tweedy just played at the Hideout for the book release of Dan Sinker’s The F***ing Epic Twitter Quest of @MayorEmanuel. Tweedy performed a great version of the Black Eyed Peas’ I Gotta Feeling. Take a look:
Jeff Tweedy plays two charity shows at the Vic
Fifty bucks for a Jeff Tweedy show? It’s for charity. Tweedy plays two nights at the Vic Friday and Saturday.
Whatever you do, don’t talk during his set.
Charlie Louvin remembered
Country legend Charlie Louvin died this past week after a battle with cancer. He was 83. He was one half of the Louvin Brothers with brother Ira, who died in 1965. In the 1950s and early ’60s, the brothers played honest-to-God, old-school country music that influenced generations of other artists from Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris to Will Oldham.
The Louvin Brothers also influenced Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar, who covered Great Atomic Power with their band Uncle Tupelo. Charlie Louvin was enjoying a bit of a comeback in recent years. In fact, Tweedy joined Louvin on an updated version of Atomic Power on the 2007 album, Charlie Louvin.
Charlie released his last album, The Battles Rage On, in November. Check out the Daytrotter session he did last June.
Here’s Charlie doing Great Atomic Power in ’07:
And here’s Uncle Tupelo covering the song in 1994:
Great Atomic Power (live) – Uncle Tupelo
Check out Louvin Brothers videos after the jump.
Folk and Roots fest wanders from own roots
In its 13th year, the Chicago Folk and Roots Festival looks a lot different than the fest I discovered more than a decade ago. In the past few years the festival has taken on a decidedly more world music theme, which is interesting but becoming tiresome. Closing Sunday night is Etran Finatawa, a band from Niger.
In 1999, in the fest’s second season, I saw Steve Earle and a set from Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and Jay Bennett. Robbie Fulks headlined the first festival. Jon Langford performed with the Mekons in the third year. I saw Richard Thompson open for Patti Smith that same year. And while Smith’s appearance raised eyebrows about her folk and roots credentials, the world music lineups overwhelmed the Americana acts in recent years. That’s too bad given Chicago’s strong foundation of roots and insurgent country.
Here are some tracks from that Tweedy/Bennett show, a pair of Wilco songs and two covers, including Daniel Johnston’s True Love Will Find You in the End.
James Alley Blues – Jeff Tweedy and Jay Bennett
Via Chicago – Jeff Tweedy and Jay Bennett
I Got You – Jeff Tweedy and Jay Bennett
True Love Will Find You in the End – Jeff Tweedy and Jay Bennett
Jim O’Rourke’s one long song
Jim O’Rourke is still experimenting. There are so many interesting touch points to this guy’s career: a member of Gastr del Sol in the ’90s, he helped make Wilco’s two most experimental albums and became a full-time member of Sonic Youth.
He’s made solo albums, collaborated with and produced a number of other artists. His work with Jeff Tweedy didn’t end with “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” and “A Ghost Is Born.” Tweedy and O’Rourke made two albums under the name Loose Fur.
O’Rourke, who now lives in Japan, releases his solo album, “The Visitor,” on Tuesday. The album is one long song (32 minutes) that stretches across a number of musical styles, according to the New York Times, which interviewed the former Chicagoan.
Don’t look for the album on iTunes because O’Rourke won’t allow it. He thinks downloads compromise the quality of the sound.
