- Mermaid Avenue
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Mermaid Avenue Studio album by Billy Bragg and Wilco Released June 23, 1998 Recorded Dublin, Chicago and Boston Genre Folk rock Length 49:20 Label Elektra Producer Billy Bragg,
Grant Showbiz,
WilcoBilly Bragg chronology Bloke on Bloke
(1997)Mermaid Avenue
(1998)Reaching to the Converted
(1999)Wilco chronology Being There
(1996)Mermaid Avenue
(1998)Summerteeth
(1999)Professional ratings Review scores Source Rating Allmusic [1]
The A.V. Club (Favourable)[2] Robert Christgau (A)[3] Rolling Stone [4]
Mermaid Avenue is a 1998 album of previously unheard lyrics written by American folk singer Woody Guthrie, put to music written and performed by British singer Billy Bragg and the American band Wilco. The project was organized by Guthrie's daughter, Nora Guthrie. Mermaid Avenue was released on the Elektra Records label on June 23, 1998. A second volume of recordings, Mermaid Avenue Vol. II, followed in 2000. The projects are named after a song "Mermaid's Avenue" written by Guthrie. This was also the street in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York on which Guthrie lived.
During the spring of 1995, Woody Guthrie's daughter Nora contacted English singer-songwriter Billy Bragg about writing music for a selection of completed Guthrie lyrics. Her father had left behind over a thousand sets of complete lyrics written between 1939 and 1967; none of these lyrics had any music other than a vague stylistic notation.
Nora Guthrie's liner notes in Mermaid Avenue indicate that it was her intention that the songs be given to a new generation of musicians who would be able to make the songs relevant to a younger generation. Nora Guthrie contacted Bragg, who in turn approached Wilco and asked them to participate in the project as well. Wilco agreed, and in addition to recording with Bragg in Ireland, they were given their own share of songs to finish.
Rather than recreating tunes in Guthrie's style, Bragg and Wilco created new, contemporary music for the lyrics. What seemed like a risky enterprise surprised everyone; released in 1998 as Mermaid Avenue, the results were met with universal acclaim. The album received a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Folk Album, and went on to place fourth on the Pazz & Jop Critics Poll for 1998 (right behind Bob Dylan's Live 1966).
In 2008, Jonatha Brooke released The Works, a project that similarly drew on the trove of unpublished Guthrie material. According to Bob Dylan's autobiography, Chronicles, Woody Guthrie offered his unpublished songs to Dylan, but the young singer was unable to get them from Guthrie's family.
Man in the Sand, a documentary about the collaboration between Billy Bragg and Wilco, was released in 1999.
Contents
Track listing
All lyrics written by Woody Guthrie. Music by Billy Bragg and Wilco.
- "Walt Whitman's Niece" (Bragg) – 3:53
- "California Stars" (Tweedy / Bennett)– 4:57
- "Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key" (Bragg) – 4:06
- "Birds and Ships" ft Natalie Merchant (Tweedy) – 2:13
- "Hoodoo Voodoo" (Tweedy / Bennett / Bragg / John Stirratt / Ken Coomer / Harris) – 3:12
- "She Came Along to Me" (Bragg / Tweedy / Bennett) – 3:26
- "At My Window Sad and Lonely" (Tweedy) – 3:27
- "Ingrid Bergman" (Bragg) – 1:50
- "Christ for President" (Bragg) – 2:39
- "I Guess I Planted" (Bragg) – 3:32
- "One by One" (Tweedy) – 3:22
- "Eisler on the Go" (Bragg) – 2:56
- "Hesitating Beauty" (Tweedy) – 3:04
- "Another Man's Done Gone" (Tweedy) – 1:34
- "The Unwelcome Guest" (Bragg) – 5:09
Song details
- "Eisler on the Go" was written by Guthrie as a protest against Hanns Eisler's deportation by the U.S. government during the Cold War.
- The song "California Stars" is played during the closing scene of the 2007 film King of California starring Michael Douglas and Evan Rachel Wood.
- The song "Walt Whitman's Niece" was mentioned briefly in the book Paper Towns as one of the clues in finding Margo Roth Spiegelman.
- The lyrics of "The Unwelcome Guest"[5] are by Woody Guthrie and refer to Black Bess, the horse of Dick Turpin an English highwayman. The music was based on the traditional American ballad Streets of Laredo[6].
- The song "Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key" is played in the 2010 film Love and Other Drugs starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway.
Personnel
- Billy Bragg – guitar, vocals
- Jeff Tweedy – guitar, harmonica, vocals
- Jay Bennett – organ, bouzouki, clavinet, piano, drums, background vocals
- Corey Harris – guitar, lap steel guitar
- Ken Coomer – percussion, drums
- Natalie Merchant – vocals
- John Stirratt – piano, bass, background vocals
- Peter Yanowitz – drums
- Bob Egan – slide guitar
- Eliza Carthy – violin
References
External links
Billy Bragg Studio albums Life's a Riot with Spy Vs Spy · Brewing Up with Billy Bragg · Talking with the Taxman about Poetry · Workers Playtime · The Internationale · Don't Try This at Home · William Bloke · Mermaid Avenue (with Wilco) · Mermaid Avenue Vol. II (with Wilco) · England, Half-English · Mr Love & Justice
Compilations,
and boxsetsBack to Basics · The Peel Sessions Album · Victim of Geography · Life's a Riot Between the Wars · Bloke on Bloke · Reaching to the Converted · Must I Paint You a Picture? The Essential Billy Bragg · Volume 1 · Volume 2
Singles and EPs "Between the Wars EP" · "Days Like These" · "Levi Stubbs' Tears" · "Greetings to the New Brunette" · "She's Leaving Home" · "Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards" · "She's Got a New Spell" · "Won't Talk About It" · "Sexuality" · "You Woke Up My Neighbourhood" · "Accident Waiting to Happen EP" · "Upfield" · "The Boy Done Good" / "Sugardaddy" · "Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key" (with Wilco) · "She Came Along to Me EP" (with Wilco) · "England Half English" / "St Monday" (with The Blokes) · "Take Down the Union Jack" (with The Blokes) · "We Laughed" (Rosetta Life feat. Billy Bragg) · "I Keep Faith" · "The Beach Is Free" / "I Almost Killed You" · "Never Buy The Sun"
Live albums "Help Save the Youth of America" · "No Pop, No Style, Strictly Roots" · "Mermaid Avenue Tour" · "Going to a Party Way Down South" · "Live at the Barbican"
Related articles Wilco · Discography · Red Wedge · "A New England"
Studio albums A.M. · Being There · Summerteeth · Yankee Hotel Foxtrot · A Ghost Is Born · Sky Blue Sky · Wilco (The Album) · The Whole LoveOther albums Mermaid Avenue · Mermaid Avenue Vol. II · More Like the Moon · Kicking Television: Live in Chicago · 07-13-09 - Keyspan Park - Brooklyn, NY · 11-04-09 - HMV Forum - London, UKSingles "Box Full of Letters" · "Outtasite (Outta Mind)" · "Can't Stand It" · "A Shot in the Arm" · "War on War" · "I'm a Wheel" · "What Light" · "You Never Know" · "You and I" · "I Might"DVDs Related articles Discography · Billy Bragg · Down with Wilco · At the Organ · Golden Smog · Jeff Tweedy discography · Loose Fur · Sunken Treasure: Live in the Pacific Northwest · Uncle Tupelo · The Wilco Book · Wilco: Learning How to Die · Record ClubCategories:- Wilco albums
- Billy Bragg albums
- 1998 albums
- Tribute albums
- Folk revival albums
- Albums produced by Grant Showbiz
- Elektra Records albums
- Collaborative albums
- Woody Guthrie tribute albums
- English-language albums
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