{"id":6160,"date":"2025-10-23T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wilco-billy-bragg-solid-sound\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T16:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T16:00:00","slug":"wilco-billy-bragg-solid-sound","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wilco-billy-bragg-solid-sound\/","title":{"rendered":"Wilco, Billy Bragg To Join Forces Again At Solid Sound"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2023\/09\/Wilco-by-Peter-Crosby_1-scaled.jpg\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1706\" alt=\"\"><figcaption>Wilco (photo: Peter Crosby).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Between 1998 and 2012, Wilco and British troubadour Billy Bragg released three <em>Mermaid Avenue <\/em>albums inspired by a trunk of unpublished Woody Guthrie lyrics uncovered by his family. However, beyond a handful of brief shared appearances, the musicians never worked their way through those most of the songs in a live setting.<\/p>\n<p>That will change next summer, when Wilco and Bragg will finally team up onstage at the band\u2019s long-running Solid Sound festival. The event will return June 26-28 to MASS MoCA in North Adams, Ma., with the <em>Mermaid Avenue<\/em> live celebration set for opening night. <a href=\"https:\/\/solidsoundfestival.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Tickets<\/a> are on sale now.<\/p>\n<p>More from Spin:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/10\/foo-fighters-stadium-tour-new-song\/\">Foo Fighters Book 2026 Stadium Tour, Drop New Song<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/10\/john-5s-cathartic-instrumentalism\/\">John 5\u2019s Cathartic Instrumentalism<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/10\/bono-the-edge-u2-woody-guthrie-prize\/\">Bono, The Edge Revisit U2 Classics At Guthrie Prize Ceremony<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cThe world needs all the Woody Guthrie it can get,\u201d says Wilco\u2019s Jeff Tweedy. \u201cWe\u2019re thrilled that we get to bring these songs to life with Billy.\u201d Adds Bragg, \u201cthere\u2019s an abiding love out there for the <em>Mermaid Avenue <\/em>albums, so I\u2019m really looking forward to reconnecting with Wilco to bring Woody\u2019s words to life once again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When folk pioneer Guthrie died from Huntington\u2019s disease in 1967, he left behind more than a thousand sets of lyrics that were housed in a trunk. His daughter Nora left them undisturbed until 1995, when she asked longtime fan Bragg if he\u2019d be interested in setting some of the words to music. Bragg suggested Wilco join him in the endeavor, which first bore fruit with the acclaimed <em>Mermaid Avenue<\/em> in 1998.<\/p>\n<p>A second volume was released in 2000, and in 2012, <em>The Complete Sessions<\/em> boxed set arrived with a third disc of previously unheard outtakes from the original sessions. Wilco has long featured <em>Mermaid Avenue<\/em> material such as \u201cCalifornia Stars,\u201d \u201cHesitating Beauty,\u201d \u201cHoodoo Voodoo\u201d and \u201cAirline to Heaven\u201d in its own live sets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat could\u2019ve been an embalming is instead a boozy s\u00e9ance, conjuring Guthrie\u2019s ghost with some lost song lyrics and a clan who employ the mythic folkie as mirror,\u201d SPIN wrote of the 1998 album. \u201cThe apparition rocks, sighs, casts a vote for Jesus, propositions Ingrid Bergman and generally makes everyone look good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Choosing the opening night of Solid Sound for the debut full live Wilco\/Bragg pairing is apropos considering Tweedy and company have routinely drawn from their bag of tricks for the occasion. Indeed, Wilco has played sets with all rarities, all covers, front-to-back album plays and even a karaoke evening where it served as the backing band for specially chosen fan vocalists.<\/p>\n<p>In related news, Tweedy will be a couch guest on tonight\u2019s (Oct. 23) episode of <em>The Daily Show<\/em>. He\u2019s in the midst of tour on his own and with his eponymous solo band, which will run through Nov. 21 in Madison, Wi., and then resume Feb. 11 in Madrid.<\/p>\n<p>For now, Wilco\u2019s only other non-Solid Sound performances for 2026 will be at its Sky Blue Sky festival in Riviera Maya, Mexico, from Jan. 15-18. That event will also feature Dinosaur Jr., Dr. Dog, MJ Lenderman, Yo La Tengo and Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy playing the music of R.E.M.<\/p>\n<p>To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2021\/07\/the-greatest-rock-stars-of-all-time\/?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=bottomlink&amp;utm_campaign=yahoolink\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wilco (photo: Peter Crosby). Between 1998 and 2012, Wilco and British troubadour Billy Bragg released three Mermaid Avenue albums inspired by a trunk of unpublished Woody Guthrie lyrics uncovered by&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4206,4207,6,24,438,3490],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-billy-bragg","category-billy-bragg-wilco","category-news","category-pushly","category-wilco","category-woody-guthrie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}