Mermaid Avenue

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Mermaid Avenue
Studio album by Billy Bragg and Wilco
Released	June 23, 1998
Genre	Folk rock
Length	40:20
Label	Elektra
Producer(s)	Billy Bragg, Grant Showbiz, Wilco
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link The A.V. Club (Favourable) link Robert Christgau (A) link Rolling Stone RS 789
Billy Bragg chronology
Bloke on Bloke (1997)	Mermaid Avenue (1998)	Reaching to the Converted (1999)
Wilco chronology
Being There (1996)	Mermaid Avenue (1998)	Summerteeth (1999)

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. A second volume of recordings, Mermaid Avenue Vol. II, was released 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.

Contents 1 Track listing 2 Song Details 3 Personnel 4 External links

[edit] Track listing

1. "Walt Whitman's Niece" – 3:53
   • Words: Woody Guthrie 1946. Music: Billy Bragg 1997.
2. "California Stars" – 4:57
   • Words: Guthrie. Music: Jay Bennett/Jeff Tweedy 1997.
3. "Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key" – 4:06
   • Words: Guthrie 1946. Music: Bragg 1997.
4. "Birds and Ships" – 2:13
   • Words: Guthrie. Music: Bragg 1997.
5. "Hoodoo Voodoo" – 3:12
   • Words: Guthrie. Music: Wilco/Bragg/Corey Harris
6. "She Came Along to Me" – 3:26
   • Words: Guthrie 1942. Music: Bragg/Tweedy/Bennett 1998.
7. "At My Window Sad and Lonely" – 3:27
   • Words: Guthrie 1939. Music: Tweedy 1997.
8. "Ingrid Bergman" – 1:50
   • Words: Guthrie 1950. Music: Bragg 1996.
9. "Christ for President" – 2:39
   • Words: Guthrie. Music: Tweedy/Bennett 1997.
10. "I Guess I Planted" – 3:32
    • Words: Guthrie. Music: Bragg 1997.
11. "One by One" – 3:22
    • Words: Guthrie 1939. Music: Tweedy 1997.
12. "Eisler on the Go" – 2:56
    • Words: Guthrie. Music: Bragg 1997.
13. "Hesitating Beauty" – 3:04
    • Words: Guthrie 1949. Music: Tweedy 1997.
14. "Another Man's Done Gone" – 1:34
    • Words: Guthrie. Music: Bragg 1998.
15. "The Unwelcome Guest" – 5:09
    • Words: Guthrie 1940. Music: Bragg 1996.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Personnel

• Billy Bragg – guitar, vocals
• Jeff Tweedy – guitar, harmonica, vocals
• Jay Bennett – organ, bouzouki, piano, drums, background vocals, clavinet
• 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

[edit] External links

• Nora Guthrie interview

Wilco
Jeff Tweedy | John Stirratt | Nels Cline | Glenn Kotche | Pat Sansone | Mikael Jorgensen
Ken Coomer | Max Johnston | Jay Bennett | Leroy Bach | Jim O'Rourke
Discography
Albums and extended plays: A.M. | Being There | Mermaid Avenue | Summerteeth | Mermaid Avenue Vol. II | Yankee Hotel Foxtrot | More Like the Moon | A Ghost Is Born | Kicking Television: Live in Chicago
Singles: Box Full of Letters | Outtasite (Outta Mind) | Can't Stand It | A Shot in the Arm | War on War
DVDs: Man in the Sand | I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
Related articles
Uncle Tupelo | Billy Bragg | The Wilco Book | Loose Fur | Down With Wilco | Sunken Treasure: Live in the Pacific Northwest | Golden Smog